From what we've seen, Castle writes a lot of his book in the summer when he's up against his deadline.  If you think about what is in the plot, it would have been too much of a coincidence to have written the Montrose character arc the way he did.  He really had no idea that Montgomery was involved as deeply as he was until the phone call telling him to come to the hanger to make sure Kate got out.  That means, that whole part of the plot was written after the Hanger.  Was it partially written in the days in between the Montgomery's death and his funeral?  I think it's interesting to think about how much of the plot he already had sketched out and how much was formed by the events of those few days.   

What I think will be interesting will be how Castle deals with the odd sock that Montgomery left him.  In the book, it's the clue that Nikki needs to move forward, but (maybe ironically because it comes after the book is published) for Castle, his sock is the phone call telling him to keep Kate away because someone is in possession of information that is protecting her.  In other words, there is more out there.What I really loved was the ending.  Don't get me wrong I was just as frustrated, but when you think about what Rook is to Castle, and then think about when he wrote that part of the book (after the shooting), who (or what) is he almost killing off?  He must have been really down about not getting a call from Kate because I think he's telling her that she's wounded their relationship and it's on life support right now.  And only she is going to be able to bring it back.

Of course this is all conjecture and depends completely on the fact that Castle has no assistance from the other side in the form of a ghostwriter… 

dmcw said:

Leftfield said:

I like the imagery of this, and I hadn't thought of it in this way.  My feelings about the ending have been that it speaks to Castle's desire to have been able to take that bullet for Beckett, and to his regret that he wasn't able to.  He couldn't save her from being shot in real life but he was able to do it in his fictional world.  

That's how I originally thought of it as well…Castle finding a way to deal with his feelings of helplessness and some guilt surrounding the shooting.  But given his anger over the 3 month separation forced on him by Beckett, I could see his hurt manifesting in ACF's interpretation as well if he wrote it during that time.

I haven't read it since September (when I read it twice in a week – hello my name is ACF and I have OCD) but with the second reading I was having fun trying to figure out when Castle wrote each of the scenes  (And yes I realized I am buying in deep to the Richard Castle mythology).  Read carefully and there are clues to what cases he was working on with Beckett, but also the state of his relationship with her.  It's fun to listen for the scenes where Castle's "Voice" comes to the surface.  It gives me a new respect for the writer and how he is able to write in character".

little eve said:

dmcw said:

Leftfield said:

I like the imagery of this, and I hadn't thought of it in this way.  My feelings about the ending have been that it speaks to Castle's desire to have been able to take that bullet for Beckett, and to his regret that he wasn't able to.  He couldn't save her from being shot in real life but he was able to do it in his fictional world.  

That's how I originally thought of it as well…Castle finding a way to deal with his feelings of helplessness and some guilt surrounding the shooting.  But given his anger over the 3 month separation forced on him by Beckett, I could see his hurt manifesting in ACF's interpretation as well if he wrote it during that time.

I also liked ACF's idea but I see a little problem with the time line. Books need a little time to go from writing to printing and sending them out to the stores. Castle could not have written throughout the 3 months that Beckett was gone and then have a book signing the first week she was back. And she had already read the book!  My guess would be that he had maybe a month without Beckett during which she was recovering and he was still writing. That of course does not exclude ACF's interpretation completely as he still would have been hurt not to her for a month, but I don't think it would have been all summer.

When I read the ending I also contemplated the meaning Leftfield described above, that it reflects his wish that he had taken the bullet instead of her. On the other hand, the main character in the book is Nikki and at the end she goes through the emotional turmoil Castle went through when Kate was shot. So, either character might represent his feelings at the time of the shooting and shortly afterwards. Assuming that Beckett cannot help but draw parallels to her herself and Castle as she reads these books, she would have learned through Nikki how Castle felt about her shooting. Wow, this is really meta. Am I making sense to you?

I was thinking more of the fact that he was sent away and didn't hear from her within a very short time.  I don't think he needed much more from the situation to see that he was being pushed away.  She was awake, she was alive, she knew that he tried to jump in front of a bullet for her.  As far as he knew, that was not enough for her to keep him in her life at that point. 

I think he was definitely writing about the shooting and his emotions surrounding the event and aftermath, but his choice of ending is what led me to believe there was more to it. He could have ended on a happy note with Rook waking up to Nikki's voice reading his polished prose. That type of ending would have given readers (and Beckett among them)  a different more positive feeling and telegraphed to her his own dreams for their future.  Instead he chose to end the book with only a glimmer of hope for Rook and Nikki as if he was thinking that there was little chance for any kind of relationship between them (professional or otherwise). Castle killing off Rook would be akin to him leaving Beckett for good.   He could still write another Nikki Heat book, but his personal connection to the story would be severed.

We could be dealing with a compressed time frame here anyway.  Naked Heat was finished over the summer with the book signings and such starting "in the fall" when he came back but didn't call. Whether that is how it works in the real world or not, that is how Castle works with Black Pawn.