Heat Wave by Richard Castle Narrator: Johnny Heller
Length: 6 hours 26 min
Series: Nikki Heat #1
Published by Hyperion on September 29, 2009
Genres: Thriller
Pages: 198
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A New York real estate tycoon plunges to his death on a Manhattan sidewalk. A trophy wife with a past survives a narrow escape from a brazen attack. Mobsters and moguls with no shortage of reasons to kill trot out their alibis. And then, in the suffocating grip of a record heat wave, comes another shocking murder and a sharp turn in a tense journey into the dirty little secrets of the wealthy. Secrets that prove to be fatal. Secrets that lay hidden in the dark until one NYPD detective shines a light.
Mystery sensation Richard Castle, blockbuster author of the wildly best-selling Derrick Storm novels, introduces his newest character, NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat. Tough, sexy, professional, Nikki Heat carries a passion for justice as she leads one of New York City's top homicide squads. She's hit with an unexpected challenge when the commissioner assigns superstar magazine journalist Jameson Rook to ride along with her to research an article on New York's Finest. PulitzerPrize-winning Rook is as much a handful as he is handsome. His wise-cracking and meddling aren't her only problems. As she works to unravel the secrets of the murdered real estate tycoon, she must also confront the spark between them. The one called heat.
Heat Wave is a book club read for me. I have never watched the show and really hoped that that would make the difference between my review and others I had seen on it. I had nothing to compare it to.
Ok, seriously, this is hard because I’m used to police or other authority figures being able to use some kind of magic to solve crimes. That is not the case here, and it takes good, old fashioned police work to solve the crime of two murdered people. You have to ask yourself if this is two mysteries in one, or two completely different cases. Nikki Heat and her team of detectives put in the foot work to bring it all together. Along with a reporter who is along for the ride. They break the case down step by step in a very realistic way to get the bad guy.
Nikki is a professional character who does not really give herself much time to be someone outside of a cop. She is beginning to think it’s about time she puts a stop to that and questions the emotionless relationship she has. She was strong and I loved her resourceful fighting skills. I love when women characters get to play those roles. My problem comes when the romantic (if you can call it that) match seems so, I don’t know, underwhelming. Despite times when Rook tried to get into the middle of things, he still seemed to be like a puppy looking for attention and always in the way. I just didn’t really like his character.
I did like Heat Wave for the crime story. I didn’t really go for the Nikki & Rook thing, that could have been left out entirely. Do not go looking for romance in this story. It’s not there. I think that kind of threw me a bit because romance has been in almost everything I have read for, I don’t know, months? So when it didn’t occur here the way I thought it would, it threw me off. Then I was even more off by what I can only call a teaser for romance. The mystery and police work here is what the book was shooting for, I think, and at that it did ok. It doesn’t make me want to watch the show though.
About Richard Castle
Richard Castle is the author of numerous bestsellers, including the critically acclaimed Derrick Storm series. His first novel, In a Hail of Bullets, published while he was still in college, received the Nom DePlume Society's prestigious Tom Straw Award for Mystery Literature. Castle currently lives in Manhattan with his daughter and mother, both of whom infuse his life with humor and inspiration.
Note: Richard Castle is a fictional character from the ABC television show, Castle , played by Nathan Fillion. The biography is of this character. His name is being used as a pseudonym for tie-in novels to the TV show.
About Richard Castle
Richard Castle is the author of numerous bestsellers, including the critically acclaimed Derrick Storm series. His first novel, In a Hail of Bullets, published while he was still in college, received the Nom DePlume Society’s prestigious Tom Straw Award for Mystery Literature. Castle currently lives in Manhattan with his daughter and mother, both of whom infuse his life with humor and inspiration.
Note: Richard Castle is a fictional character from the ABC television show, Castle , played by Nathan Fillion. The biography is of this character. His name is being used as a pseudonym for tie-in novels to the TV show.
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