Sphere of Influence

Rating:
Summary: Bring back Storming Heaven
Review: I enjoyed this book, but Kyle Mills' other books have been better. I hope to heaven that something like this could never happen and that may have been what kept me from enjoying this more. If someone told you you would like Kyle Mills read them in order. Start with Rising Phoenix and then Storming Heaven, those are both a lot of fun to read, I read this because I like the author, and wanted to stick with him. I'll wait a while before I read the next one.

Rating:
Summary: sphere of influence
Review: Interesting story and set up. The setting of conflict between CIA and FBI in the drug wars is plausible. The idea of burnout in a bureaucratic organization and the fact that the criminal mind can be fascinating makes it easy reading.
Having said that there are some inconsistancies. The Mafia entity, Gasta, seems too stupid. It is hard to believe he would not have been eliminated by natural competition earlier.
Laura is another weak person She does not have many original ideas, but is apparently beyond a world class athelete since she can run and catch a truck going 15 miles per hour. Not only can she do that, she also passes the truck, has time to turn around and shoot several times, and fall flat before the truck hits her. Maybe her name should be Cheetah.
All that said it is an interesting story, and I recommend it for light reading.

Rating:
Summary: Well Worth The Read: Sphere of Influence by Kyle Mills
Review: Rogue elements or individuals within America's governmental law enforcement agencies have always been a hallmark of many thriller and mystery novelists. For example, Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy, just to name two, have often used rogue CIA operatives as part of their many novels and to great effect. In the past, the Cold War provided the backdrop for such operations. With the theoretical end of the Cold War, there was concern that like black and white movies, the times had passed such topics by. Now, in what is sure to be a flood of such novels, Muslim fanaticism and the global war on terror are replacing the Cold War as a fictional backdrop. Rogue elements in the CIA in fiction along with the occasional glimpses through Congressional hearings in real life makes this novel highly believable.

Somewhere in America, an Al-Queada terrorist cell has a rocket launcher and some missiles for it. With the death of Osama Bin Laden (treated as fact), Al-Queada has reconstituted itself under new leadership and become a smaller, more efficient terrorist organization. They have learned the ultimate lesson of the terrorist attacks-America was hurt much worse by the economic impact of such actions than by the casualty toll. The terrorists release videotape to the major networks detailing their threat to fire missiles somewhere in the United States. They promise to attack schools, shopping centers, etc. to make the point again that one is ever safe.

Panic grips the nation exacerbated by the twenty four hour seven day a week cable news coverage of the threat. Schools, business, shopping centers, etc. begin to close as the nation's commerce grinds to a halt. For Mark Beamon, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Phoenix Office, the situation is doubly frustrating. Not only is this not his case and that has been made clear by his superiors, he has massive personal problems of his own.

Mark is less than happy with his current role in the FBI. As detailed in the earlier three novels of this series character, Mark Beamon is a loner and does not play well with others. He certainly does not really fit into the model of what an agent is in the currently politically correct version of today's FBI. He eschews office politics and relies on results. About to be fired, arrested and imprisoned for his previous actions, the incoming President saved him from himself. Thanks to having a friend on the White House Staff, he was instead sent to dead-end his career in charge of the Phoenix office. Management is not his thing and as the ongoing office audit makes clear, his talents are better suited to working cases, not people.

Because of his connections to other agents from past cases, Mark begins to get separate but important pieces of information that he is not supposed to have access to. He sees a totally different track to the case and his ideas conflict with his superior's public statements. He begins to suspect that the terrorists have links to organized crime and wonders why the CIA isn't telling all they know. Soon his suspicions prove correct as a fellow agent and long time friend is executed while both are on an undercover operation. Allowed to survive, Mark Beamon begins to work the case from deep undercover using any resources and methods necessary to find not only the rocket launcher but also those responsible inside and outside of government.

This is an extremely complicated novel, which in my summary, I have failed to do justice to. As the really good novels do, it works on many levels with puzzles within puzzles. The players are extremely complicated and multi-dimensional and there are a large number of plot twists. The action is frequently intense and the novel moves forward at a steady clip.

