Nikki Heat Book 6: Raging Heat - A Thrilling Crime Novel for Mystery Lovers | Perfect for Vacation Reading & Book Club Discussions

Richard Castle is back in print, and back to true form!! I love how these books run on a separate but parallel track to the Castle tv series, with thinly-disguised characters & plot points lifted from the show's various seasons/episodes (and, sometimes groan-inducing Firefly "Easter eggs"). While most of the secondary characters can rightly be seen as just re-named versions of their television selves (like Roach, whom I envision *exactly* as Ryan & Espo), the main characters of these novels are different and compelling enough to interest readers unfamiliar with the show.I suppose Nikki Heat bears a closer physical/psychological resemblence to Kate Beckett/Stana Katic than Jameson Rook does to Richard Castle/Nathan Fillion, but it's both easy and pleasureable to separate these two fictional worlds (it's also fun to speculate on the wish-fulfillment Mr. Castle indulges in with his alter-ego, who is a tanned, fit, childless, Tribeca-loft-owning, bed-hopping, marathon-running investigative journalist with 2 Pulitzers and--in his words--'a great ass'). The sex scenes have disappointingly cooled since the first 3 books (seriously--the first couple books are HOT), but the playful banter and deeper conversations of Heat & Rook always ring true and form their own dramatic arc within the logistics of a murder investigation.My delight in this series took a hit after the bloated excess of the previous two books (Frozen Heat & Deadly Heat): granted, there *were* 5 tv seasons' worth of Beckett's-mother's-murder plotlines to wrap up, but the global scope of the novels kept expanding so ridiculously & exponentially that I half-expected a metal-toothed Bond villain to appear and toss a razor-rimmed bowler hat at the leads right before pushing a big red button labled VAPORIZE THE WORLD. In *Raging Heat* we are back to real-world sized crimes, and while the end contains a scene that's a BIT too Agatha Christie for my taste, on the whole it's a wonderful return to the realistic scope and tone of these books (although, Mr. Castle, you can please bring the hot sex scenes back anytime, like...*now*).I can't NOT recommend any of the Richard Castle books, just because I love these characters/this series so much. However, just know that books 4 & 5 are kind of like those first few episodes of Friday Night Lights, Season Two: you just gotta power though them and try to not let them taint your enjoyment of what came before, and what comes after.