I won’t
tell you about how I came to this book; whoever knows me just a little bit
knows about my Castle-obsession. So I don’t think that I need to elaborate on
this.
I have to admit, though, that I
haven’t read the Derrick Storm novellas – I don’t pay for books I can’t see,
touch and smell, that’s my principle; once they are out in actual paper-and-ink
format, I’ll buy them –, but I got the main gist from the TV series and the portion
of one of the graphic novels I’ve read so far, so I got more than less what was
going on.
So, given a former PI who now
moonlights as a frontman for the CIA. He is clever, strong, resourceful, and
(of course) ruggedly handsome. He has worked on many high-stake cases, cheated
death several times, and now he has another shot at saving the world (kinda),
when a certain party plans to trigger a financial crisis that would completely
devalue the Dollar. The novel has everything it needs to work: a typical guns-and-wits
hero, a bona fide bad guy, another sorta bad guy, pain in the neck bosses, some
geniuses in the background, a couple of sexy ladies and many gunshots. Oh, and
muscle cars. No story like this works without muscle cars. Not that I know
anything about muscle cars.
The plot itself was pretty
well-written – just complicated enough to make it surprising, but not so much
that the whole thing becomes confusing and hard to follow (although I won’t say
that I that I got all the financial jargon). There were action packed parts,
there were light, funny parts, and there were sexy parts – although nowhere
near as steamy as the now proverbial page 105. Sure, it wasn’t entirely
flawless: there were some awkward sentences that are still in need of some
polishing, and there was some plot points that felt like a punch in the gut – although
it has nothing with the quality of the book.
Although I’ll admit – I just couldn’t
make myself like Clara Strike. I mean, I am not even sure we are supposed to
like her. All the time while reading I was expecting her to turn out to be a
double agent or something like that, since the woman who inspired her did
betray the USA episode Castle
Being a Richard Castle book, of
course it has some Easter eggs, although not as many as a Nikki Heat book –
reading it I found no reference to any of Castle and Beckett’s cases, but some
of the Castle characters make appearances (e.g. Agent Kevin Bryan or – airplane
– Capt. Roy Montgomery), alongside with two of Kate Beckett’s exes – and these
two, just for fun and so Castle could work out his latent jealousy, are shown
in not too nice light (Sorenson’s alter ego being a disgusting old man cheating
on his wife with a teenager, for example).
In consensus, I really enjoyed this
book – Castle or not, it worked and it was an enjoyable read. Should there be
any sequels, I’m sure I am gonna read them all.
Summer Reading Project Progress: 1217/10000
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