Cast of Shadows begins with every parent’s worst nightmare, when Davis Moore’s teenage daughter is brutally raped and murdered by an unknown assailant. It gets worse. For Davis Moore is a fertility doctor, dealing with cutting-edge genetic reproductive techniques. It’s a controversial and dangerous occupation: Moore has already been the object of a fanatic’s assassination attempt. But for a father driven half-mad by grief, his work presents one startling and dangerous opportunity–the chance to secretly clone his daughter’s killer and look into his face.
“The first morning after would be the worst of all, when he would wake having forgotten, and then, in the daylight, remember that his only child was dead.”
Cast of Shadows takes a small handful of issues, cloning and stem cell research chief among them, and crafts a tale that that launches from a simple premise and becomes a multifaceted discussion that is at times moral, scientific and religious. The premise and its exploration prove to be an effective evaluation of these difficult issues without any real political or religious bias.
The story is told over 20+ years, during which we get to watch these characters grow, change and age. Every character is complexly rendered producing very real, very sympathetic people.
“In spite of his dedication to work, he had raised the kind of young woman a teenaged Davis Moore would have admired, would have befriended, would have pursued with all his energy and charm. More important, he had the raised the kind of young woman who would have seen through teenaged Davis Moore’s unflappable, swaggering bullshit.”
Cast of Shadows is divided into two parts. The first part will cover a little over a decade and focuses on Dr. Moore’s twin obsessions of finding his daughters killer and keeping up with Justin’s growth and progress. Justin’s face will very slowly start to come into focus as he grows into the man who killed Moore’s daughter. By the end of this first part nothing will be the same and everyone’s lives will be affected.
The second part of Cast of Shadows covers a three-year period of time and will focus primarily on the teenage Justin. Over the last few years or so a computer game called Shadow World has become hugely popular and successful. It is an identical fully functioning copy of our world in which you create a character to interact with the virtual environs. In Justin’s world there is a serial killer on the loose. Justin has become increasingly obsessed with the much-publicized case and is using his Shadow World character to investigate the murders.
Very early on we are introduced to Mickey the Gerund: A fundamentalist Christian who staunchly opposes cloning technology and believes it to be an affront to God. He begins a crusade against doctors who perform the procedures and those who advocate the technology. It is a testament to Guilfoile’s writing that Mickey never devolves into a reductive character. It would be far easier to let Mickey become a cartoonish fool on which to pile all perception and stereotypes of fundamentalist Christians. Instead he becomes a carefully nuanced character steeped in righteousness and dripping with menace. Mickey the Gerund may not get the most page time in Cast of Shadows but all of his appearances are memorable. This is his book as much as Dr. Moore’s or Justin’s. His character is worth the price of admission alone.
All of the characters and all of their interactions with one another are multi-dimensional and carefully crafted. They are memorable and they are real and their actions will weigh heavy on their souls and ours.
There are two discernible plot lines snaking their way through the book. As you draw closer to the end one of them is mostly guessable but its ultimate effect isn’t lost. The second however is shocking in its revelation and is possessed of its own quiet power and intensity. In near silence a secret will be shared. In John Woo’s The Killer one of the main characters is chasing a criminal on a packed subway and suddenly they are face-to-face. Woo inserts a moment of silence into this loud scene. When the cock of a gun breaks the silence it startles and shocks the viewer. The end of Cast of Shadows will very quietly startle and shock the reader.
I originally reviewed Cast of Shadows on April 15, 2007
