Detective Nikki Heat has a high profile murder to solve: that of a real estate tycoon who was pushed to his death from his 6th floor apartment. It would be a lot easier if she didn't have Jameson Rook, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, riding along and not only trying to play detective but also distracting her with his charms or a record breaking heat wave in the city. As they follow a twisted trail of clues, suspects, related crimes, and death, Nikki and Rook uncover the secrets of a wealthy man going broke and their own attraction.
Impression: Despite the problems with the writing itself (and there were some), I enjoyed Heat Wave, but I suspect that had a lot to do with the TV series from which it came, Castle. The book itself is written in a tone very similar to the show, and the characters are undisguised copies of the characters from the show. Anyone who watches the show will see Beckett in Nikki (which makes sense since Heat Wave is supposed to be Castle's new novel based on Beckett) and Castle in Rook. It's these characters, following the formula that has worked so well for the series, and the plot itself that make the novel work. There's some nice twists and turns in the mystery, and I have to admit I missed half the mark on the who dunnit. The writer did a very good job of taking the obvious and obscuring it, so the ending works, but you don't necessarily see it coming.
My one complaint is the quality of the writing itself, which seemed sloppy to me. While, thankfully, there didn't seem to be much in the way of editing or technical errors (which can drop me out of a story because I am a very visual reader), there were places where it seemed the writing was padded with extra words just to give the book a higher word count. While it isn't a long book, the writing itself needed some cleaning up.
However, I would still recommend this book to adult readers (there is a sex scene that makes it inappropriate for younger readers) who are looking for something fun to read—and I rarely recommend books where the writing is an issue, so for me that means it was well done. It's all fluff, but sometimes you just need a little light, humorous reading that doesn't require a lot of thought or analyses. This is definitely one of those books. And fans of Castle will definitely enjoy Heat Wave. It will be interesting to see if they give the ghost writer of this work more Castle books to write.
Unless otherwise noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by me.
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