Richard Castle Books - Complete List, Reviews and About the Author

• Story: What sends a seemingly successful real estate mogul over the edge of his balcony and down six floors to his death? Nikki Heat is sorting through the spouse, mistresses, co-workers and even the mob in an effort to solve this one. The blackouts caused by the heat wave aren't exactly helping. And neither is Jameson Rook, who is doing a ride-along for a magazine article on NYPD detectives. Throw in complications of an art theft, empty bank accounts and an attack on Heat and the action just keeps coming.
• Reviews: Interestingly mixed. It seems people who love the show and aren't too critical think the book is fabulous. But even some Castle lovers pointed out the obvious character flaws in this one. It's meant as a tie-in with the show (kind of, sort of?) so you feel like you already know the characters if you watch, making it easy to miss the fact that there really isn't a lot of complexity to these people. Outside of Nikki maybe. The rest are sort of cardboard cutouts in the background. The story's great, though.

• Story: It's a scandalous murder when a gossip columnist turns up dead. Oh, and with Rook standing right there when Heat and her team arrive on the scene. The hunt for the murderer among the powerful and famous is complicated by the electric relationship between Heat and Rook that can't seem to find a comfortable place. And given Rook's personal involvement with this case, Heat can't seem to get away from him to figure out just how she feels.
• Reviews: General consensus is that it's better than the first one, reading more like an expanded episode of the TV show. Only Nikki Heat is becoming even more obviously a fantasized version of Beckett. Again, it seems that watching the show makes the book characters actually come to life far more than the writing does.

• Story: When a priest dies at a bondage club, you know this isn't going to be any ordinary case. The search for the killer throws her up against a drug lord and a CIA contractor, but for Nikki Heat, the real threat is the death squad apparently out to get her. It seems the case she's working is just the shadow of a conspiracy that reaches to the top of the NYPD and getting close to an answer just finds her out on the street without a badge. Leaving her just one friend to turn to for help: Jameson Rook.
• Reviews: It's likely all the people who didn't like the first one never made it to the third, which might explain why there aren't any really negative reviews on Amazon about this one. Or maybe it really is just that much better as everyone says. Apparently, the sex scenes in this one are truly hot and the story much more obviously taken from the overarching story line in season three.

• Story: Body stabbed and stuffed in a suitcase? Seems like just another weird murder until the dots start connecting with the unsolved murder of Nikki Heat's mother. (Get it? Frozen Heat? Cold case?) Heat and Rook are on the case, which takes them far, far, far outside Heat's jurisdiction and to the streets of Paris.
• Reviews: Overwhelmingly positive, although -- semi-spoiler! -- the fact that the story ends right in the middle of a train of thought drove a few people nuts.

Releasing Sept. 17! Pre-order and it'll be delivered to your door on that date.

• Graphic novel version of the first Derrick Storm book in which he moves from the world of private eye to becoming a globe-trotting CIA agent. 
• They pulled in people from Marvel to work with Castle creator Andrew Marlowe to develop this one, so the standard is pretty high for it as a graphic novel. Mostly a response to Castle fans wanting to see something of the Derrick Storm series that gets talked about so much.
• Reviews of it are a little all over the board. You have the Castle fans who like everything, the ones who are critical of the story, the ones who are critical of the artwork. Actually, most of the complaints center around the story, not the artwork. And it seems the interior artwork is by different artists than the cover. Interesting.

• Graphic novel sequel to Deadly Storm. Based on the novel sequel to Deadly Storm. (Not to get confusing.)
• Storm has been hired to bug the hotel room of an African head of state, but a woman's scream heard over the wire throws the simple mission into chaos. His investigation uncovers a deep conspiracy that might uncover the truth about CIA agent Clara Strike's death.
• Reunites the same authors as the first graphic novel, although we have a new artist for the artwork.

• New author and illustrator team
• Releasing July 9, so available for pre-order now.

Huh. Seems Derrick Storm didn't really die in Storm Fall. (Oh, spoiler alert!) I guess no money-making character ever really does. Turns out he faked his own death just to get out of the CIA. But the kidnapping of a senator's son sucks him back in, this time working with alongside an FBI agent.

Whoops! Storm has a dead senator on his hands, not to mention a whole mess of trouble with America's classic bad guys - the Russians. Well, old Communist Party Russians who hid some gold. And new Russian government guys leaking info about Storm's mission. And of course, that sexy FBI agent again.

Last part of this trilogy that brings Storm back to life. Seems there's a whole club of CIA guys who faked their deaths and now do covert black semi-illegal ops for the agency. We're still looking for that Russian gold, but not everything about this mission is what it seems.

• First new full-length Derrick Storm story picks up where the novella trilogy left off
• Releasing May 21