Heat Wave

By: Richard Castle

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

The title character from ABC's hit television series Castle kicks off his new series of books featuring tough and sexy New York police detective Nikki Heat with a bang.

©2009 Richard Castle (P)2009 Tantor

As advertised-Great lite read.

The book was as expected, entertaining, lite, funny, relatively smart, it is basically a riff on the show.
Intriguing piece of meta-fiction, to think about that the book is based on the fictional characters of "Castle" the TV series, yet the characters are not the exact same as they re on TV, because these are the fictionalized version of them.
Very well read, in a kind of Maltese Falcon, film noir tone. All in all a great book.

12 of 12 people found this review helpful

Good book terrible narrator

I love the TV show and I liked to listen to the book. I decided to also read the book and it was much better with the voices in my head. Many times the narrator makes the book but not in this case. He did not annoy me enough to quit listening but I will not listen to another Richard Castle book if he narrates it. I think a woman would have been a better reader since the lead was a woman.

37 of 40 people found this review helpful

OK, the TV show is better

I don't say very often that the show or movie is better than the book. In this case the show was first and then some one thought, lets write the book that was written in the show.
I thought that it was a interesting idea,and so I bought the book. The narrator was fine with me, descent voice, tone and inflextion.
The story was good. it mirrored the show, a writer doing a ride-a-long with a cop. In the show the writer is very witty and much better at helping to solve or having ideas to help solve the murder. In the show the two main charactors haven't gone to bed, yet. they have to string it along with the interpersonal conflicts, once they sleep together in tv the show ends soon after. In a book they always have to have a sex scene or two right?
So I enjoyed the listen. You might also.

31 of 34 people found this review helpful

Horrible! Huge Disappointment.

I was so excited about this book, because I love Castle. The Johnny Heller is just awful. There is no inflection in his voice whatsoever. Anyone of us could have done a better job reading this book aloud. I listened to 4 hours before I realized I still didn't know what was going on. Not sure if the book itself is good or not. Don't waste your credits. A huge disappointment.

30 of 33 people found this review helpful

narrator just okay

I wasn't expecting great literature, just a fun light-weight book, but still I was very surprised at the subpar narration. He does bearly more than just a straight reading of the book. What a great shame that they didn't get Nathan Fillion to "perform" the narration. It would have been a great pleasure to hear him narrate the book. Love his voice. This Johnny Heller puts me to sleep with his mono tone.

13 of 14 people found this review helpful

Too fun!

(Darn review editor -- I can't get it to break this my remarks into paragraphs. Sorry.) + + + + +



CONTENT: I love Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Carver and the old gumshoe detective stories.

+ + + + +

While this one is set in modern times, it has that feel to it and is just plain fun to listen to. The humor is mostly good (with a few groaners) and the interplay between the characters is enjoyable.

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I am a fan of the TV show but found this to be better. It has the time to go into more detail and give more meat to the mystery. The characters are based on those in the show and it's easy to visualize the same actors in the roles, all of which lends a comfortable familiarity. Even so, they are different enough to make it fun getting to know the new players.

+ + + + +

I figured out the ending, mostly, but it was fun (there's that word again) to work it through and come up with the answer, just seeing that I was right.

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Is it a "Great Mystery Novel"? Nah. But it IS, as I said, FUN. =)

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PRODUCTION: Unlike some reviewers, I enjoyed this production. At first, I thought it a bit flat but, as I got into the story and put myself in the mindframe of the old film noir stories, the delivery seemed spot on. The voices were distinct enough so as not to confuse and the delivery had the right tone to it.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Missing the Dedication

Okay, so any one that watches the show should know what the book is going to be like. I like the wackiness of the show and the book mirrors it. Good listen if you like to relax and have fun.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Great for fans of the show Castle

At first I found i disappointingly generic with it's tough-female-cop-in-a-man's-world usualness, but I actually found myself loving it and laughing hard despite the strange looks I earned from other commuters.

If you like the show, you'll like this book. For everyone else, if you liked this book, check out the show.

Also, I feel I should mention I have a boyfriend who actually doesn't read anything but newspapers and the occasional (instruction manual after he's already broken something) and the other day I found a hard copy of this exact book in the night stand.

If you like crime novels, the show, or have a sense of humour: try it.

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

Not like the show.......

Reading the book probably would have been a better choice. I'm a fan of the show and it was confusing hearing a voice different from Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic. The narrator tried but missed the mark and sounded boring and old. It would be great to get Fillion and Katic for the audio of the next book!

17 of 20 people found this review helpful

Heat Wave

I was so excited to find this novel. I love the TV series. However, I cannot tell if the book is good or not. The narrator is so boring that I cannot follow the story line. Too Bad...

12 of 14 people found this review helpful