Long before the film there was the written word. Long before we settled down in
front of video or now DVD players for our fright-fests, we would read tales of 
terror by candlelight.
For most, this has been lost, however there are still those that prefer the pages
to celluloid or even both and why not?
This section then is for you. To help you to search through the rubbish and find
stories worth your time to read. If you're an avid reader of horror novels then
why not join 'Castle Dracula' as an official 'staff member' reviewing them.
To do so, just click on the 'Join My Staff' link in the menu to the left for details
of this and other vacancies.

- Crescendo -
- L. Marie Wood -

Author L. Marie Wood has taken the simple life of an average man and distorted it 
into a vast maze of horrendous confusion. She is quite the clever writer who pays 
close attention to detail and draws you into the story, making every place and 
character clearly visible within the mind.
Crescendo takes place in a small suburb in New York, where a man by the name of 
'James Adams' resides with his wife, 'Andrea.' His life was simple, normal and what
any regular person would view as perfect. But inside the walls of his mind their is
an evil force stirring, dreams of death, murder and perversion that he doesn’t fully 
understand until the end, dreams triggered by the death of his best friend 'Pete’s' 
wife, 'Susan,' a woman he had been having an affair with.
The first few chapters of the book focus on the deaths of unknowns and the ghosts 
in 'James’ head. A young girl falls asleep not knowing she won’t wake up, an old 
woman lies bleeding on the floor of an old house and a woman burns to death in her 
car while he watches. 
I found it a bit confusing but as I continued reading it all made sense. 
When 'James' wakes up from his on going dream he isn’t sure if he is awake or still 
lost beneath his eyelids. He didn’t recognize any of the people in the dreams or the
places he had been to. 
As I read, I couldn’t help to feel sorry for the poor guy. His dreams soon became 
active in his state of sleep and when he was awake, making life confusing and frightening
his wife.
While 'James' suffers from his delusions, his friend 'Pete' is still scornful. He knew
about the affair between his best friend and his deceased wife, who had ended the affair
before she died, burning to death in her own car. He hoped like hell the dreams would eat
at him heart and soul, so he could step in and return the favor by seducing 'James’ wife
and taking care of her when James was out of the picture.
Unaware of 'Pete’s' intentions, 'James' realizes that the murder of a young girl he had 
seen in one of his visions was a girl he had murdered in cold blood, a curse sent down 
from his family, the curse of murder and insanity. His Father had killed himself, his 
Grandmother who frequents his dreams killed herself, each of them committing suicide after
taking the lives of innocent people. He also comes to the conclusion that a withered man
that stalks his dreams is him months later, his body worn and tired from all of the 
suffering his dreams and visions had put him through.
When he discovers the fact that he is a killer, his destiny is made clear. Visions of his
Grandmother smother his mind, her beady eyes stare at him from an old picture he discovers
in his office, a picture and a past his Father was to ashamed to share with him. The truth
is revealed when he goes to the old, empty house where she had killed herself years before
and her ghost greets him with the answer to all of his problems: he must live up to the 
curse which had infected their family tree for hundreds of years through his own death.
'Pete' and 'Andrea' discover his where-abouts and travel to the house hoping to save 'James'
from his family and deteriorating mind, 'Andrea' fearing that the life that was growing
inside her wouldn’t turn out like her husband.
'Crescendo' is a creepy chiller that will take you into the inner depths of a man’s 
disturbing insanity. His dreams bloody and vivid, gory enough to shock even the most twisted
reader. It will definitely make you question your own sanity and the skeletons that lie in
the darkness of your family‘s closets.

Reviewed By Stephanie Simpson-Woods.

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