The Nikki Heat novels are a series of detective novels by American author Richard Castle, based on his experiences shadowing NYPD homicide detective Kate Beckett. The novels star Detective Nikki Heat, a Knight in Sour Armor homicide detective who is stuck with an irritating journalist named Jameson Rook, shadowing her for a magazine article on the inner workings of the homicide squad. As she investigates high-profile murder cases with him, they're forced to confront their feelings for each other.
Okay, in real life the Nikki Heat books are series of defictionalized Tie In Novels to ABC's long-running Police Procedural Dramedy series Castle that were published beginning in 2009. The Richard Castle character is given the author credit; the identity of the actual ghostwriter(s) penning the books has been kept secret.note As one might expect given the premise, the novels often directly reference episodes of the show, and scenes mentioned in the show appear in the corresponding novel.
Novels in the series:
- Heat Wave (2009)
- Naked Heat (2010)
- Heat Rises (2011)
- Frozen Heat (2012)
- Deadly Heat (2013)
- Raging Heat (2014)
- Driving Heat (2015)
- High Heat (2016)
- Heat Storm (2017)
- Crashing Heat (2019)
There have also been novels featuring Castle's other protagonist Derrick Storm.
This novel series contains examples of the following tropes:
- Aggressive Submissive: Implied with Nikki: she's a martial artist and highly driven and competent detective, but she, rather than journalist Rook, is the first to give the other their safe word.
- Attempted Rape: Nikki is captured at one point in Naked Heat and her captor clearly intends this. She breaks free, kicks his ass, and escapes.
- Brains and Bondage: Nikki and Rook apparently get into some light bondage their second time sleeping together. Her safeword is "pineapple" (a nod to Castle's being "apples").
- Cast of Expies: Enforced due to being a defictionalization of a fictional novel series that is Inspired by… In-Universe true stories. Jameson Rook is an Author Avatar of Rick Castle, Nikki Heat is a Hotter and Sexier version of Kate Beckett, Missing Mom backstory and all, and Those Two Guys Raley and Ochoa are based on Beckett's sidekicks Ryan and Esposito. And that's just the core cast.
- Crossover: Heat Storm has Nikki team up with Derrick Storm.
- Darker and Edgier: The Castle series aired at 9 PM on weeknights on a broadcast network that has traditionally been relatively family-friendly. The book series is not constrained by this: the interpersonal violence tends to be significantly more brutal, with Heat even getting occasional rape threats.
- Epunymous Title: The two-word Idiosyncratic Episode Naming naming, due to the protagonist, Nikki Heat:
- Heat Wave
- Naked Heat
- Heat Rises
- Frozen Heat
- Deadly Heat
- Raging Heat
- Driving Heat
- High Heat
- Heat Storm
- Friend in the Press: Jameson Rook, an award-winning magazine journalist and investigative reporter ends up becoming this to the titular Detective. The two are paired together by the commissioner in "Heat Wave", so that Jameson can shadow their investigations and do a report on the NYPD, despite Nikki's initial reluctance and frustration, she comes to value his skills as a reporter and outside-the-box thinking. This leads to Jameson becoming a valuable ally to her squad and her on-again-off-again lover.
- Hotter and Sexier: The Castle series aired at 9 PM on weeknights on a broadcast network that has traditionally been relatively family-friendly. The book series is not constrained by this: Detective Beckett's expy Nikki Heat is a full-on Ethical Slut and the series leans on Sexy Discretion Shot a lot (whereas Beckett rarely had time to date before her Relationship Upgrade with Castle). Enforced because Castle in the show had described Heat in "Hell Hath No Fury" as "kinda slutty", and there was a mention of a "racy" sex scene in Heat Wave in "Fool Me Once".
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All the books' titles are something related to Heat, being two-word Epunymous Titles, due to the protagonist, Nikki Heat: Heat Wave, Naked Heat, Heat Rises, Frozen Heat, Deadly Heat, Raging Heat, Driving Heat, High Heat, and Heat Storm.
- Inspired by…: An In-Universe example where the "true" story consists of mashups of various cases from the Castle TV show that the Richard Castle character helped investigate.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: At the beginning of Heat Wave Nikki has a casual relationship with her hand-to-hand combat trainer. Sometimes they even sleep together without beating each other up first.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Deuteragonist Jameson Rook is a journalist.
- Mythology Gag: Fans of the series will recognize scenes in the books from the show.
- Most of the book plots are mashups of several episodes of the TV show.
- Nikki's safeword being "pineapple". Castle's is "apples".
- In one episode's teaser, Castle had Alexis duct-tape him to a chair so he could work out how to get Nikki out of a similar bind, which shows up in Naked Heat.
- The real-life author had his fun with character names... Besides the most obvious (officers "Malcolm" and "Reynolds" are a duo often getting on loan at the 2-0's homicide squad), Heat Wave has a lawyer/fixer for a baseball player, based on a character played by Ray Wise on the show, who is nicknamed "the Firewall" in the novel. "...kwithme", anyone?
- Beckett's therapist in the show was played by Michael Dorn. Frozen Heat introduces Nikki's therapist: doctor Lon King.
- Bree Flax in Heat Wave, a scoop-chasing reporter trying to write True Crime novels, is a parody of Lee Wax from "Ghosts", a true crime writer who indirectly got the Body of the Week killed. Castle had promised Revenge via Storytelling against her after figuring out what she did (which wasn't illegal, "just slimy").
- Portmanteau Couple Name: In-Universe, a Heterosexual Life-Partners variant with Nikki's second-in-command Roach, a.k.a. Detectives Raley and Ochoa.
- A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma: In Heat Rises, Jameson Rook claims, "What can I say? I'm an enigma inside a conundrum inside a condom."
- Sexy Packaging: Enforced. The early covers feature a nude female silhouette meant to be Nikki Heat holding a gun over her naughty bits. In this case it follows the direction of the Castle TV show, which used it in a deliberate send-up of this style of cover in pulp crime fiction, much to the displeasure of Castle's "muse" Detective Beckett, who is not nearly as "slutty" (Castle's term) as Detective Heat. The later covers pare this back, with the Heat silhouette now fully clothed.Castle: She's not 'naked'! She's holding a gun... strategically.
- Who Murdered the Asshole: One of the books centers around the murder of a highly unpopular critic. When Nikki asks who might want her dead, Jameson Rook suggests that she get a copy of the Manhattan phone book and start with the letter A.
