Book Review - 'The Blood of Cain' by T.L. Gray

The Blood of Cain by T.L. Gray

Published by: Fireside Publications. October 2009

ISBN : 978-1-935517-01-6

Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ ‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’   Genesis 4:9

‘The Blood of Cain’ by T.L. Gray, is probably one of the most thought provoking books that I have had the privilege of  reading in quite a long time! 

The Blood of Cain is a marvellous work of fiction which can be either read as a simple and straight forward story, or as a story that has a very complex theological and thought provoking content.

The main protagonist within this story is called Tegan Dacre, who loves fast cars, loud music and beautiful women, but Tegan carries a dark secret, which makes him very different from the majority of other people in the world. Tegan is immortal and has a blood thirst that he must satisfy by each new moon. Thinking that he was unique, Tegan’s world is suddenly turned upside down when he meets a disturbing family of immortals similar to himself who are seeking their father and maker, the world’s first murderer Cain! 

Two time-lines are followed and two stories are told within this book. In its simplest form, this book recounts the author’s interpretation of the famous bible story about Cain and Abel fused with a parallel story of the immortal Tegan, living in the fast paced world of the 21^st Century and trying to discover an understanding of his, as he sees it, curse of immortality.

At a higher cogitative level, ‘The Blood of Cain’ introduces the reader in a unique way, into thinking about the concepts of evil, murder, sexuality, love, vampires, immortality and Christianity. I would not say that this book is written as a religious book, but behind the stories being told, the foundations of Christianity are being explored in a very cleverly put together academic way by the author T.L. Gray, and it works exceptionally well.

T.L. Gray has packed a lot into the 188 pages of this book. I still have not figured out how she has managed to do this, but she has done it very well. This has been a very enjoyable and thought provoking book to read. I have been left with some questions that remain unanswered in my mind and so I really do look forward to reading the further books planned in this series, in order to see if my remaining questions will actually be answered!