"Lately, working routine homicides had become a distraction that kept her from focusing fully on her bigger case. Of course she couldn't share that with anyone on her squad, but she did complain to Rook how hard it was to try to close a chapter when people kept opening others. He reminded her of the words of John Lennon: 'Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.'"
-from the novel
As a fan of the TV series "Castle" I had planned for a while to read one of the Castle novels. This was the first and I must say I plodded through it. I'm not sure what the problem was---perhaps my failure to read the first in the series or maybe just inferior writing. Through the first half of the book I was confused and wondered if I even wanted to finish, pretty unusual for a favorite genre of mine. Once I reached the climax, the reading went a bit faster but I'll rate Deadly Heat only a 2.5. I doubt I'll bother to look for others in the series.
In this novel, Detective Nikki Heat is juggling two cases, a personal one---the murder of her CIA agent mother some years past---and several current serial killings with seemingly no connection and with Detective Heat possibly slated to be the next victim. In the course of the plot there is the potential of bioterrorism which reminded me too much of the ebola problem now.
I was surprised I learned some new detective slang---expressions like POI (person of interest), eyewits, "belt and suspenders" (everything covered) and odd sock (something out of place). Many obscenities did not seem necessary since they're not used in the TV show and many suspense novels use them sparingly.
I had assumed the novels by Richard Castle, the name of the author character on TV, was a pen name but when I saw the author's photo on the book jacket, it was the actor's photo. So I googled Richard Castle and learned the name is a pseudonym for the anonymous writer(s) but they use the photo of actor Nathan Fillion and he even does book signings. Interesting!
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