Kyle Mills, The Man Chosen to Carry on for Author Vince Flynn.
Last June, in 2014, it was announced that an author had been selected to complete Vince Flynn’s works in progress AND to continue the Mitch Rapp series. The decision was made my the Vince Flynn Estate and his published, Emily Bestler Books. That author is Mr. Kyle Mills.
It’s very uplifting as a fan of the late Vince Flynn, to think that Mitch Rapp will continue to keep watch and protect our nation, if only fictionally. It’s very kind of his family and his publisher to let it happen. And wonderful of Kyle Mills to put his time to it.
Mr. Flynn was working on the book The Survivor at the time of his death. Kyle Mills will complete that work, then write two additional books in the series. Hopefully his success the those three will lead to still more.
Since mentioning Mr. Mills in my recent review of Extreme Measures and Pursuit of Honor, it seemed reasonable to write more about Kyle Mills himself.
Who is Kyle Mills?
I first ran across the author’s name browsing in a book store. Another woman was searching for books by Kyle Mills. She told me she didn’t get in to the book store often, so when she did, she bought all of the books she could by an author she liked. She suggested Smoke Screen might be of interest to me. She was right. It was fast paced, exciting, and a book that kept up reading late.
Smoke Screen was an excellent thriller set that included corporate intrigue in the tobacco industry. In the book, the saying “be careful what you ask for…” comes to life. Facing still another huge lawsuit, the tobacco industry shuts down their manufacturing, recalls all of its cigarettes and creates massive havoc.
While it is one thing to say we don’t like cigarettes, to say we know they aren’t healthy, imagine the impact if one day they were simply (or not so simply) removed. Can you? Not just from the smokers either. It was startling to see the effect on the economy as well.
The story is much deeper than that. The industry’s official spokesman discovers he was set up to take responsibility for the whole thing, while the industry leaders would be off the hook. What happens after that is clever, enthralling, and eye opening.
Mr. Mills himself says when he gets an idea he likes to consider “what if.” If you spend a little time trying that yourself, you will see how many directions it can lead. It worked beautifully in Smoke Screen!
Asked to Write for Robert Ludlum’s Covert-One Series
But that is just one book. Mr. Mills has authored 13 novels, several for his Mark Beaman series, and several exciting stand alone novels like Smoke Screen. He was also asked to help continue Robert Ludlum’s Covert One series. (Mr. Ludlum died in 2001)
Clearly, he has the experience to follow through with the Mitch Rapp series. His plan is to remain faithful to the character that Vince Flynn created. If he does that, we should be in for at least three more page turning, tension building thrillers with one of our favorite heroes.
Hopefully it will extend well beyond the three.
The Full List of Kyle Mills Novels
- Rising Phoenix, 1997 (Featuring Mark Beamon)
- Storming Heaven, 1998 (Mark Beamon)
- Free Fall, 2000 (Mark Beamon)
- Burn Factor, 2001
- Sphere of Influence, 2002 (Mark Beamon)
- Smoke Screen, 2003
- Fade, 2005
- The Second Horseman, 2006
- Darkness Falls, 2007 Mark Beamon)
- Lords of Corruption, 2009
- The Ares Decision 2011 (Continuing Robert Ludlums The Covert-One series)
- The Immortalists 2011
- The Utopia Experiment 2013 (Covert-One)
- The Survivor 2015 (Authoring with the late Vince Flynn)
The Survivor, authored by both Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills is scheduled for release on October 6th, 2015. The book is now available for pre-order through Amazon.
Here is the latest of Robert Ludlums’ Covert One series that Kyle Mills has written.