Review by Lloyd Armour
In this reviewer's mind there are usually three categories of first novels from large publishers: fairly good, very good and very, very good. Kyle Mills' book falls under the last, a fact recognized by Tom Clancy who happened to see the manuscript sent on to him by an old friend.
Clancy refers to the book as the launching of "a new genius for taut, compulsive adventure writing into some of the most complex and morally ambiguous subjects of the day." That is certainly no overstatement on the part of Clancy, the man who has written such thrillers as the "The Hunt for Red October," one of my favorites.
Mills' story begins with The Reverend Simon Blake, an evangelist who has used his thundering skills to go from a small chapel to a $10 million cathedral -- and to nice cash investments and overseas accounts in banks. But the Reverend Mr. Blake is unhappy. He is terribly concerned about the scourge of illegal drugs on the country at large and his congregation in particular.
The reverend is powerful enough politically that it is felt he needs a head of church security. John Hobart is hired and he runs a security force "that the Mossad would respect."
When Blake asks Hobart if there are any solutions to the drug problem, Hobart's response is that one option is legalization and regulation; another is to have the government buy all the world's drugs and destroy them; and a third, Hobart said, is to change the mission of the DEA from confiscating drugs and jailing dealers to confiscating drugs, poisoning them and putting them back on the street. Hobart thinks that with some advance warning, anybody "with half a brain would decide the risk was too great and stop using." The Reverend Mr. Blake gives his tacit approval to the scheme.
Thus begins an amazing adventure story that stretches from Bogota to Warsaw to Baltimore and points in between. It is up to Laura Vilechi, the head of the FBI narcotics division, and FBI maverick Mark Beamon to head off the deadly plot, even though there are those in high places who would just as soon see all the drug addicts in the U.S. sent to their graves.
This is a top-notch adventure story, guaranteed to keep the reader turning the pages until it is finished -- even if the dawn is beginning to light the sky.
Lloyd Armour is a retired newspaper editor.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.