The Black Castle (Les Daniels)

Vampires and witches are often a good basis for a horror novel. Through in the Spanish Inquisition, and odds are you'll get a pretty good story.

In 1496, while the Spanish Inquisition is in full motion, Diego de Villanueva is seeking a way to rise through the ranks of the Inquistion. He will do anything he needs to... even use his brother's darkest secrets and knowledge to bring fear and hatred to the world...

"The Black Castle" caught my eye while shopping at "The Book Place". I was intrigued by the idea of it taking place during the Spanish Inquisition. While I did enjoy reading this book, I was also a little disappointed.

The style is very fitting to the story- it has an almost old world charm and rythm to it that I found pleasing to the ear. It's also easy to read, and flows at a nice pace. While, it's not "fancy", the images it creates are fairly good and atmospheric.

The story itself is a really interesting idea. My only real complaint with it is that it doesn't have that many scares in it. It's more dramatic than scarey. Having said that, there is some really good moments of suspense and tension building up that it kept me interested.

The characters while interesting, even if not deeply explored. I liked how they were all different, and believable. I wanted to know more about Diego's brother Sebastian, and Diego's young assistant- Miguel. The brief "cameo" by Christopher Columbus was nice.

"The Black Castle" may not have scares galore in it, but it does a nice, rich texture to it that I very much enjoyed while reading. Unfortunately, it's not a book I would pick off the shelf at home randomly and re-read. Because of that, I'm putting it in "The Bad".

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