Fictional TV character Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) is a mystery writer on the hit TV show Castle. Even though he is fictional, Castle has his own website (http://www.richardcastle.net) and has penned and published three bestselling Nikki Heat mystery novels along with the Derrick Storm graphic novels .
When confronted with writer’s block, the fictional Castle found inspiration when he was questioned by the New York Police Department about a series of murders being committed that imitated scenes from his books. After being questioned, Castle teamed up with homicide Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) and her team of Detectives Javier Esposito (Jon Huertas) and Kevin Ryan (Seamus Deaver) to catch the copycat killer.
Once the copycat killer case was solved, Castle gained permission from the mayor (as a famous writer he has many friends in high places) to continue to shadow Detective Beckett in order to get insight for a new series of mystery novels that star fictional Detective Nikki Heat who is based on real life Detective Beckett. Other lead roles in the mystery novels include magazine journalist Jameson Rook and NYPD Detectives Raley and Ochoa, lovingly referred to as combined partners, Roach.
Stemming from his tag-along with Beckett thus far, Castle has penned three very real Nikki Heat novels: Heat Wave, Naked Heat and Heat Rises which may be purchased from any major bookstore or online. According to www.amazon.com , the real life mystery novels were released in paperback August 30, 2011, April 26, 2011 and in hardback September 20, 2011 respectively.
Fans of the TV show Castle will enjoy the Nikki Heat novels. The novels read very similar to the storyline used on the TV program, although there was one really big encounter that happened in Heat Wave that the TV show has been skirting around. Although they have pretty much the same personalities, the character’s names in the novels are different from the ones on TV. This could be a tiny distraction for the TV fan that is reading as they try to compare or combine the two characters.
At the end of his novels, Castle thanks a lot of people. Some of the persons thanked are fictional, others may be real. People listed include Detectives Kate Beckett, Javier Esposito, Kevin Ryan and Captain Roy Morgan of the NYPD’s 12th Precinct; Dr. Lanie Parish and staff at the NY Office of Chief Medical Examiner; the Clune guys on the third floor; Richard Johnson of The New York Post’s “Page Six” for lending his expertise in background research; all the people at Black Pawn Publishing; Sloan Harris, his agent; two close friends Andrew Marlowe and Tom; his loving daughter, Alexis, and his mother, Martha Rodgers; and last but not least his many adoring fans.
Castle’s first novel, In a Hail of Bullets, was published while he was still attending college and received the Nom DePlume Society’s prestigious Tom Straw Award for Mystery Literature. Castle lives with his loving daughter Alexis (Molly Quinn) and Broadway diva mother, Martha Rodgers (Susan Sullivan) in a penthouse in New York.
Castle airs Mondays @ 10:00pm on ABC.
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