Tom Lynch

Chicago author and Salon contributor Guilfoile's "Cast of Shadows," a scientific thriller about a fertility doctor who clones his daughter's murderer, is a serious case of fly-by fiction that reads so well so quickly that it's almost as if it never happened. The debut work brings much into question--ethics of cloning, the "birth" of evil, the innocence of children--and Guilfoile even prefaces the book with Mary Shelley's disclaimer from "Frankenstein": "The opinions which naturally spring from the character and the situation of the hero are by no means to be conceived as existing always in my own conviction... ." When most thrillers get bogged down in their own cleverness and take twist turns for the absolute worst, Guilfoile's able to surprise and, at the same time, convince the reader that the plot curls fit without being forced, and his characters' flaws are as tangible as the paper on which their being executed. With a debut like this, Guilfoile could be a pretty big deal.

Kevin Guilfoile reads at Barnes & Noble, 1441 West Webster, (773)871-3610, on March 21 at 7:30pm. (2005-03-15)

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