Book Review: Heat Rises

Book: Heat Rises (Nikki Heat book #3) by Richard Castle

Edition: Hardcover

Description:

The bizarre murder of a parish priest at a New York bondage club opens Nikki Heat's most thrilling and dangerous case so far, pitting her against New York's most vicious drug lord, an arrogant CIA contractor, and a shadowy death squad out to gun her down. And that is just the tip of an iceberg that leads to a dark conspiracy reaching all the way to the highest level of the NYPD.

But when she gets too close to the truth, Nikki finds herself disgraced, stripped of her badge, and out on her own as a target for killers, with nobody she can trust. Except maybe the one man in her life who's not a cop: reporter Jameson Rook.

In the midst of New York's coldest winter in a hundred years, there's one thing Nikki is determined to prove: Heat Rises.




Rating: 5 stars

Review:

Heat Rises follows as Police Detective Nikki Heat and her team which includes Detectives Miguel Ochoa and Sean Raley investigate when a body was found in Pleasure Bond, a seedy bondage club. The victim turned out to be a priest, Father Gerald Graf and his suspicious death only lead to more questions. Detective Heat had no problems following the clues and connecting the dots, however, her investigation was receiving major pushback from Captain Charles Montrose.

Despite the initial setback, Heat delved back into this explosive case which she was finding to be extremely dangerous after being targeted by killers. However, an unexpected death and upper management involvement would lead to Nikki being suspended.

With Heat placed on suspension, the investigation was officially halted. But Nikki wasn't going to let that stop her from finding out who murdered Father Graf as well as who was trying to kill her. With no official police resources or backup, she had to rely on assistance from her boyfriend investigative journalist Jameson Rook. She also received some unofficial police help from Detectives Ochoa and Raley.

Heat Rises is the third book I've read from this series (I previously read Heat Wave (book 1), Naked Heat (book 2) and Deadly Heat (book 5)) and I often wonder what writer or writers were hired to ghostwrite this book series. Because whoever it is, has done a shockingly good job with writing it. These could have easily been lackluster throwaway stories but you can tell the writers put in a lot of hard work creating interesting and complex stories.

This was a really good read. The plot wove an intriguing mystery that had Nikki Heat fighting for her life and her career in trying to solve this case. This story was exciting and it felt like Nikki had stumbled upon a huge conspiracy and it was making her feel like there was no one she could trust. There was a point where she had started to wonder if she could even trust Jameson with this case.

I like how with each Nikki Heat book, Nikki and Jameson's relationship continues to grow. It's still full of irresistible passion but their connection has grown into something more meaningful and heartfelt. This is series I want to get caught up on because each book that I read is better than the last.