Book 12

My wife and I are fans of the show Castle. It's one of the shows we always try to watch together. We have enjoyed Nathan Fillion since we saw him years ago on Firefly. And he is great in the role of a ride-along crime fiction writer with a NYPD homicide squad.

So when we discovered that they were actually publishing the fictitious books Castle was writing on the show, we were intrigued. Unfortunately, the books tend to leave us with the feeling that we wish we were just watching the TV show. However, we have now read all three of the Nikki Heat books and each one does seem to be better than the last. Although I wouldn't call any of them great.

I finished the third book in the series, Heat Rises, as my 12th book. While this was the best book in the series to date, it was still fairly average. I'm a pretty casual mystery fan, but the plot moved along nicely here. The ending might have been a little rushed, but I get that feeling a lot with detective stories.

The main problem with the book is that scenes and plot threads seem to be lifted directly from the TV show. This installment even had some dialogue, especially one liners, straight out of the TV characters' mouths. I guess I can understand it as an inside joke, but it gives weight to that feeling that I'd just rather be watching the real show.

One area where these books are actually a bit better than the show is they have moved along the relationship between the writer and the detective. No more coming up with artificial reasons to extend the ride-along. However, the books are a little more crass than than the show when it comes to this area, so maybe it is a toss up. Anyway, I'd probably only recommend this to Castle fans when the show is in reruns.