Richard Castle…

Castle, Castle… You know I love the guy. You know I love my kindle. Put the two together and what do you get?

I read the Derrick Storm books recently. The three shorts that kicked it off didn’t overly impress me. Yes, I could hear Castle’s voice when I read them, and yes, they had nice little touches of the series in them, but essentially the story did not wow me. Neither did the quality of the writing – yes, ever the reviewer – but as you also know, I am not always the short story’s greatest fan so the odds were stacked against them.

Despite these initial impressions, I found myself moving onto the next books in the series – Storm Front and Wild Storm. Add longer length, more pleasing prose, character development and time to sit back and enjoy the fictional works of the fictional Richard Castle and you have success.

I can’t tell you exactly why I read through these so quickly and so determinedly. Perhaps because I love the show so much, I needed to love the spin off books too. Perhaps you don’t need a perfectly crafted, sophisticated narrative to make a book a success – is there a lesson to learn there?

I certainly loved the clever ways the books evoked the show’s presence, through references to the characters, particularly those similarities between Storm and Castle – apparently they both really are ruggedly handsome. Plus there was the odd genius reminder of the fictional nature of Castle the writer and of “writers whose identity the public will never know”.

Whether I will go on to read the Nikki Heat books at some point is yet to be seen, but there is more to ‘Richard Castle’ in these books than meets the eye and I am glad I was not quick enough to dispose of Derrick Storm and his world-saving before I had read them all.

Elloise Hopkins.