An EXCERPT

NEWS and NOTES continued

Review | Stephen White, Author of The Siege

"Part thought-provoking mystery, part flat-out thriller, The Thousand is superb. Kevin Guilfoile’s second novel is every bit as inventive—Umberto Eco meets Stan Lee—and well crafted as his first, which is saying something. Guilfoile patiently develops an array of unique characters and adroitly weaves them into a provocative, relentless, labyrinth of a story. It’s a rare treat—a book to savor, contemplate, and admire."

Review | C.J. Box, Author of Below Zero

"Kevin Guilfoile is a terrific new novelist with guts, brains, wit, and imagination...[He is] a bright new star in the crime fiction universe, but so much more than that."

Review | James Rollins, Author of The Doomsday Key

"Kevin Guilfoile is a writer of stunning talent."

Review | Sara Paretsky, Author of Hardball

"Kevin Guilfoile's riveting new novel defies pigeon-holing. Part thriller, part dystopic science fiction, The Thousand takes the reader on a spine-tingling ride from Las Vegas to Chicago, from ancient Greece to modern America. It is the story, above all, of a young woman's efforts to tell truth from lies as a network of powerful people tries to use her for its own gain. If you're like me, you'll stay up all night until the pieces fall into place."

Brian Lindenmuth, BSC Review

"Few books haunt me the way that the ending of (Cast of Shadows) does....One of my Top 50 Favorite Novels of the Decade."

Review | Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

"The chief ingredients of Kevin Guilfoile's creepy new thriller are the same ones Michael Crichton has used to fashion a hugely successful and lucrative career as a popular novelist...What's striking about Cast of Shadows is that Mr. Guilfoile, in his first outing as a novelist, does all this with a lot more panache than Mr. Crichton has demonstrated in many years."

Review | Jason Damman, Science Fiction and Fantasy World

"(A) beautiful masterpiece....a monster of a snowball that picks up speed (and) is caressed by Guilfoile’s genius, creating a climax unlike anything else. There are many twists and turns and things you will never see coming. Nothing at all is predictable in this striking novel."

Review | Laurie Zoloth, PhD., Director of the Northwestern University Center for Bioethics

"As a moral philosopher it is impossible to read Kevin Guilfoile's mesmerizing book without thinking of the history of philosophy for which the idea of free will was central. And I say this as somebody who usually hates thinking about bioethics in terms of scary science fiction stories."

Review | Adam Colclough, Shots Magazine (UK)

"Clever, compelling and far more original in its basic premise than the vast majority of thrillers on the market this is one of the best novels I have read this year...The quality of (the) writing is uniformly high with sharp characterisation, frequent and satisfyingly unexpected plot twists and the ending is both brutal, bleak and comes brilliantly out of left field...On the strength of this book alone Kevin Guilfoile has shown himself to be one of the most promising new talents to emerge in the thriller genre in recent years."

Review | Laura Miller, Salon

"Cast of Shadows is a masterpiece of intelligent plotting...(A) rare thriller that dares to make telling the difference between right and wrong, fate and choice, as difficult as it is in real life."

Review | Norbert Spehner, Le Presse (Canada)

"FIVE STARS: A hybrid work which opens like a science fiction novel but becomes a first-class whodunnit....To the last page, the author involves us in a moving drama which is also a reflection on human nature and the misdeeds of science. It is a formidable first novel, whose completely unexpected outcome will leave you thinking."

Review | Crimezone (The Netherlands)

"FIVE STARS...Guilfoile has written a visionary novel, part science fiction, part murder mystery, part philosophical thriller. The book has several complex plotlines, but the path to the disturbing conclusion is just as exciting as it is believable. For me, (Cast of Shadows) is already the best book of 2006."

Review | Roger Gaillard, Le Temps (Switzerland)

"A masterful thriller...(full of) dark and complex intrigue, rich in reflections on human nature, free will and fate. The surprising outcome attests to a remarkable storytelling talent. Guilfoile's first novel will clearly not be his last."

