Get ready to be afraid – very afraid!

Jeff has just had his world come crashing down around him.  His father explains that all he ever knew about himself was a lie.  His mother did not die; she didn’t even really exist. His father wasn’t his real father; he wasn’t even really fourteen years old.  He was part of a secret government project, DSTI, to create killing machines using DNA from serial killers, and he is a clone of Jeffery Dahmer. Then, his father leaves him and, for whatever reason, sets free all the clones still living at the Massey Institute, which he succeeds in doing; thus setting a group of killer clones loose in the U.S.

A rogue agent from DSTI, named Castillo saves Jeff from being taken by either DSTI or the killer clones. The killer clones begin a killing spree across the U.S, and Castillo and Jeff have to track down the killers using the notes Jeff’s “father” left. Jeff also has some type of psychic connection to the killers, but he begins to realize that the connection works two ways. There may be more to this story to follow.

Nature or Nurture has always been the big question about criminals.  Girard has given us a thought-provoking work couched in the plot of a horror sci-fi book.  He also tells us about real secret government projects that have involved using humans as guinea pigs – some of which the reader may know about, and others, which- after a good internet search- the reader will come to realize are only too true. Could the events really happen? The answer is, unfortunately, a resounding YES.  The story is written for high school students, but although it is dark and somewhat violent, it could be read by a good middle school reader.