Family life

Castle is the father of Alexis Castle and the son of Martha Rodgers, both of whom live with him. His father is a CIA operative who has used the aliases "Jackson Hunt"^[2] and "Anderson Cross". Castle's birth name is Richard Alexander Rodgers; he uses Richard Edgar Castle as his nom de plume, (Edgar in honor of Edgar Allan Poe, though he still considers Alexander his middle name).^[4] Fillion describes the family dynamic as unconventional because "Castle is very much mothered by his 15-year-old daughter, and at the same time he turns around and mothers his own mother."^[11]

As a child, he never knew who his father was. He reasoned that he never missed having a father as he never had anything to miss, and it allowed him to imagine that his father could be anyone he wished. He was looked after by a nanny who spent most of her time watching daytime television. One Life to Live was the inspiration to write his first novel. He was further inspired to become a writer when a man (later revealed to be the father he never knew) handed him a copy of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale at the New York Public Library when he was ten years old.^[12] He also claims to have been kicked out of all of New York's finer academic institutions at least once,^[13] and to have picked up speed reading while spending his days as a child in the New York Public Library.^[14]

Castle has been married and divorced twice. His first wife was Alexis's mother, Meredith (Darby Stanchfield), an impulsive, free-spirited actress, and red-haired like her daughter. She and Richard occasionally meet for a sexual liaison, causing Richard to refer to her metaphorically as a "deep-fried twinkie" (something that is a treat on occasion, but to have it every day would kill you) when she contemplated moving back to New York. His second wife was Gina Cowell (Monet Mazur),^[15] his publisher, a role she continues after their divorce.^[16] Castle and Gina became involved again, briefly, when she spent a summer with him in the Hamptons supervising his second Nikki Heat novel, but they soon ended their relationship.

Castle has sole custody of his daughter, Alexis. As a result of his own experiences being raised by a nanny, he insisted on raising her himself, made easier by the fact that he works from his large loft apartment shared with his mother. Alexis sometimes seems more mature and responsible than her father, parenting him. Richard takes great care of her, but also likes to play with her.

Castle also plays regular poker games with fellow authors James Patterson, Stephen J. Cannell, Michael Connelly, and Dennis Lehane. When Cannell died in 2010, a fictional mystery writer was invited by Castle to the game, but a seat was left empty in their friend's honor. He also mentions being friends with Jonathan Kellerman, Wes Craven, and Stephen King.

In the fifth season, Castle finally meets his father (portrayed by James Brolin), whom he learns is a spy when he helps him rescue Alexis when she was kidnapped. A Russian enemy of Castle's father seeks revenge for the Russian's murdered wife, so he kidnaps Alexis to lure him out.^[17] His father has been checking in on him, his mom, and Alexis their whole lives.

At the end of the final fifth-season episode, Castle proposes marriage to Beckett just as she prepares to reveal her decision on a Washington, DC job offer. The episode ends before she answers. At the beginning of the first sixth-season episode, "Valkyrie", Kate accepts. They are finally married during the seventh season in a private wedding with their family, taking place at Castle's house in the Hamptons.

In the eighth and final season, Beckett estranges herself from Castle in order to protect him from LokSat, a deadly mastermind whom she's after, although they are married still and very much in love. Beckett starts living elsewhere, not letting Castle know about LokSat. After the events of "Mr. And Mrs. Castle" they get back together. Alexis becomes Castle's main helping hand in his P.I. agency. In the series finale, a flash forward to seven years later shows Castle and Beckett are the parents of three children.

Writing career

Early episodes of the series had Castle voicing over the introductory credits beginning with Season 2.

There are two kinds of folks who sit around thinking how to kill people: Psychopaths, and mystery writers. I'm the kind that pays better. Who am I? I'm Rick Castle... Every writer needs inspiration, and I found mine." [Det. Kate Beckett as Nikki Heat] "And thanks to my friendship with the mayor, I get to be on her case... And together, we catch killers."

Castle is an author of mystery fiction, with 26 bestsellers. His first novel, In a Hail of Bullets, accrued at least 21 rejections before being accepted by a publisher (he keeps the first rejection letter he received framed on his office wall as motivation)^[18] and winning the Nom DePlume Society's Tom Straw Award for Mystery Literature.^[19] The books have made Castle wealthy; when Alexis is kidnapped he can pay a $3 million ransom. Castle has a large multi-floor Manhattan apartment,^[20] a beachfront house in the Hamptons, and luxury cars.

