No Doors, No Windows

Anyone who enjoys a good scary story will like this novel. Be prepared for a fantastical ending.

There isn't much to say other than I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. It was easy to get into and kept me turning pages when I should have been doing laundry. (Always a true test of a book) The characters, events and storyline were all well written. It was creepy and mysterious and kept me guessing throughout. It could make a great thriller movie. This was my first book by this author so I can't recommend his other books, but this one was good enough that I'll be trying them.

Scott Mast has returned to his New Hampshire home to bury his father. Scott's family has always been anything but functional, and it's hard for him to be back. Granted, all that is waiting in Seattle is a going nowhere writing career, but nevertheless home is as un-sweet as he remembers. Before leaving town, Scott happens upon an old manuscript that his father had started. Scott never knew his father wrote anything, much less an odd ghost story that has a familiar feel to it. Soon Scott is led to an old abandoned house outside of town, where he comes face to face with a terrifying past that reveals secrets about his family and his hometown. Unable to will himself to leave, Scott moves into the old house and sets out to finish the manuscript his father began. The story has become his obsession, and his obsession might just kill him. Joe Schreiber recently made a huge splash in the Star Wars universe with the first SW horror novel, Death Troopers. With No Doors, No Windows he goes back to his roots with a more traditional horror tale that is absolutely impossible to put down. Schreiber's prose leaps off the page as he paints intoxicating word pictures throughout, dropping us right into the story as if it were happening all around us. Horror, drama, suspense, and mystery are effectively melded together to keep the pages flying and the reader guessing. Each character is fleshed out perfectly as secrets are exposed and fears realized. If you love scary, then there is plenty here to satisfy even the most hardcore horror fan. At the same time, amidst all of the darkness and turmoil there is a sliver of light that comes shining through offering hope when all seems lost. Fair warning here: this is a dark, disturbing read. The story is laced with strong language and sexual content, but Schreiber somehow manages to keep the mature themes relevant to the plot without going overboard. If you like your stories light and fluffy, by no means is the book for you. But if you are on the prowl for a horror story with depth, then No Doors, No Windows is right up your alley.

Deep in the lonely, cold woods of Milburn, New Hampshire there is a strange mansion called Round House. It has many rooms and many secrets. A young author, Scott Mast, has been drawn there to complete a horror novel that his dead father began writing years ago. Scott discovers a curse that burned the town's theatre, killing many, and has tormented his family for generations. A curse that involves the ghost of twelve-year-old Rosemary Carver and her monstrously evil father. Joe Schreiber's "No Doors, No Windows" is a genuinely creepy ghost story. There are scenes that actually made me shiver. Of all the haunted house novels that I have read in the past ten years, this is one of the best. An atmospheric gothic soap opera, this novel has a tremendous amount of drama, tension and suspense that is fueled by supernatural phenomena. Each chapter ends with a cliffhanger that made it nearly impossible for me to lay the novel down until I had discovered the curse of Round House. The same curse that had trapped the novel's characters had also trapped me. A novel within a novel. A house within a house. Ghosts that transcend time and space to haunt generations of a family. Secret rooms. Buried corpses. Disappearing bodies. Mysterious music coming from behind the walls. Disembodied voices pleading for help. Children in danger. Insane relatives. Schreiber is clever at writing nightmares. He knows what scares us. Most of the characters in "No Doors, No Windows" are untrustworthy, shifty and as cold and unpredictable as the blizzard that ravishes Milburn during the novel's climax. Amidst the populace of substance abusing ex-football players, ex-beauty queens and other washed out has-beens, there is the main character, Scott Mast, who is sympathetic and admirable as the hero. He is protective of his younger, alcoholic brother Owen and his adorable, five-year-old nephew Henry. However, even his behavior is sometimes irrational. Ever since his mom's death at the Bijou Theatre, he's been taking antidepressant drugs. He ceases to take them upon his arrival in Milburn. He attributes Rosemary's ghost to withdrawal symptoms. In any case, Scott maintains a semblance of moral fortitude which most of the other characters do not. "No Doors, No Windows" is highly recommended reading for fans of haunted house novels. It is perfect for Halloween. The enormous Round House, with its maze of corridors and rooms, gave me fond memories of Collinwood on the gothic soap opera "Dark Shadows." It also reminded me of the haunted Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's classic "The Shining" where there is a nightmare in every room. Scenes of Rosemary Carver's ghost terrorizing Scott Mast reminded me of the films "The Grudge" and "The Ring." Other highly suspenseful, supernatural horror novels that Joe Schreiber has written are: "Chasing the Dead" and "Eat the Dark." He has recently written the science fiction horror novel "Star Wars: Death

Greetings card writer Scottie Mast leaves his Seattle home to attend the funeral of his father in their hometown Milburn, New Hampshire. Already entrenched inside their parents' home are his brother Owen and his five year old nephew Henry. A wannabe novelist, Scottie finds a partially completed manuscript The Black Wing written by his late dad buried in a shed. His high school sweetheart, Sonia Graham persuades him to stay in town to finish the horror thriller. Scottie soon finds the location Round House that his father set the story line in. He is unsure why he rents the abode that doesn't inspire him to finish writing the tale. At the same time he worries about Henry under the neglectful care of his drunken father. Scot begins to find information that frightens him of evil doings in the late nineteenth century and recently. When the theater where his mother and uncle died in a fire fifteen years ago is being torn down Scottie finds his muse to complete his dad's horror thriller, but nothing seems quite what it appears. Exciting and filled with a foreboding atmosphere of doom, NO DOORS, NO WINDOWS is an entertaining ghostly amateur sleuth. Scottie is an intriguing loser until he finds his muse only his inspiration is not quite what he anticipated. Although the atmosphere overwhelms the plot at times, fans will enjoy Joe Schreiber's horror thriller as Scottie seems to CHASING THE DEAD. Harriet Klausner

"No Doors, No Windows" is intense, chilling, and at times hallucinogenic; a story of madness carried down through the generations. In many ways, it tells the classic Gothic tale of a house stained by a decades old evil, warped by the lingering spirits of the dead. Debuting alongside Schreiber's "Star Wars: Death Troopers", "No Doors" adds to an impressive resume, making him a name to watch in horror. After his father's funeral, Scott Mast can't run away fast enough. Being back in New Hampshire brings up painful memories, and it's hard being around his failed brother Owen and his only son Henry. What Scott wants most is a return to his ordered life writing Hallmark greeting cards in Seattle; to leave the wreckage of his family behind. When he discovers his father's partially finished manuscript, however, Scott refuses to leave without digging for answers to questions he hadn't even known existed. His father, the stoic Frank Mast - a writer? Not only that, the story appears to be horror, about an old house back in the woods, a place called Round House because of its strangely shaped interior. When Scott learns the house actually exists, he becomes obsessed with uncovering his father's secrets. In his search, Scott discovers dark things hidden in his family line. An obsession with creation is a Mast curse, as they are doomed to re-tell a recurring dark tale that has no end...and no mercy. In a moment of foolhardy inspiration, Scott resolves to finish his father's story, but as he moves into Round House, so do the ghosts haunting his family. In many ways, "No Doors" is the archetypal haunted house story: a place tainted by evil and family secrets, dangerous snows that lay siege to those haunted, and a failed writer who not only becomes obsessed with finishing a dangerous story, but also goes off his medication to do so. However, Schreiber tells the story well, and he layers his twists and reveals his secrets with the controlled pacing of a seasoned writer, making this an excellent take on a traditional tale.