Rating: 
Summary: Give me more Mark Beamon
Review: For a first effort, Kyle Mills hits a homerun with his character Mark Beamon. I love the humor and the fact that Beamon is not some super-hero cop. This is a very good police story with an exciting plot.It was a quick read and worth the time!
Rating: 
Summary: Wooden characters with stilted dialogue and a silly plot.
Review: I suppose it's still nice to know people in high places. Without good connections, this author's poorly crafted work would never have surfaced from the slush pile. I keep reading it because I hope the writing improves ... but it doesn't. His characters are truly boring . . . there is nothing about them that makes you identify with them. As I'm reading, I picture lifeless, zero-personality dolts who speak as though reading from a teleprompter. I cannot imagine how this book has gotten the rave reviews that it has. Sophomoric is too kind a word for the dialogue. I give up. The book is a painfully hard read.
Rating:
Summary: No style. Zero atmosphere.
Review: Another sad cookie cutter effort by another derivative hack. It's stuff like this that makes me mourn the death of Ross Thomas anew and fills me with anxiety for the health of true greats like Ed McBain/Evan Hunter, Elmore Leonard, and Loren Estleman. In answer to the reader irked by the "product placements," I can only say that such drivel is obviously a sad attempt by a neophyte like Mills to imitate the clever way in which veterans like Leonard can catch you up in the inane conversations of their characters who occasionaly fixate on some product or other. The difference: listening to Leonard's characters is like overhearing a conversation at a cheap diner or a hole-in-the-wall bar. Mills' cardboard cutouts are not even worth trying to visualize. For those who were excited by Clancy's blurb, I ask how many would have purchased this one without it? The indirect nepotism (Mills' old man has a conduit to Clancy, etc.) should have been a warning. Forgi! ! ve me if my blue collar family roots ( I work as a lender for a bank ) show by this last comment, but you have to love it when a young guy (age indeterminate given those oh-so-hip designer eye glasses) who has just published his FIRST novel, can boast a bio that says that when he's not writing, he's ROCK CLIMBING...(as opposed to earning a living until the royalties start rolling in). One last thing, I know that some titles have been used more than once, but would it have been too much to ask the young hotshot that he NOT use STORMING HEAVEN as the title to his "new" book, given that the established veteran, Dale Brown (who can actually write) used that one two or three books ago? Must be the Clancy formula, the more derivative, the better.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining and Shocking
Review: Kyle Mills is about to become a well known author, if his next books are on the same level as this one. Mills speaks of the losing battle against drugs, and then creates a horrifying solution to this major problem. The moral implications and questions that the reader is faced are brilliant. This book is not as suspenseful as it is psychological. It is definately a book that one can not put down. Read this book!!! I just finished reading it about five minutes ago and I am waiting impatiently to buy his next.
Rating:
Summary: This is GREAT!!!
Review: Are the paperback and the hardcover different stories? I must admit, I'm still reading the book (only 60 pages to go), but I haven't seen any "uh's" or "um's" yet. This is a great story that keeps me awake on the bus, which is a feat! If you get caught up in the product endorsements and the Limbaugh type stuff, you're too caught up in that kind of stuff anyway, try a music station. As someone mentioned earlier, this is a great vacation book. Grab the book, relax and enjoy the story.
Rating: 
Summary: Exciting mystery/adventure, very creative plot.
Review: Wow! what a great debut for Mr. Mills. I am a big fan already. 5 stars for a very well thought out and creative storyline. If your looking summer book to get lost in at the beach or travelling while on vacation pick this up, FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: A thought provoking approach to the drugs problem
Review: Whilst in the USA on business I bought this book, having read the recommendation by Tom Clancy. I enjoy thriller type novels that are well written and grip you from the start. I was not disappointed. I thought the plot was excellent and well thought out, the characters real and overalll I'm sorry I read it so quickly as I now have to wait until his second book is published. An excellent read and one I would happily recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Mills Did in 400 pages what would have taken Clancy 800
Review: The plot idea for Kyle Mills' Rising Phoenix was good, however I did not enjoy the fact that Mills portrayed the "Bad Guys" as right wing conservatives, typical left wing politically correct dribble. But, I applaud his simplicity, by keeping the facts straight and not going into overkill mode as Tom Clancy Does.
Rating:
Summary: Buy it in paperback. But buy it!
Review: I enjoyed this book, despite the Limbaugh and Clancy plugs. I don't understand the ire expressed by my right-of-center fellow readers and reviewers, though. Mills has come up with a unique plot. I look forward to the paperback of Storming Heaven.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, a keeper, a really fun read.
Review: I very much enjoyed this book. Read it by the pool on vacation and hated to put it down. Mark Beamon is a maverick FBI agent (picture Dennis Franz) tired of all the crap and politics in Washington. So he accepts a demotion to the Houston office to get away from it all. He is, however, one of the top investigators in the FBI and when drug users start dropping dead by the thousands, Beamon is called in to investigate. The bad guy, John Hobart, is smart and does not (like in alot of books) make stupid mistakes. The cat and mouse between him and Beamon is fast paced and interesting. In other reviews, I noticed some people complaining about product endorsements and people saying "Uh" alot. Didn't bother me a bit, I never even really noticed. So don't let that put you off this book. I look forward to Mr. Mills next book. NOTE: If this is ever made into a movie I think Dennis Franz would be great as Mark Beamon.
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