One also has to wonder just how much of this novel is actual fact and not conjecture. Tom Clancy took an active involvement in this author's career from the early stages including helping him get his first novel published titled "Rising Phoenix." Tom Clancy has long been known for his access to highly classified government information and sources and is said to have introduced Kyle Mills to many of the same information resources. One often gets the feeling in reading his novels that Kyle Mills barely fictionalizes many important details. If true in this case, he is providing some very interesting material on the war in terrorism in this very enjoyable thriller.

Rating:
Summary: Fast moving and action packed
Review: So you think Bill Gates is the richest man in the world? Perhaps he's gathered the world's largest legitimate fortune, but how do we know that there are not shadowy underworld figures whose wealth makes the Gates' billions seem like small change?

FBI agent Mark Beamon believes in the existence of such people, and what's more thinks they are linked to the CIA, terrorist organisations, the Mafia and huge drug cartels. When a rocket launcher suddenly appears in the deserts of Arizona or Nevada, a young agent which the disgraced Beamon helped train is put on the case. To help her investigation, Beamon goes underground taking on a persona of a terrorist himself. About there things start to go wrong.

Another agent is killed, the Mafia man Beamon was working for is arrested, and the CIA is stirring trouble with the world's heroin suppliers, trying to distance themselves from the rocket launcher. Beamon then encounters the enigmatic Christian Volkov, perhaps the richest man in the world, perhaps not. To keep his cover, Beamon becomes manager of Volkov's heroin business. As events unfold, Beamon discovers Volkov has far superior intelligence sources than the combined US agencies, commands an enormous underground economy, and despite his criminal interests, is a highly cultured, well meaning person. He also finds the CIA has been hiding a lot of it's dealings from it's own government, and is not in control of heroin trafficking whatsoever.

The story throws up a number of moral dilemmas, like is a crime still a crime if it is committed to prevent a larger crime, or is the policy of "any means necessary" justifiable in conducting a nation's foreign affairs. The conclusion of the story is a little unexpected, but shows one possible solution to these dilemmas.

Rating:
Summary: Rebel FBI Agent
Review: SPHERE OF INFLUENCE By Kyle Mills

I do not have time to write reviews on books on which I am neutral or do not like. I liked this book. Kyle Mills writes a good up-to-date adventure story about a rebel FBI agent who is not an FBI agent at the end of the tale. Mark Beamon who put the truth ahead of his job, and who was drinking and smoking himself into an early grave is a good believable lead character. He reminds me of people I have known in the past. Mark did not appear to fear death too much or anything else. His mind was made for thinking and he was afraid he was loosing his edge at that.

TV stations start getting videotapes from somewhere in the USA. They show a primitive rocket launcher, which is in the hands of terrorists somewhere in the States. The FBI immediately have almost all of the people terrified of where the first rocket will land, in a supermarket, schools, shopping malls in what State? When, is the next frightening question?

Beamon had ... off most of Congress and embarrassed the Washington elite with a too honest investigation and was about to be sacrificed on a tromped up charge. When a new president was elected and he had support again and was given an office in the field--one more dinosaur that would not disappear immediately.

He contacted Laura Vilechi, an old friend in the FBI for information about the rocket launcher and unofficially joined her effort to find it. This took him, Mark to places in the world that he would just as soon have never seen, and people like General Yung in Laos. Yung was a murdering sociopath the king of drug trafficking in his part of the world.

The FBI had in affect fired Mark, and he was working with a powerful mystery man, Christian Volkov whose primary income aside from his many legal businesses was from drugs. He was a citizen of anyplace and everyplace in the world and for the people who wanted him impossible to find. But he found Mark and developed a liking for him.

Mark helped Laura find the rocket launcher with the aid of Christian Volkov and the CIA, and the unwilling aid of the Mob. Mean while he got himself in so deep with Christian Volkov that the FBI tried to find him because he was embarrassing them'it's an interesting book. If you like books about the FBI, CIA and drugs in our modern world read it and do yourself a favour.
Roger L. Lee

Rating:
Summary: Give it the heave-ho .......
Review: The biggest problem in this book is the plot. This story rarely revolves around the Plot - Threat of a Rocket inside the US. Instead it meanders around everything other than the main plot. It seems the author had decided to write about specific scenes and later came up with a plot that was made to fit around the scenes.
When I finished reading this book I recollected a classic story in our country. A Student , for his essay in an Exam, reads about Trees. Instead the Essay in the Question Paper asks about cows. He proceeds to write everything about Trees and ends the essay by writing that a cow can be tied to the Tree.

