Kyle Mills is an expert at taking a great premise, researching the heck out of it and turning it into a scarily plausible novel. His result in his newest effort, “Darkness Falls,” imagines a world in which major oil fields are under biological attack, and the result of even the best of outcomes is a dramatically changed world.
Erin Neal, Ph.D., had set out to be a new kind of environmentalist. “Instead of waving signs and trying to convince everyone the sky was falling, he’d bring sanity to the debate by taking into account that no one was ever going to do anything for the earth unless there was something concrete in it for them. Preferably money.”
Neal had done well for himself, becoming the go-to guy in bioremediation, “the business of using bacteria to clean up toxic spills.” Along the way, he fell in love with biologist Jenna Kalin. But publication of his book “Energy and Nature” raised a ruckus among the more radical environmental interests, and Jenna left him to join a group of true believers. Then she died in a shipwreck that took with it all hands. Bereft, Neal dropped out of the world.
And he would be perfectly happy to stay dropped out, something he makes perfectly clear to Mark Beamer. Beamer has tracked down Neal in the desert near Tucson. Beamer, once with the FBI, is now with Homeland Security in the section charged with protecting energy supplies. Beamer has a problem, and it looks like Neal is the guy who can solve it.
Neal’s response is hardly helpful: “Everything’s a disaster to you unless it really is and then you just ignore it. Well, I’ll tell you what. I’m gonna ignore this.”
As it turns out, ignoring the situation isn’t a choice. The largest of the Saudi oil fields is threatened by some kind of biological sludge. It’s a corrosive kind of bacteria that seems to be spreading from well to well, and no one can figure out where it is coming from or how to stop it. Neal assumes, incorrectly, that Beamer can’t force him to go to Saudi Arabia. After arriving in the desert kingdom, though, Neal discovers the bacteria may be an offshoot of work he’d done several years ago and, impossibly, Jenna could be involved.
“Darkness Falls” unfolds in fast-paced chapters, a contest of wits and a race against time. But as much as the plot is engaging – and it is, and frighteningly imaginable – the stars of this story are the central characters. The reader is engaged because Mills, much like Nelson DeMille, creates characters as articulate as they are intelligent, in a lovable macho way.
Neal is short-tempered and quick with his fists. He is also terrifically bright and fully committed to a future based in renewable energy technologies. He had raised ire in parts of the environmental community by arguing that environmentalists had made the problem more of an emotional than a scientific one.
His book considered the “future of energy and the environment, taking into account politics and human nature.” He had argued that the eco-movement “needed to refocus itself on creating technologies and realistic strategies that would get people excited, regardless of any benefit to the earth” – development of a sexy electric car, for instance.
Neal is the perfect foil for the equally bright but more laconic Beamer. In this case, the more mellow exterior of a man who seems almost as interested in his upcoming marriage as this particular problem, masks a steely intelligence and resolve. He’s going to get the job done, and neither recalcitrant scientists nor federal bureaucrats are going to stand in his way.
The elements come together in a great and surprising ride that includes more than a few unexpected but plausible twists. This is a top-notch thriller, not simply because it does such a good job of carrying the reader along. It is a standout because both characters and premise are interesting and because it raises thought-provoking arguments about our use of fossil fuels and about the dangers of ignoring the threats posed by the level of our dependence on those fuels.
Robin Vidimos reviews books for The Denver Post and Buzz in the ‘Burbs.
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FICTION
Darkness Falls, by Kyle Mills, $24.95
