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 " 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.