Naked Heat by Richard Castle – review

This is the second book from ABC’s fictional crime author Richard Castle, and I think it did a better job than the first one of separating itself from the show and simply existing as a mystery novel.  If you watch the show, you know it’s the book Castle wrote after the cases he helped on in Season 2; if you don’t, all you need to know is that it’s the second book in the series, following last year’s Heat Wave. 

Unlike the first Nikki Heat book, the title on this one had little to do with what actually happens in the book; the naked part is really just Castle/his publisher being deliberately provocative.  The story this time around is focused on the murder of a gossip columnist whom every celebrity in New York might have had a reason to want dead.  Where to start?  And detective Nikki Heat has an added complication to an already complicated crime:  reporter Jameson Rook, who just so happened to be profiling the gossip queen and insists he can offer the team insights into the woman’s life and writing.  With no leads and every news outlet in town watching the case, Heat has no choice but to put aside the fact that Rook ruined her professional anonymity…and ignore the attraction that never really burned out even after they broke up.

This time around, it’s Nikki Heat who really comes into her own as a character.  When I read Heat Wave, it seemed to me that every character except Jameson Rook read exactly as they are played on the TV series.  In some ways that was amusing, but in others it made me question (1) Castle’s abilities as a writer, if he couldn’t re-characterize better than that and (2) whether I was enjoying the book because it was good or because it was like watching an episode of my favorite mystery show.  In Naked Heat Nikki did not read, at least to me, like a fictional copy of Beckett.  She is starting to fill out on the page and evolve away from her inspiration as the little details and ticks and reveals about her mind and her past slowly add up.  One thing I felt was handled especially well is Nikki’s playfulness; she’s looser about it than Beckett is, and so she’s starting to be a “fun” character for the readers–when Castle talked about her being fun, before this book came out, it seemed like he was substituting fun for “easy to write.”  Not so any longer!

The mystery was not that hard to predict, but in this case I wouldn’t hold that as a flaw due to the nature of the case.  We live in a culture that loves a good scandal, and so just like all the people who read tabloids we wanted to keep reading to see just what had happened–even when we guessed, we still wanted to know all the sordid details. 

I think this book was also a bit more grisly than the first, which was an interesting thing to lay against the fact that it was in some ways more playful.  It had a good balance of dark moments and lighter ones, and was, on the whole, I think a more satisfying book than the first one.  As before, I have to give the caveat that I do not read straight mystery books, so I can’t judge this one against the fictional Castle’s real-world peers (and poker buddies) like James Patterson or Stephen Connell.  But for a casual mystery reader or a fan of the show, it’s a must.  Can’t wait to read the third book that will be written after the current season finishes up!