The only factor going for this book is it goes at a brisk pace...

Rating:
Summary: From thriller writing to fantasy writing.
Review: The first half of this book is fine. The plot is interesting and Mills continues to develop Mark Beamon's character. Unfortunately the second half of the book is preposterous and the ending is ludicrous. It may be time for Mills to develop a new hero or heroine. With the background provided by this book any future novels featuring Beamon will be shelved in the fantasy section. A sad end for what was developing into a good series. Given the last half of this book, Beamon is no longer a believable character.

Rating:
Summary: Average thriller at best
Review: The Tom Clancy quote on the back cover reads, "Kyle Mills is fast becoming the new master of gripping and intelligent page turners."

Gripping and intelligent is where the wheels start to come off on this book. The plot comes down to the threat of a rocket launcher and 3 or 4 missile s smuggled into the United States via Mexico and the vague threat that these might have biological or chemical warheads. This situation puts the public in a deep panic and the economy in a tailspin. Furthermore, the rockets and the launcher are held by separate terrorist cells, and have to come together so that they can launch a rocket with a 12 mile range at a civilian target.

I guess the threat isn't all that credible in my mind. Saddam proved you don't need a fancy launching platform to send SCUD missiles into Israel so why do these terrorist need one? The bad guys never pull off a strike - so why is there such a tremendous panic?

Secondly, the plot has a whole raft of interesting characters. You have Mark Beamon (Mills' burnt FBI agent), a Russian gangster, a CIA nincompoop, a New York wiseguy, and your stock-in-trade fanatical terrorist. There is a lot of potential here, maybe enough for a couple of books.

Thirdly, Beamon goes so far out on a legal limb that the ending defies belief.

With all that said, Mills is a talented writer. The dialogue and story moves along. I just think he needs to recognize the Mark Beamon character has run its course and move on. He has shown us that he can be brilliant, but I think he needs new material.

Rating:
Summary: Average thriller at best
Review: The Tom Clancy quote on the back cover reads, "Kyle Mills is fast becoming the new master of gripping and intelligent page turners."

Gripping and intelligent is where the wheels start to come off on this book. The plot comes down to the threat of a rocket launcher and 3 or 4 missile s smuggled into the United States via Mexico and the vague threat that these might have biological or chemical warheads. This situation puts the public in a deep panic and the economy in a tailspin. Furthermore, the rockets and the launcher are held by separate terrorist cells, and have to come together so that they can launch a rocket with a 12 mile range at a civilian target.

I guess the threat isn't all that credible in my mind. Saddam proved you don't need a fancy launching platform to send SCUD missiles into Israel so why do these terrorist need one? The bad guys never pull off a strike - so why is there such a tremendous panic?

Secondly, the plot has a whole raft of interesting characters. You have Mark Beamon (Mills' burnt FBI agent), a Russian gangster, a CIA nincompoop, a New York wiseguy, and your stock-in-trade fanatical terrorist. There is a lot of potential here, maybe enough for a couple of books.

Thirdly, Beamon goes so far out on a legal limb that the ending defies belief.

With all that said, Mills is a talented writer. The dialogue and story moves along. I just think he needs to recognize the Mark Beamon character has run its course and move on. He has shown us that he can be brilliant, but I think he needs new material.

Rating:
Summary: Best Escapist Literature Available
Review: This is the first I have read of Kyle Mills' series on Mark Beamon, a worn-down, pushed-aside, and burnt-out FBI Agent. Based on this one novel, I'm going to find the rest and read them all.

The novel starts out a little slowly, giving new readers like myself a chance to learn about the characters. The opening situation is Mark being overwhelmed in a managerial job while the nation and his former co-workers are desperately searching for a rocket-launcher smuggled into the U.S.

Before long, Mark is undercover as a freelance assassin and unwittingly orchestrates the murder of Muslim terrorists by aging wiseguys, enhancing their escape by the judicious use of strippers along the route. Next thing you know, Mark has been employed by one of the world's largest crime figures, the mysterious Christian Volkov and the novel turns from crime thriller to espionage story.

The story is fast paced and kept me gladly the turning pages. I found myself rushing to get to the next twist in the plot as Mark surmounted his problems with the office, his superiors, his floundering lovelife, the stupid crooks, and the smart ones.