Naked Heat

August 23, 2010
Fans of the hit ABC-TV series Castle will welcome this highflying and oh-so-sly sequel to Heat Wave from, if one can trust the author photo, the actor Nathan Fillion, who plays mystery novelist Rick Castle on the show. NYPD homicide detective Nikki Heat hates the overexposure that results from the cover story journalist Jameson Rook wrote about her for First Press, a national magazine. But that doesn't stop her from teaming with the charming Jameson to try to solve the stabbing murder of gossip columnist Cassidy Towne, who was to be the subject of another Rook article. The romantic sparks fly as the pair investigate the many enemies Cassidy's "Buzz Rush" column for the New York Star Ledger earned her, including singer-songwriter Soleil Gray, whose drug use has sent the pop star's career into a tailspin. The same comedic sparring that lifts the TV program helps propel this whimsical mix of romance and crime.

September 15, 2010
Castle is the title of a television cop show in which a mystery novelist, Richard Castle, teams up with a female NYPD detective (under the pretense of conducting research). In the show, Castle writes novels about a female New York cop, Nikki Heat, who reluctantly pairs up with a writer, Jameson Rook, whos a fictionalized version of Castle himself. Got all that? Anyway, Naked Heat is the second Nikki Heat novel, credited, like the first (Heat Wave, 2009) to Richard Castle. Leaving aside the fiction-within-another-fiction conceit, its a pretty fair mystery. Heat and Rook are written in the familiar contempt-breeds-familiarity style: they start out antagonists and wind up partners (and more). Weve seen them before, with other names in other stories, and we like them because theyre comfortable. The story, which begins with a pair of murders that appear to be connected only by their MO, is slick and enjoyable without being too taxing on the readers imagination. The book is exactly what its supposed to be: an entertaining but undemanding mystery that should draw attention to the TV series from which its spun off. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The TV series Castle is a big hit, and many of its fans will be curious to read a real book by their favorite fictional mystery writer.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)