Review - Heat Rises

Heat Rises (Nikki Heat #3)
by Richard Castle
Date: 2011
Publisher: Hyperion
Reading level: A
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 305
Format: paperback
Source: Indigo

Fast-paced and full of intrigue, Heat Rises pairs the tough and sexy NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat with hotshot reporter Jameson Rook in New York Times bestselling author Richard Castle's most thrilling mystery yet.

The bizarre murder of a parish priest at a New York bondage club opens Nikki Heat's most thrilling and dangerous case so far, pitting her against New York's most vicious drug lord, an arrogant CIA contractor, and a shadowy death squad out to gun her down. And that is just the tip of an iceberg that leads to a dark conspiracy reaching all the way to the highest level of the NYPD.

But when she gets too close to the truth, Nikki finds herself disgraced, stripped of her badge, and out on her own as a target for killers, with nobody she can trust. Except maybe the one man in her life who's not a cop: reporter Jameson Rook.

In the midst of New York's coldest winter in a hundred years, there's one thing Nikki is determined to prove: Heat Rises.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This was a bit of a weird one for me... and for a weird reason.  I guess there's bound to be some weirdness when you read a book by a fictional author.

On the one hand, I think I enjoyed the plot of Heat Rises more than I did the plots of Heat Wave or Naked Heat.  This one was pretty exciting, and it tied in well with the TV series.  Though, maybe it tied in a little too well.  That led to some issues for me...

Which brings me to my main complaint (or point of confusion) with this book.  Without giving too much away about either the show or the book, all I can say is that the timing was off.  If Richard Castle wrote this book when he supposedly wrote this book (according to the TV series), he's either psychic or he writes about things that later come true!  While none of this would matter if you read these books on their own without watching the show, if you do happen to be a fan of the TV program, you're liable to be scratching your head over the timing of certain events.

My other gripe about Heat Rises was the writing itself.  While it started off well, by the end of it there were numerous grammatical errors, typos, and just plain lazy writing.  I don't recall seeing that (at least not to the same extent) in the other two books... so I had to take a few points off there.

All in all, though, it was a fun read, and probably my favourite of the Nikki Heat novels so far.  Now I'm even more excited to read Frozen Heat!

Plot: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 4/5
Writing: 2/5
Editing: 2/5
Originality: 3/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall: 3.14 out of 5