Jenn's Review: Heat Rises

 Summary:  The bizarre murder of a parish priest at a New York bondage club is just the tip of an iceberg that leads Nikki Heat to a dark conspiracy that reaches 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 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.

Review:  Although I had a hard time getting into the third Nikki Heat novel, Heat Rises turned out to be my favorite from 'Richard Castle' so far.  The beginning had me wondering if they'd changed ghost writers, though because Castle's voice just wasn't coming through for me.  But as the story pressed on, it became a lot clearer.

I think the other problem I had getting into it was backtracking Heat and Rook's relationship back to where Castle and Beckett were in Season 3 of the show which was frustrating.  However Heat and Rook's relationship blew by where we finished Season 4.  I actually think Heat Rises gives a nice glimpse of where we are heading with Castle and Beckett, at least, I hope it does (no, I can't bring myself to use the shipper term Caskett even though I fully admit to being a shipper).  Though the echos of their television show counter parts were there, the characters in the books took on a life of their own for me for the first time and I liked it.

The plot itself was fantastic.  Eventually I picked the threads of the Castle episodes that it drew from, but they didn't seem to overpower the story line as they have in the previous books.  There were some twists I definitely didn't see coming as well as some role reversals.  Though I must say [SPOILER ALERT] the death of the captain was just as sad to read as it was to watch.

I love that these books are a stopgap for the show being on hiatus.  Though I usually am able to hold off reading them, I have a feeling I will be jumping into the newly released Frozen Heat soon because I want to know more of their story... not just Castle's.

Final Take:  4.5/5