The best new thrillers must acknowledge the changed world wrought by 9/11. Our understanding was recalibrated in events that brought the battlefield to our shores. The Soviet Union, an arms race and the Cold War? Not just yesterday’s news, but Reagan-era worries. The new enemy is the one with a Wahabiist agenda.
Kyle Mills draws on current perceptions and fears with the perfect thriller for the emerging millennium. He takes those things we’ve been taught to fear – Mideast terrorists and willing martyrs – and turns them inside out in his latest novel, “Fade.”
Salam al Fayed, nicknamed “Fade,” is all that this country would call a patriot. An American of Arab parents, he speaks fluent Arabic, albeit with a New York accent. He was perfect for his work as a Navy SEAL, working under deep cover in the Middle East. But after four years his luck ran out. His desire to stop a rape resulted in a bullet lodged next to his spine. Uncle Sam decided the expensive and experimental operation to prevent the almost certain, eventual paralysis wasn’t justified. The result is one bitter veteran.
Fast-forward a few years, to the newly established Office of Strategic Planning and Acquisition in the Department of Homeland Security. The group is tasked with assembling teams of former and current Special Forces operatives who will conduct clandestine, surgical operations targeting those posing domestic threats.
The man in charge of assembling the teams is Matt Egan. His boss, bureaucratic star and political functionary Hillel Strand, doesn’t understand why Egan is being so picky when it comes to selecting team members. Strand pulls Fade’s file and, against Egan’s advice, decides this is the man he must have.
The visit with Fade doesn’t go well. Egan had once been his handler and he holds Egan responsible for the government’s decision that will eventually disable him. So Egan is not surprised when Fade turns them down, with a response somewhat less polite than “drop dead.” Strand, however, is unable to envision a reality in which he doesn’t get what he wants. He believes Fade can be coerced into working for him, and he feeds the local police forces information that results in a SWAT team attack on Fade’s residence. It’s a plan that – suffice it to say – does not go as planned.
And so begins the game of cat and mouse. Fade is on the run, and he has vowed to take out both Strand and Egan before he’s finished. Egan, who has plenty of experience with this kind of threat, is tasked with eliminating Fade before he eliminates them. Strand is good at giving orders, but he is particularly unsuited to escaping the nightmare he has created. And he is unable to fully process why this unfolding calamity might be his fault.
Mills is a writer with little respect for idiots and he fully indulges this sensibility in “Fade.” The real bad guys here are the incompetents and what makes this novel such a delicious summer treat is the way in which Mills turns the reader’s expectations inside out.
In a run-of-the-mill thriller, the terrorist on the loose is the bad guy. Instead, he’s the one you cheer for. Homeland Security should be the good guys, but at least half of this team roundly deserves every bit of abuse Fade can deliver. And the story is nicely propelled by a serial murder subplot and female police officer. The twists are surprising and fun, and the story comes to a bang-up conclusion that may leave the reader sad, but hardly disappointed.
Robin Vidimos is a freelance writer who reviews books for The Denver Post and Buzz in the ‘Burbs.
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Fade
By Kyle Mills
St. Martin’s, 312 pages, $24.95
