Darkness Falls
Kyle Mills
Vanguard Press, , $24.95
ISBN: 1593154593

Environmentalist Erin Neal seems to have done the impossible; his latest book left him with irrate enemies from both extremes of the environmental vs. economy issue. However, how angry becomes apparent when someone kills his former lover eco-terrorist Jenna Kalin; Erin assumes his book was partially the cause so he becomes a hermit wanting nothing to do with the world at lodge.

Mark Beamon heads the Homeland Security Department energy security section. He and his team know first hand of a calamitous conspiracy to use bacteria to destroy the major oilfields; the bio-terrorists have already caused substantial damage in Saudi Arabia. He needs bioengineering help; so turns to the American expert reclusive Erin who had conceptually thought of creating something similar. The world economy is at stake with Mark and a reluctant Erin trying to prevent pandemic biblical destruction.

This action-packed relevant thriller works because Kyle Mills insures the bioweapon employed by the terrorists seems feasible to develop. The storyline is fast-paced in spite of an over abundance of subplots (some feeling like cul de sacs) early on used to fully develop Erin and Mark so readers understand where their loyalties lie before they hook up and to insure the bioweapon and its results in Saudi Arabia appear reasonably possible. The tale soon converges into a stop the terrorists 'thriller. The key to the return of the former FBI operative (see Sphere Of Influence) is the realism that this could happen.

Harriet Klausner