Review | New City Lit 50

"Cast of Shadows breathlessly involve(s) murder, cloning and father-daughter love in its wonderfully complex plot."

Review | Ishan Taylor, New York Times

"A creepily subversive medical thriller."

Review | New York Magazine

"A surprisingly smart clone thriller."

Review | KulturNews Magazine (Germany)

"Kevin Guilfoile frames his successful debut novel with ethical questions about the boundaries of cloning research, but the scientific aspects never get in the way of the exciting action."

News when it happens, or shortly thereafter

If you'd like to subscribe to the infrequent Cast of Shadows email newsletter, or ask a question or leave a comment about this book or anything else I've written just send me an email with "CoS" in the subject line.

Review | TV5 Monde (France)

"In this original first thriller which mixes science, religious fanaticism and virtual reality, Guilfoile offers a reflection on human nature, destiny and personal freedom, carried by elegant writing and perfectly drawn characters."

Review | Jon Kranz, WHRV-FM

"Surprising and disturbing look into the not-too-distant future. Assume the world has legalized human cloning and this book offers a peek into the societal impact wrapped in a murder-mystery. As often as I felt repulsed by some of the characters and belief-systems of the novel, I couldn't put it down."

Review | Jerome Lavadou, ActuSF (France)

"Un bon thriller. The intrigue becomes progressively more and more complex along with the characters....The last 150 pages are particularly captivating."

Review | Linda Broszeit, Buecherinsel (Germany)

"A completely new combination of subjects for a crime novel....It is hardly possible to write an evaluation of this novel, because all adjectives have already been used endlessly for other, less unusual detective stories."

Review | Patricia Puerta, ARPA (Argentina)

"Just when suspense novels seem to be falling into disgrace, an obvious product of the flood of books referring to dark religious conspiracies or historical people, the (publisher) Athenian brings us a story with a current theme that has all the necessary elements for fans of the thriller genre. Readers nostalgic for this type of literature will find (Cast of Shadows) the ideal book to satisfy their expectations."

Review | Nikola Poitzman, Media Mania Magazine (Germany)

"Exciting, visionary, and extremely disturbing."

CoS Book Notes

The music site Largehearted Boy asked me to make a playlist for Cast of Shadows, basically a soundtrack for the book. It contains fifteen terrific songs, many by Chicago bands and artists. Be sure to browse through the terrific Book Notes archives to see what other writers are listening to.

Review | Los Libros Del Mes (Argentina)

"An original and spectacularly disturbing novel, that is developed as delicately as the work of a jeweler and anticipates moral, social and Metaphysical dilemmas that science eventually will have to confront."

Review | Stigbjorn Bergensten, Nerikes Allehanda (Sweden)

"A fascinating book...Seldom have I read a thriller with such a surprising ending."

Best of 2005, Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune lists CoS among its Best Books of 2005.

Best of 2005, Kansas City Star

The Kansas City Star lists CoS as one of the best books of the year.

Best First Novel of 2005

Cast of Shadows was selected as The Best First Novel of 2005 in the Love Is Murder Readers' Choice Poll.

Back to the Home Page
Unless otherwise indicated, all posts here are by Kevin Guifoile with occasional contributions by Jim Coudal (JC) of Coudal Partners, who created this site. A listing of Kevin's scheduled appearances and readings can be found here.

Fertility expert Dr. Davis Moore, distraught over the rape and murder of his only daughter, undertakes a monstrous experiment in Cast of Shadows. Using evidence found at the crime scene, Moore decides to clone the killer and follow the child's progress in the hopes that one day he will gain clues to the killer's identity.

CAST of

CAST of

CAST of

SHADOWS

SHADOWS

SHADOWS

The detective was polite each morning when
he called, and Davis feigned patience each morning when the detective, after small talk, confessed to having no leads. Well, not zero leads, exactly: A profile had been made of the attacker. The police believed he was white and fair-skinned. They had some general idea about his size, based on the placement of the bruises and the force exerted on her arm, breaking it in two, but that ruled out only the unusually short and the freakishly tall.

Continue this excerpt from Cast of Shadows

Back to the Home Page.