by Richard CastleHyperion, ISBN 978-1401310400
July 27, 2010, 224 pages
While the city is in the midst of a sweltering heat wave, a real estate millionaire takes a header off the balcony of his New York City apartment, making a very messy landing on the street side restaurant below. It is soon apparent to Detective Nikki Heat that he had help going over the side. In other words, it was murder! Then, when his significantly younger widow is attacked on the street and it also quickly becomes apparent that he was no longer quite the millionaire that he was once, the plot, as they say, thickens. Art theft, mobsters, another murder all lead to the discovery of a lot of secrets...deadly secrets.
Now if you are a fan of the TV show Castle, the 'author' of this book and the lead character in this book may sound familiar. The 'author's ' picture on the back cover will look very familiar. See, the fictional TV character, bestselling author Richard Castle, who on the show is teamed up with Detective Kate Beckett and using her as the model for the police Detective Heat in new series of books he is writing, is listed as the author of this book. The book is about a famous writer, Jameson Rook, who is teamed up with Heat in solving these crimes...which he is then going to write about. Confused? It is sort of like standing in front of a mirror, holding a mirror that reflects you holding the mirror, that reflects you holding a mirror...
Ok, the bad news is that the gimmick is a wee bit annoying.
The good news is that, with that issue aside, I think it is a pretty good, quite entertaining little book.
As to the little. At just about 200 pages, it is a quick read. Not that it is a bad thing, but it is really like a typical TV episode in book form. But then since I am a fan of the show and find the show quite well written, comparisons to the show are a compliment. The dialogue is fast and witty and often quite amusing. We get some insights into Detective Heat that fans of the show will interesting. The mystery is not earth shattering but good with some good twists and turns. And for fans of the show who would like to see Castle and Beckett 'get together'...well, it seems that it is Castle's dream too and come true in his writing. If he had actually written it of course, which, of course, he did not, because he is not real. Got that? Lol
If you are not a fan of the show...and you should be...since all the characters in the book are based on the ones in the show and will catch you up on some of their history, is will serve as a nice introduction. If you are a fan, I think you will totally enjoy this book.
My thanks to the local library for this one.
My husband is a big fan of the show - I bet he'd like this book.
ReplyDeleteBeing a fan of the show, I read this book a few month ago and I liked it. In the TV show they talked about the book so when it was released in bookstores of course I had to have it and read it... Nevertheless, I think it could be enjoyed by people who know nothing about the show, but maybe not as much as we fans.
ReplyDeleteinteresting . . . my kids all get together on monday nights to watch Castle. I've only seen it once. Maybe I should check it out again.
ReplyDeleteAs a fan of the show, I've been wondering about the book. Thanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteOK ... my brain is hurting just wrapping my head around the gimmick!
ReplyDeleteI haven't ever seen this show, but it sound like the book should come packaged with a DVD of it.