This story is a true tragedy. If just one small thing had been changed in the beginning, most of the horror that comes about later would not have happened. The entire cloning idea is compelling and could be highly attractive, but if misused, can create an avalanche of misery. This book explores so many aspects of that theme. It is engrossing, and will keep you reading late into the night. The characters will linger with you for quite a while.

I read this a while ago when I got my hands on an advance copy and was thoroughly impressed. This novel has so many twists an turns that I could not put it down until I was finished. The scientific implications in the novel are very interesting and mildly disturbing, though not completely realistic. I really liked the way the author used avatars as well, his style is very innovative and I hope we see more from him soon. Thrillers are becoming a dime a dozen these days and it was nice to come across something very new and different.

CAST OF SHADOWS was one of the most hyped debut thrillers of 2005. When it finally came out in paperback, I decided to give it a try. It's a decent science fiction novel, but not much of a thriller.

This novel begins with an awfully implausable presmise. Dr. Davis Moore's teenage daughter has been murdered and the police fail to catch the killer. In a remarkable glitch, the police accidentally send Dr. Moore some of the killer's genetic material that was recovered from his daughter's body. Dr. Moore then decides to clone the unidentified murderer from the genetic evidence. In a highly unethical move, he then places the cloned child with an unsuspecting couple. The novel then covers the first 18 years of the child's life, and Dr. Moore's neverending quest to ultimately identify the killer and bring him to justice.

This novel has a lot of problems. First of all, there are a lot of characters in this book. Too many of them. Guilfoile only allows us brief glimpses of these characters over the 18-year time span of this novel. As a result, none of them are three-dimensional and fully developed. A lot of people die and suffer in this book, but I didn't really care, since I didn't feel close to any of them.

Also, many of the characters in this novel are unlikable and difficult to root for. Dr. Davis Moore, for example, is a highly unethical doctor. His actions lead to the death of several innocent people. It's unclear why he doesn't experience more guilt and emotional trauma from all the hurt he has caused others. If you're looking for a book with a heroic protagonist, you won't find one here.

The plot is also pretty slow moving. There is very little real suspense in CAST OF SHADOWS until the last 100 pages or so. The story is largely driven by a series of wild conincidences and accidents. If you're looking for a tighly written plot that unfolds realistically, you will be disappointed.

In fairness, this book is very well written and readable. Guilfoile is a very talented wordsmith. And the plot of CAST OF SHADOWS is highly original -- Guilfoile deserves credit for not writing a "cookie cutter" story. I found the book entertaining enough to give it three stars. However, I think book largely fails as a thriller, and I only give it a mild recommendation as a result.

You will have to forgive me, I was a math major, so my review may not have the eloquence that some of the other reviews had, but it has the same passion that the others seemed to have felt as well. Despite my limited writing skills, I know what I like in a book, and this book had it all. A plausible, and thought provoking plot, with charaters that came to life. I loved the idea of the latest multi-player game that Mr. Guilfoile brought to fruition. I like the psychological thriller/ mystery genre and it is rare that I find a new author that catches my attention like this one has. I work in a used book store, so get many suggestions of books and authors and get so excited when I find one worth the time to read, unfortunately, now I have to wait until a second novel comes out from Mr. Guilfoile. Thank you for your efforts to get this book out, I am looking forward to your next work, as I am sure many others are.

I've just finished the paperback edition. While this is surely no literary work of genius, it did keep my interest. The storyline was interesting but grossly improbable, so Guilfoil loses 3 stars.

The book includes too many confusing sub-plots and minor characters, which interfere with continuity. Indeed, too many coincidences.

There were a number of unsavory issues:

- Would a doctor really want to clone the savage killer of his daugher? That, in itself, is a case against cloning and makes the rest of the book childish and unbelievable, like sci-fi for pre-teens.

- Would the police be so incompetent as to pass along semen evidence to the rape/murder victim's father who happens to clone for a living? God help us if they are that incompetent

-Is is fair that Dr. Moore gets away with so much wrongdoing? He was no hero. It was hard to sympathize with him for all his culpability. His folly was never exposed and he is never held accountable.

- Anti-right wing banter out of the mouth of his teenage daughter, into S&M, by the way, was unbecoming.

And the grossest ERROR was painting "right wingers" as fanatical murders. That was almost unforgivable. (I say "Almost" because Christians are commanded to forgive.)

There's a blasphemous section of theology: God picks bad sinners to sin for Him in effort to further the "right wing cause." Those sinners (fanatics) kill other bad people (doctors who clone) and they go to hell for their efforts. What HOGWASH. I don't know where Guilfoil learned his theology but this is HATE propaganda at is lowest. It's hate propaganda against "right wingers." What are right wingers, anyway? According to Guilfoil they are murderous fanatics.

At the very least Guilfoil could have articulated that the anti-cloning Hands of God group responsible for killing doctors were fanatics. He could have differentiated them from REAL Christians who obey the Golden Rule, but he didn't.