"Naked Heat" by Richard Castle

Yes, the second book is just as deliciously good as the first, although slightly hotter. Once again, we meet the alter-egos from ABC's "Castle" TV series in a hard-boiled detective novel with enough twists and turns to make your head spin. Things are not easy for NYC Detective Nikki Heat as she attempts to wade through the usual suspects to determine who killed a famous gossip columnist in a particularly gruesome fashion. Line up a coyote, a limo driver, a concierge, a rock star, a baseball player, a "working girl", an actor or two and a bunch of lawyers and handlers and you have more suspects than you can shake a stick at. Like the first book, this one adheres closely to the TV show and maintains the fiction regarding authorship (although I still believe it was penned by Cannell). I did find it a little harder to keep track of the storyline in this book than in the first, but that may have been a result of having to read it in small chunks rather than curling up on the couch over the weekend (which is really the best way to read these). The third title and the Derek Storm graphic novel are on the way, so I look forward to savoring them soon.