"Tyler Keith is a writer of amazing talent with echoes of Jim Thompson and Harry Crews in this wildly dark, funny trip to the Florida panhandle. This book bleeds with authenticity."

"Tyler Keith writes with the rhythm and thrum of a gospel choir. The Mark of Cain lives on the rim of salvation, where hope is dangled like some heavenly gift above the desolate, damaged world below. It's a hot, hard, hardscrabble life, and The Mark of Cain stares into the fire with eyes wide open."

"Singer/songwriter Tyler Keith has written The Mark of Cain in the same way he writes and performs his music: it's spare, gritty, and packs a powerful punch. He brings his intimate knowledge of sketchy people and skeezy places in a little-known part of Florida to create this dark, suspenseful story that I'm calling Panhandle Noir. Creepy, and fun!"

"I have to tell you that I love Tyler Keith. He's one of the few touring musicians that came through my town that always reminded me of what rock and roll was, sounded like, and should be. His debut novel Mark of Cain proves once again that he's the real deal: the preacher's kid rolling through town again."

"Tyler Keith's The Mark of Cain creates - almost imperceptibly - an atmosphere of realistic, creeping dread. The kind of dread you might feel when the neighbor you're positive beats his wife (though you've no proof), gives you a weird look when you pull into your driveway, inadvertently running over the edge of his hose as he waters his lawn. Keith traces how corrosive family ties can ignite a moment of weakness in the young, manifested in decent ex-con, Ronnie Harrison. A moment can turn into days and weeks of angry resentment, resulting in unavoidable, often misplaced accountability. The subtle menace of innocuous daily rituals of work, storefront religion and mysterious visits from sketchy outsiders can snowball into an avalanche threatening to bury you alive. Grudges nurtured for decades can taint bloodlines, and capital 'E' Evil can, indeed, run in families, passed down to new generations like a disease in the blood, a spiritual rot that metastasizes. When familial cancers of the soul take hold, they can infect an entire community, ravage and eat away, until the goal of "going straight" seems as fanciful an idea as being able to walk on water. Chilling."