His most popular works are a series starring "Derrick Storm"; A Calm Before The Storm, Gathering Storm, Unholy Storm, Storm's Last Stand, Storm Season, Storm Rising, Storm Warning, and Storm's Break and in the pilot episode, Castle attends a party for the release of the final book in the Storm series, Stormfall, which ends with the surprise death of Derrick Storm, Castle having become bored with the character. He later reads from the novel before a book-signing. Patterson and Cannell both disagree with the decision to kill off Storm, with Cannell commenting that he could have retired or crippled Storm instead, so that he could revisit the character if he changed his mind.

His other books include Death of a Prom Queen, Flowers For Your Grave, Hell Hath No Fury, A Skull at Springtime, At Dusk We Die, When It Comes to Slaughter, and A Rose for Everafter.^[21] By his own admission, his early works—Death of a Prom Queen, Flowers For Your Grave, and Hell Hath No Fury—are of poor quality; he points to Hell Hath No Fury in particular, with its plotline of "angry Wiccans out for blood" as being a low point in his career.

After using his friendship with the Mayor to get partnered with NYPD detective Kate Beckett under the pretense of conducting research for a new character, Castle plans a new series of novels starring a new character, a detective based on Beckett. He soon names Beckett's literary alter-ego "Nikki Heat", much to her embarrassment.^[22] Beckett takes umbrage at the name, regarding it a "stripper name", and insists that Castle change it, despite his proposing the book titles Summer Heat, Heat Wave, and In Heat. Ultimately, he sticks with the name, and the first novel in the series, Heat Wave, is released to much critical acclaim and financial success. Castle is offered a lucrative contract for three more Nikki Heat novels, with talk in the third season of a movie adaptation. The title of his second Nikki Heat novel, Naked Heat, once again displeases Beckett.

It has been suggested that Castle's interest in death, murder, and the macabre may be the result of a childhood trauma. When Beckett confronts him about it, Castle avoids the question. However, as soon as he tells the story, he admits it is fictional and that it's "[his] job to make stuff up". Later, he admits to his daughter that one of the reasons he writes is to try to understand how criminals could do the things they do. He was under consideration for a deal to write three novels revolving around an unnamed British spy (implied to be James Bond) but rejected the offer, allegedly because his publisher wanted three more Nikki Heat novels and offered him more money, but secretly because accepting would have ended his collaboration with Beckett. In "Hollander's Woods", the source of Castle's interest in murder writing is revealed: in 1983, when he was 11, he found a murdered girl and was confronted by her killer who let him go. The girl's body was never found and she was never identified so no one believed his story. According to Castle, this encounter is what causes him to do what he does: he never was able to solve the mystery of what happened to him in the woods that day so he's driven to solve all the other mysteries he can. In the present of the episode, Castle is confronted by a similar case and finally gets to learn the truth of what happened that day and personally stop a serial killer of an unknown, but presumably large, number of murdered women.

Castle is something of a "method writer", endlessly researching his subjects and acquiring new skills to put himself in the mind of his characters. Amongst the useful skills Castle (and to some extent, partner-in-crime Alexis) have acquired are lock picking, safe cracking, fencing, and a basic grounding in forensic science and criminal psychology. Because he's a writer, although he notoriously shirks "boring paperwork," his ability to speed-read allows him to sift through information faster than most of the precinct (a skill Gates puts to use when hunting for a bomber) and he retains almost everything he reads, especially when it comes to case files (making him the closest approximation to an expert when Jerry Tyson, aka 3XK, returns in Season 7 after stealing his entire case file in Season 6). He also has researched crimes and serial killers, such as the original crime spree of serial killer Jerry Tyson aka The Triple Killer or 3XK for When It Comes to Slaughter. In the pilot episode, "Flowers For Your Grave", Castle displays an uncanny knack for behavioral observation when he observes Beckett and is able to accurately profile her, to which a visibly shaken Beckett responds, "Cute trick."

Kyra Blaine, an ex-girlfriend of Castle to whom he dedicated A Rose for Everafter, told Beckett that Castle only dedicates his books to people he truly cares about.

