Naked Heat – Review

I first became interested in this title after reading a forum thread about the TV series "Castle." Comments were made about the new book release by Richard Castle (the character in the TV show)—book two of the Nikki Heat series. ABC had released some of the early chapters online as a promotional tool. The first book (Heat Wave) by this fictional author was on the NYT Top Ten list for several weeks, and this title was steadily working upward.

I checked the title online and downloaded a sample. (Nathan Fillion, who plays the role of Richard Castle in the TV show is also the face of Richard Castle on the book jackets and online book sites), and ho hO! It was really interesting! I borrowed a copy from my Public Library.

In Naked Heat, homicide detective Nikki Heat is called to a crime scene and finds not only the dead body of the infamous gossip columnist Cassidy Townes, but also the sometimes-ride-along-with-the-cops journalist Jameson Rook. (Rook – Castle -chuckle-). Who dunnuit? The suspects are numerous. Rook, who was writing an article about the dead columnist, officially wangles his way into the investigation and is again riding along with Heat. The story is grim. The delivery is witty and well written. It's easy to stay with the main characters since they're are straight out of the TV show, including interactions that were depicted in the first episode of 2011 (yes, I'm a "Castle" fan). The sub characters are all unique and well developed.

Among the realistic interviews and interactions with the suspects are some fun things: the Castle/Rook bit; a publishing company named Epimetheus, an editor named M. Perkins. There are probably more of these little giggle-squiggles that I missed since I only occasionally read Publisher's Weekly and never read People. Many of the story's suspects are movers and shakers in the entertainment world and might be caricatures of real people.

Whatever, the story moved well, with good insight into all the characters and the workings of a homicide investigation. In an interview on Today Online, Andrew W. Marlow, the writer/creator of the Castle TV series, says "...Where we start is to try and find a compelling story and a compelling crime..." Naked Heat is just that. I will check out the first HEAT book from the library soon, and I do hope there's a third in this series.

And now the real mystery. Who wrote this book?

The front matter of the book lists the copyright to ABC. The cover jacket has a copyright to Hyperion Books. The Acknowledgments....Now here's a clue. The acknowledgments are Richard Castle thanking everyone, including all the TV show characters as if they were real. Lots of other names, too, and I don't know how many were real. One of the real-people names I did recognize was Andrew W. Marlow, the above-named writer/creator of the show; and Castle also gave a special thanks to "co-conspirator" Terry E. Miller. Hmm. Miller is also a screenwriter and is married to Andrew W. Marlow.

Well, this is just circumstantial evidence. Until the perp comes forward and fesses up, it's still an open file.