Cain's Blood: A Novel

A terrifying debut novel about the evil in each of us: when clones of infamous serial killers escape from a secret government facility, it’s up to a former Army Ranger to stop them…with the help of a teenage killer clone. Ted Bundy. The Son of Sam. The Boston Strangler. Albert Fish. Henry Lee Lucas. The DNA of the world’s most notorious serial killers has been cloned by the U.S. Department of Defense to develop a new breed of bioweapon. Now in Phase Three, the program includes dozens of young men who have no clue as to their evil heritage. Playing a twisted game of nature vs. nurture, scientists raise some of the clones with loving families and others in abusive circumstances. But everything changes when the most dangerous boys are set free by their creator. A man with demons of his own, former black ops soldier Shawn Castillo is hot on their trail. But Castillo didn’t count on the quiet young man he finds hiding in an abandoned house—a boy who has just learned he is the clone of Jeffrey Dahmer. As Jeffrey and Castillo race across the country on the trail of the rampaging teens, Castillo must protect the boy who is the embodiment of his biggest fears—and who may also be his last hope. Melding all-too-plausible science and ripped from- the-headlines horror, Cain’s Blood is a stunning debut about the potential for good and evil in us all.

From Publishers Weekly

Like the best SF thrillers, Girard's promising debut is plausibly grounded in reality. Rather than clone the most gifted members of humanity, the U.S. military has chosen to fund a scientific program to create replicas of notorious serial killers of the last century, such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, because that's where the money is. Such rampant cynicism doesn't sit well with Shawn Castillo, a former commander of U.S. Special Operations, who has been brought in to track down six teenage boys, all clones, who have escaped their birthplace, an institute in Pennsylvania, and taken three staff members hostage. Readers will hope that Girard, who gets the most out of his frightening idea, will continue this Michael Crichton vein in a sequel. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers will be publishing a YA version, Project Cain, simultaneously, told from the viewpoint of one of the teenage clones (see review, p. 71). Author tour. Agent: Peter H. McGuigan, Foundry Literary + Media. (Sept.)

From Booklist

This must be the highest-concept, most movie-ready idea of the year. In order to create the perfect aggression toxin, a biotechnology company working with the U.S. Department of Defense has been raising scores of children created from DNA of famous serial killers. Then ex-CIA assassin Shawn Castillo is called in to fix a little snag. Seems a few of the teen psychos slaughtered the staff and took off on a mission to liberate various oblivious killer clones from their adopted families. What follows is a tale of two road trips: one car jammed with the bloodthirsty teen clones of Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, etc., and another with Castillo and 16-year-old “Jeff” (a sympathetic Jeffrey Dahmer clone), who are following the trail of gory mayhem. Though Girard never fully gives in to the wildness of the premise (there is no psycho-on-psycho battle royale), this is nevertheless great fun to read, an updated The Boys from Brazil that ably mixes nature-versus-nature dilemmas with horrifying scenes of slasherdom. Girard’s tie-in YA novel, Project Cain (2013), tells the same story from Jeff’s perspective. --Daniel Kraus

About the Author

Born in Germany, raised in New Jersey, and currently living in Ohio, Geoffrey Girard graduated from Washington College with a literature degree and worked as an advertising copywriter and marketing manager before becoming a high school English teacher. He has since earned a MA in Creative Writing from Miami University and is currently the English department chair at a private boy's school in Ohio. Visit him online at GeoffreyGirard.com.

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