The Second Horseman

I would guess that I read my first Kyle Mills around 20+ years ago, and because I thought Free Fall was extremely good he was always on my radar. But I want to say I have read several of his novels since and none ever quite hit any especially high marks, hence, The Second Horseman sat on my shelf for a long while. I even grabbed a couple of books the other day because I had some inkling that this Mills offering would fail to draw me in. Boy was I ever wrong. It most certainly was a nice surprise.

I simply found this book to be: Outstanding! Shockingly Good! Fabulous!

The writing was smart and enjoyable. It was full of intrigue. The characters were all good. And Kyle Mills does a great job of tapping into the inner-workings of the American show more mind. Even the title deserves excellent marks. show less

The idea behind this novel certainly sounds interesting: break a master thief out of prison in order to steal massive amounts of cash to buy nuclear weapons from these Ukrainian gangsters in order to get them out of the market. It certainly hooked me in. In order to get the $200 Million Brandon, the master thief, must heist trucks filled with cash coming from Las Vegas casinos. Not that it was without flaws, but this was the best part of the novel. The downright ridiculousness comes when Brandon and company must travel out to the Ukraine to make the purchase.

My major issue with this book is the general lack of believability . I have no issue with the premise, but I found myself inwardly groaning at much of what was written. The novel show more also violated one of my pet peeves, where the real bad guys are members of the US government, and not the terrorist bastards that we deal with in the real world. As a result I had a hard time staying with this novel. My recommendation is not to bother picking this book up to begin with. Not to say there isn't entertaining aspects of this novel, but it wasn't well written or well executed.

Carl Alves - author of Two For Eternity show less

Brandon Vale is in jail for a jewel heist he didn't commit, though he is a career thief. He is suddenly broken out of jail by Richard Scanlan and Catherine Juarez who need Brandon's help to prevent a global disaster. I listened to an audio version of the book. the version said it was unabridged and if that's true the writer is very choppy and ends chapters abruptly. the plot of the story is silly but fun, especially when Brandon pulls off a big robbery.

Airplane book, for a 13-hour flight. I heard this author speak at a writer's conference, and, though this is not usually my kind of book, I vowed to read it on my next trip. So I did. The premise is over the top, the characters are a bit stereotyped, but it was entertaining, and that's what you need on a long plane ride.