First of all, I want to declare that I know Richard Castle is a fictional character. But fans of Castle, the TV series, you should know that this book is real. The creator of the TV series actually got a ghost writer to make these books real, with an author profile being that of Richard Castle from the TV show. This is just crazy! For some reason, I am so amazed by the lengths that the producers go to and I get such a kick out of it.
I am a huge fan of Castle and I’m extremely sad that the series is now cancelled. I honestly just discovered the TV series a couple of months ago and binge-watched all of it within a month, only to realize that what I have loved has come to an end. So what do I do? I google it and discovered that these books are real. Being the nerd that I am, I had to read it!
**This part of the review consist of Spoilers
The book focuses on Jameson Rook, a reporter, who follows around Nikki Heat, a homicide detective at the NYPD, for a piece of article that he was to do on the NYPD to get a first hand view of what happens inside. Nikki is a leader of her team, made up of Raley and Ochoa. At first, Nikki resents being assigned to be shadowed by Rook, but she soon feels drawn to him, and just like it was talked about in the TV show, they had some pretty hot sex.
In this book, Nikki investigates the death of a real estate millionaire who fell to his death. Over the course of finding the murderer, they find out that the millionaire was actually bankrupt, ruined by the financial crisis, but yet refused to sell off his outrageously expensive art collection in order to keep up the facade that he is still rich.
Soon, they discover another body, that of an art appraiser; through the photos on her camera, they realise that his art collection is actually fake – someone has stolen them. In the end, we find out that it was the accountant who was the killer.
Final Thoughts
That must be the fastest synopsis that I’ve done for a book review, but to be honest, there wasn’t really that much of a plot. I don’t think anyone who isn’t a fan of the TV show Castle would buy this book, and if you’re a fan, then you wouldn’t exactly be expecting classic literature but just a spot of fun and fluffy story-telling.
From the beginning, I didn’t have much expectations for the book. So, by bringing the bar really low, this was at least a nice relaxing read. However, it also read too much like a mix and match from the episodes of the TV show, as if Castle from the show just simply wrote out the cases he experienced as it is without much imagination added.
While all the characters on the TV show were in the book, the chemistry that they had just didn’t translate well into the book, especially between Jamesoon Rook and Nikki Heat. It wasn’t really written very well, in terms of how the story came together, and the story was pretty predictable given that I’ve watched every episode of the TV show.
I guess the most disappointing part about this book is the quality of the writing, versus what the character Castle in the show appears to be – he’s supposed to be a top and very famous mystery writer, and this book definitely doesn’t have that kind of quality.
In all, it’s definitely not a book for anyone who is not a fan of the TV show, but if you are, I think it’s at least a readable piece of fluff that doesn’t require too much thinking. It helps me get over the fact that Castle has now been cancelled.
The Good Life Bunny 