Review: A Raging Storm

A Raging Storm by Richard Castle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



“A Raging Storm” by Richard Castle is the second novella in the Derrick Storm trilogy. The most common complaints that I’ve heard about this book is that it is formulaic, trite, pulpy. All of these things are true. It’s also entertaining as hell. Seriously, not every book that you read has to be highbrow literature. Sometimes, you just want a little pulpy, ridiculous entertainment.

Enter Richard Castle.

For a more indepth review of this novella, you could just check out my review of the first book in the series “A Brewing Storm,” because there’s not really much more to say about this second book than what was said about the first.

Now, for the things that are not in my review of the first novella. Here are the things that are especially relevant just for this book:

First, this book has a nice overview of the “A Brewing Storm”. It’s not so indepth as to feel like rewarmed rehash, but it is enough that if you haven’t read the first book, you won’t be lost in this one. Of course, they’re novellas, so why not take the two hours to read the first one. But, if that’s not in your schedule, or not in your budget, there is enough of a recap to keep you from being lost (you will lose a little bit of character development, though. I’m not sure that this matters in pulp fiction).

Second, they do resolve the cliff-hanger from the previous book. So, for those who felt that it would be dragged out over all episodes, not to worry: the cliff-hanger is resolved; the overall myth-arc remains intact. Also, a new cliff-hanger is introduced to lead the reader into the third book.

Finally, I found the characters more likable in the second installment. Frankly, I feel that this is due to their being more fleshed-out. This is partly because the first book allowed some of the details that function as character building blocks for this book. It is also partly because, as the characters become more familiar with each other, they let their guard down slightly and expose more of themselves to one another (therefore the reader).

All in all, I found this book to be a solid piece of ghost-written pulp mystery, and worth the read when you are interested in a bit of light crime fiction.




View all my reviews