In Heat Wave, the main character is Jameson Rook (Castle? Rook?) who is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning celebrity reporter who has the police commissioner's consent to ride along with Nikki to do research for his series.  

The story is about a murder investigation which begins when Real-Estate mogul Matthew Starr is found dead on the pavement below his 6th story Central Park apartment. Nikki, along with Roach (collective name assigned to detectives Ryan and Esposito), is assigned to the case. A series of suspects are interviewed starting with trophy wife Kimberly who previously was a lap dancer and is known to be cheating on her husband with a hedge fund investor.

Omar Lamb is a competing real-estate developer who had threatened Starr on several occasions. Starr was involved with mobster Tommy Nicolosi who took over one of his properties, another suspect. When Nikki interviews Noah Paxton, Starr's financial adviser, she learns that his business was in such serious difficulty that his World Headquarters had been vacated more than a year ago and his personal wealth was also affected due to his propensity to become involved with high-end call girls. Then there is Miric, the bookie to whom Starr owes large amounts of money and whose bodyguard attacks Nikki in her apartment.

  The book reads like a screenplay and follows the television show quite closely. There is the same banter between Heat and Rook as there is between Castle and Beckett. In the book, however, the relationship blossoms. As a police procedural, it actually works, albeit only 200 pages long. The tongue-in-cheek endorsements by both James Patterson and Stephen J. Cannell  who have both appeared on the show, a picture of Nathan Fillion as the author Rick Castle, and the biography, which acknowledges his mother and daughter, all support the tie in. Heat Wave is a very quick, fun read, especially if you watch the show.

--Jerry Solot