In "Hollander's Woods", Castle is awarded the Poe's Pen Achievement Award which he says is the highest award a mystery writer can receive. Although shaken by an encounter with the serial killer who inspired his writing interest, Castle accepts the award and dedicates it to his family and friends as he recognizes that, without them, he wouldn't have won it.

Police consulting

In the pilot episode of Castle, Castle is consulted by Detective Beckett of the NYPD when two victims are murdered in the style of two deaths portrayed in his novels, Hell Hath No Fury and Flowers for Your Grave respectively. Though Beckett wants Castle's access to the case limited, Castle repeatedly defies her instructions in order to see the handiwork of his copycat. Unsatisfied with what he considers a boring resolution to the case, Castle convinces Beckett to continue the investigation, and winds up discovering deeper layers to the crime. While the murders initially appeared to have been committed by the mentally ill client of a social worker who was one of the victims, Castle notes that the murderer did not duplicate the crimes exactly, eliminating the possibility that he was a deranged fan. He realizes that the killer was actually the social worker's brother attempting to frame her client, so that he could inherit his father's money after his death (his father suffering from terminal cancer). By the end of the pilot, Castle enters into a working relationship with Beckett under the pretense of conducting research for his new series of "Nikki Heat" novels.

This relationship is often strained by Castle's luck in personally encountering the suspects, and sneaking in behind breaching teams even after Beckett has ordered him to remain behind; his attempts to follow them once allowing a suspect a chance to escape (although in Castle's defense this was merely because his ex-wife called him on his cell phone during the stake-out rather than any mistakes on his part). Despite this, Castle's familiarity with numerous obscure subjects often gives breakthroughs. His career yields many contacts, including a CIA agent willing to break Agency protocol by telling Castle and Beckett that their current victim was not a CIA agent.

Although he is a proficient marksman (secret until Beckett bets with him on the practice range), he works the cases wholly unarmed (with a few rare, isolated exceptions). While his status as a consultant generally allows him to participate in the 'fun' parts of detective work without worrying about the more tedious details such as paperwork, the team puts him in situations where the criminals request no police involvement, such as to drop off a ransom. Castle still requires official police authority to request information from various sources, and can only question witnesses under supervision.

Beckett often steps in to stop him becoming carried away with wild theories that threaten to obscure the facts. He once speculated that a surgeon had been killed for his involvement in an organ-smuggling ring before they discovered that he was wanted for plastic surgery he had performed for someone in witness protection. Castle's writing career has given him a knack for noting minor details in the situations they investigate, such as when he noted that rent for a victim's apartment had been paid for after her death.

Initially portrayed as jocular and immature, such as having a bulletproof vest made up for himself that says "WRITER" rather than "POLICE", Castle's character deepens as the series progresses. In "Sucker Punch", while attempting to catch the killer responsible for the death of Beckett's mother over a decade ago, Castle willingly donates $100,000 of his own money for a fake hit, to lure out the killer. He then offers to terminate his partnership with Beckett after she was forced to shoot the real killer, revealed to be a contract assassin silent about his employer. Beckett rejects the offer on the grounds that Castle makes her hard job more fun.

In season 3 "Nikki Heat", Castle is upset when B-movie actress Natalie Rhodes is cast as Nikki, thinking she is not right for the role. When Rhodes comes onto a case to observe Beckett, Castle is further insulted that she has not read the actual book. Rhodes considers him unimportant to the film and Beckett likes having Natalie around. However, as the case goes on, Rhodes begins to copy Beckett's mannerisms and outfits, complete with brunette wig, annoying Beckett while Castle begins to like her more. At one point, Rhodes kisses Castle, making it clear she wants to sleep with him to feel the character more but Castle turns her down, telling Beckett that sleeping with the actress playing the fictional version of her is "way too meta".

In "Knockdown", Castle helps Beckett in catching her mother's killer. When Martha points out that he has written 22 books before meeting Beckett but he did not have to go to police station every day, Castle replied by saying that it is not about the books anymore. Castle and Beckett finally kiss as a ploy to distract a guard, although their reactions imply that they both felt something.

Since then, despite Beckett's then current relationship with another man, they begin spending increasing amounts of time together, with Castle even admitting he is jealous when Beckett agrees to help another writer with his book. In the final episode of Season 3, "Knockout", Castle finally admits his feelings to Beckett, who is apparently unconscious after being shot while delivering a eulogy at Roy Montgomery's funeral after Montgomery sacrificed himself to atone for his role in the death of Beckett's mother. She claims amnesia after she has recovered from the shooting, refusing the possibility of a relationship while her mother's real killer still walks free.

