Me Like to Read - Review: Heat Wave

I finished Heat Wave by Richard Castle and I give it 3.5 stars.

A real estate mogul jumps is thrown from his penthouse apartment in New York and leaves his twenty-something trophy wife and pre-K son to grieve him. We find out that the Mrs. is really mourning the fact that he left her nothing because he gambled it all away or spent it on other women. You want to accuse her of the crime because her past is shady. Like stripper poles and rich old men shady. But then she's attacked, so, you know.

There's the accountant that kept meticulous books but always did what his employer wanted. A whole lotta thugs that find convenient alibis in each other and bad people doing bad things. But then... wait for it!... a heat wave hits and causes a blackout in the city. (insert gasp). Things go missing. And just when you think you have it figured out you don't (unless you do) because the writer has decided that you don't need important pieces of information that connects the characters to each other.

The book itself (and all its sequels) were written by a ghostwriter hired by ABC because they wanted to support the series "Castle". Thank God! Because the book was written in an annoying way that dragged me through the streets of New York and made me feel like a tourist. Really, it should have come with a map. Add to that the offhanded attempts at humor (Detectives Ochoa and Raley are affectionately nicknamed "Roach" because... well, just because. I swear man humor is retarded.), the absurdity of the circumstances, and the ridiculousness of trying to have an A, B and C storyline in less than 200 pages and you can see why this book made my head hurt much like the show does on the nights when I wake up on the couch to find it grinding into my subconcious. But if you're a guy? You'll love this book. It has sex, crime, stupid jokes, and just enough pages to keep you intersted to the end. Ladies can pass.

It is, however, the most elaborate marketing scheme since Chris Gaines and since we all know how that ended, I say "Bravo!" to ABC for making this one work. And apparently, they're doing a good enough job at it because they keep pushing out New York Times Bestsellers.