Rising Phoenix

I am reviewing this book as a book on tape and will make specific comments on that aspect of it at the end of this review. I have drudged and slogged my way through a number of books and books on tape lately and this one was like a bolt of lightning - it came out of nowhere and really was a welcome surprise for me. I won't go into the plot details, since they are readily available in the book description at the top of this page - however, this is a great bit of writing. The premise is thought-provoking, to say the least. In a nice twist, the antagonist is well-developed and the protagonists are not. The story is plot-driven and by that I mean we don't get bogged down in unnecessary details, such as focusing on weapons at great length, etc. - as can sometimes happen in a techno-thriller. Really a top notch piece of work. As for details concerning the book on tape - it is read by Campbell Scott (known for his work in 'Dying Young' and 'Dead Again'). He does a first-rate job - he reads the characters so differently that you really don't notice that the same man is reading all of the different parts. Good work all around.

Kyle Mills impressively conceived "Rising Phoenix" is a thought provoking thriller that briskly chronicles a plot to curtail the use of drugs in the U.S. by poisoning the incoming supply. Celebrated TV evangelist Reverand Simon Blake had built up a cash glutted empire with tastefully appointed offices in a skyscraper in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Blake's current passion was a war on the drugs that had infested our society. He was determined to take drastic measures to make an impact on this plague. His head of church security, John Hobart a cold calculating ex-special forces operative in Vietnam, with a CPA had been bounced out of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Hobart was commissioned by Blake with the job of riding the society of the scourge of drugs. He devised a ingenious plan to poison the drug supply at the refining stage with an obscure lethal mushroom based substance. Hobart's plot was successfully undertaken resulting in a massive wave of deaths due to poisoning by user of both cocaine and heroin. The FBI, early on, put their top investigator but loose cannon Mark Beamon in charge of stopping this plot. Beamon, a former colleague of Hobart's, was stymied politically in his investigation as public sentiment indicated that people were not displeased by the decrease in drug use and death of the users. The plot interestingly proceeded as an investigation into a crime that nobody really wanted stopped went forward.

Rising Phoenix was the first Kyle Mills book I read and I have subsequently read the rest. I feel that for me it was by far the best. I was intrigued by the plot and found myself extolling it to friends as a workable, if somewhat extreme, solution tho the drug problem in this country. Mark Beamon is a likeable enough character but the antagonist John Hobart was much more interesting to me. He had a more extensive back story than Beamon and was easily just as smart as the FBI agent which I found refreshing. If you enjoyed this book like I did may I suggest authors such as Vince Flynn and Nelson Demille. In closing one of my favorites and pick it up if you are from eather end of the political spectrum for an informitive and chilling read.

No less than the thriller genre's top gun, Tom Clancy, has placed his imprimatur on first novelist Kyle Mills. After identifying the author in a eulogistic book jacket blurb as the son of "an old friend and former FBI agent," Clancy dubbed the young writer "a new genius for taut, compulsive adventure writing." That's surely a help, but also part hype for Mr. Mills hasn't reached the genius level yet. Nonetheless, Rising Phoenix is a wingdinger of a rim shot. A gripping tale that comes too close to the possible for comfort, this recent addition to the pantheon of psycho/thrillers is complexly plotted with hair-trigger action and characters that ring true. It's an adventure punctuated with swift jabs of dialogue and enlivened by knowing description. When a trek into the Columbian jungle's darkly humid interior begins, readers feel the heat. Morally corrupt figures alternately fascinate and repulse. That is the case with one of the story's protagonists, John Hobart, a diabolically clever sociopath. This villain's skewed philosophy was formed early on with the unexplained death of his abusive father. Here's the gospel according to Hobart: "Most of humanity's problems were rooted in centuries of misguided and often contradictory moral teachings. For a man with the intelligence and resolve to rise above this tangle of right and wrong, there was no problem that couldn't be solved simply, quickly, and finally." He puts his thesis to an acid test. A dismissed DEA agent and former security chief for an egotistical tele-evangelist, Hobart contrives a way to combat America's escalating drug problem - poison the cocaine and heroin supply. Not with just any poison but with a time-released attacker of vital organs, Orellanin, the lethal extract of a mushroom found in Poland. As legions of people across the country become ill and die, discovering the person behind this venous plot becomes the FBI's number one priority. Chosen to head the investigative team is Mark Beamon, an agent who has been put down for his unorthodoxy yet recognized as one of the Bureau's best. He was Hobart's partner during their days with the DEA. Columbia's drug cartel, headed by Luis Colombar, also has an interest in discovering who poisoned the drugs. Death isn't good for business. The President of the United States, with an "administration perceived as being soft on crime" wants the killing stopped, and an Eastern mafia chief needs to protect his turf. Fear of an excruciating demise does cause drug use in America to decline, but then there's a chilling shift: public favor begins to swing toward the murderous poisoners. After all, they've done something about the drug problem when government and law enforcement officials could not. A riveting cross continent pursuit ends with Hobart and Beamon face to face, each knows his adversary well. Reaching this climatic scene was a bit like attempting a 2,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. Some of the pieces

I read LOTS of thrillers and, after a while, they get to be pretty much predictable. Not so with Rising Phoenix. Every time I thought I knew what was coming next, everything changed. Mills does a great job with an exciting plot, interesting characters, and a roller coaster of a story line.