In season 4, Castle is contacted by a shadowy figure who says that he is a friend of Roy Montgomery and that he has been charged with protecting Beckett in his stead. Castle learns that Montgomery knew who ordered Beckett's mother's death; he had been the one who found out about the kidnappings and offered not to go to the police if Montgomery, Raglan and MacAllister gave him the money they made from the ransoms which has been estimated at several millions of dollars. According to the man, this person has grown powerful enough for the revelation to destroy him. Montgomery had kept files that, should they be revealed would harm the killer and others. The deal was that Montgomery's family and Beckett would be safe if he wanted the files kept secret. Upon his death, he had sent the files to the mysterious man and had charged him with upholding the deal. The only other condition was that Beckett couldn't go near the case or else the deal was off. Castle says that he will keep her reined in. He tells only his mother this information and confides in her as to the deal he made. Martha wants Castle to tell Beckett the truth, but Castle tells her that he can't because Beckett will be killed by the people behind her mother's murder if she keeps digging and that he has to protect her.

In 'Dial M for Mayor', a mysterious conspiracy is uncovered that was attempting to force Mayor Weldon, Castle's close friend, out of office. The attempt to smear him for embezzlement backfired when a young woman named Laura Cambridge discovered the fact and she was killed. During the case, the mysterious man once again contacts Castle and asks to meet. When they do, he helps him solve the case. However, he later reveals that the conspiracy aimed at the Mayor would have forced Castle out of the 12th Precinct because no one would force Captain Gates to retain him. The man said that they needed Castle to remain at Beckett's side because he was the only one able to keep her away from her mother's case. Castle promises that he will uphold his end of the deal to keep Beckett away from the case.

In "Pandora" and Linchpin", the investigation of a murder leads Castle and Beckett to reunite with Sophia Turner, a CIA operative on whom he based a major character. Beckett shows some jealousy at how the two are close and Turner tells Beckett that after she and Rick became involved, it was the beginning of the end of their partnership. The trio work together to stop a plot that could escalate into World War III. However, Sophia turns out to not only be part of the plot but is actually a KGB mole who infiltrated the CIA only to be left on her own when the Soviet Union collapsed. Holding Beckett and Castle at gunpoint, she hints that Castle's father was in the CIA and that was why he gained access years ago. She is killed by a true CIA agent as Beckett and Castle help stop the plot. While mourning Sophia, Castle admits to Beckett that she was much truer to the character he created.

In "47 Seconds", Beckett reveals to a suspect that she remembered every second of being shot, not realizing that Castle was watching behind the one-way glass mirror. As a result, although Castle tried to hide it, he started to become distant with her, much to Beckett's confusion, concluding that she never mentioned her memory of the event because she didn't return his feelings and didn't want to create an awkward situation.

In the season 4 finale, Castle is concerned when a murder case is connected to the conspiracy behind Beckett's mother and is told by the mystery man that Beckett's life is in danger if she investigates. After failing to warn her off subtly, Castle confesses to Beckett how he's been protecting her and she's outraged over his making decisions for her. He confronts her over how he knows she remembers his declaration of love and they both decide they're done. After nearly dying in a confrontation with the killer and quitting the police force, Beckett comes to Castle's apartment, telling him she could only think of him while on the verge of death and then they later kiss passionately.

The thread of their relationship continues in Season 5, with Castle and Beckett trying (and mostly failing) to conceal their relationship from their co-workers – not simply because of office gossip, but the threat of a misconduct charge being levied by the ever-watchful Captain Gates. In episode 5.04 (Murder, He Wrote), Ryan accidentally stumbles on the truth while interrogating a suspect, but chooses to keep the truth to himself and respect their privacy. Lanie and Esposito learn the truth in the following episode when Castle was framed for murder (Ryan told Esposito and Beckett told Lanie so that they were aware of the fact that their background research would expose Castle's contact with Beckett outside of case-related matters). In the Season 5 episode "Still", Captain Gates reveals that she has known about the relationship and has kept quiet since to maintain "plausible deniability", i.e. she cannot report the relationship because she hasn't personally witnessed any behavior to suggest a relationship and is happy to keep up the plausible deniability so long as the pair remain professional on the job.

