Mission Creep is a post-modern thriller about gypsies, vampires, genetic engineering and the legacy of the Holocaust.  Also, it’s more than that.

Set in the fictional metropolis Cascadia, in the not-too-distant future, the novel follows two siblings of Roma extraction.  Charming, hapless Ivan Zemsta is a failed concert promoter and opiate addict who, during a bizarre road trip to California, is bitten on the penis by a prostitute.  Stressed-out, workaholic Stefana Zemsta is a journalist who has just enough time to care for her ninety-nine-year-old grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, and her disastrous ex-boyfriend, Oliver Blank, who has joined a cult and vanished.

Shortly after the unfortunate bite, Ivan experiences strange physiological changes and is convinced he is becoming a vampire.  A fellow nocturne informs him that he has in fact been “infected” with a nanobotic program by a rogue agent and is turning into a “super-soldier.”  Stefana, meanwhile, abruptly loses her job and impulsively travels to Prague in search of Oliver, where through a series of unpredictable events, she encounters a Gypsy cult leader intent on creating a superhuman anti-terrorist killing machine.

Set against a violent societal debate spawned by “longevity therapy,” which allows only the wealthy to live forever, the two subplots fuse.  Ivan fumbles toward redemption even as he becomes a pawn for both side of the conflict, and Stefana experiences a stunning revelation, in which ancient mythology and historical tumult collide with the genetic engineering and terrorist acts of the present.  The conclusion is shattering.

Daniel Tencer is a journalist living in Canada. His second novel, Echo Chamber, is a domestic drama set against the discovery of “time bombs” – explosive devices that literally distort the space/time continuum.

– Kelly Skillen, PMA Literary and Film

Download a twenty-page sample of Mission Creep (pdf)