In the season six episode "Veritas", after Beckett is framed for murder by the man who had ordered the death of her mother, Castle works to protect her. They are eventually able to clear her name and as a bonus, finally arrest the man Beckett had been after for so long with hidden evidence Roy Montgomery had left Johanna Beckett.

In episode eleven of season 7, Castle is ordered to leave the NYPD due to co-operating with a mafia don to prove the innocence of one of his underlings suspected of murder, leading to the true murderer being assassinated.

After being restored to his position in the police department, Castle is finally able to bring down old enemy Jerry Tyson, aka serial killer 3XK during "Resurrection" and "Reckoning."

In the season seven finale, "Hollander's Woods", Castle is confronted with his past when a murder surfaces that matches one he saw in his youth. The murder he'd witnessed had been his inspiration to write as because he was never able finish the story of what had happened in the woods when he was a kid, he became driven to finish all the other stories he could find. The investigation leads them to discover a serial killer who has been operating for at least thirty years with an unknown number of victims, all people who won't be missed. The investigation leads them to the identity of the girl Castle saw murdered and a showdown between Castle and the killer after he breaks into the man's barn in search of evidence. Castle is forced to fatally shoot the killer in self-defense with Beckett's gun and brings closure to his victims though the incident leaves him shaken.

Private investigator

After being banned from the 12th Precinct, Castle completed online courses and became a fully licensed private investigator, hoping that he could still work with the department by conducting his own investigations rather than as part of theirs, but was informed that this planned loophole wouldn't work as he still wasn't allowed to directly come in contact with evidence. He continued to operate as a P.I., but soon found himself dissatisfied with the role, as he was mainly hired for minor cases or people viewing his new career as a 'gimmick' rather than a serious profession; one case saw him hired by someone who wanted him to act as a fake witness to her plans to fake her own death. However, after rescuing Beckett from his old nemesis the Triple Killer, Captain Gates eventually re-hired Castle as a consultant for the 12th precinct-'officially' designating it as community service for interfering in an active case-also reinstating him as Beckett's partner.

After Gates and Beckett are promoted so that Beckett is now captain of the 12th precinct, Castle re-opens Richard Castle Investigations (his private investigator's office) to allow him to take part in investigations due to Beckett's more deskbound role.

Derrick Storm

Nikki Heat

Like Castle, the Nikki Heat novels are set in New York City. The title character, Nikki Heat, is based on Castle's partner, Kate Beckett. The first book, Heat Wave, was initially published on September 29, 2009. It reached the No. 6 spot in its fourth week on the New York Times bestseller list.^[33] The second book, Naked Heat, was released on September 28, 2010. It debuted at No. 7 on the Times list.^[34] The third book, Heat Rises, was released on September 20, 2011. It debuted on the Times list on October 9 at No. 1.^[35] The fourth book was released on September 11, 2012, and debuted at No. 7 on September 23.^[36] The fifth Nikki Heat novel, Deadly Heat, was released September 17, 2013, and debuted at No. 8 on the New York Times bestseller list.^[37]

Other fictional novels

• In a Hail of Bullets (winner of the Nom DePlume Society's Tom Straw Award for Mystery Literature)^[19]
• Death of a Prom Queen
• Flowers For Your Grave
• Hell Hath No Fury
• A Skull at Springtime
• At Dusk We Die
• When It Comes to Slaughter
• A Rose for Everafter^[21]
• Dead Man's Chest
• Bullets and Bracelets
• Kissed and Killed
• One Bullet, One Heart

"Mystery" of the Castle ghost writer

The ABC network was able to successfully conceal the true identity of the ghost-writer of the Castle book series throughout the eight years of the program's production from 2009 through 2016, allowing the mystery of the true identity of this individual to then remain as an intriguing part of the over-all "Castle myth". In 2010, the hint was dropped, when the "Nom de Plume Society", and the "Tom Straw Mystery Writer's Award", were apparently created to fete actor Nathan Fillion with said award; however, at that point in time, the general public remained unaware of the connection. The general mystery persisted regarding the ghost-writer's true identity, despite the fact that some then proposed the possibility that therefore Straw must be the true ghost-writer.^[48] The ghost-writer's name was only finally fully revealed after the series production was discontinued in 2016. It was then officially acknowledged that the Castle book series was indeed entirely written by a ghostwriter and that established screenwriter Tom Straw wrote the first seven.^[5]