Storming Heaven

Take one outspoken, sloppy, slightly boozy FBI agent who's too smart for his own good (and never lets the reader forget it) and exile him to a field office in Arizona so he doesn't embarrass the Agency. Tie him to a short tether and bury him in paperwork. Add a double murder and a missing teenager; throw in a little New Age religion (but don't identify it as Scientology, or L. Ron Hubbard's legions will bury you in lawsuits) and you have Kyle Mills's second Mark Beamon thriller. A bit too smug to be likable, Beamon has the case totally figured out before anyone else has a clue. Shortly thereafter, he's pressured to shut down the investigation. When he persists in following a road that leads right to the front door of the powerful Church of the Evolution, he's suddenly targeted by the IRS, labeled a pedophile, and finally suspended. But with the help of an ex-member of the cult, an eager young agent, and a crusty old retired wire tapper, Beamon manages to track down the missing girl and put a crimp in the church's ambitious plans. These include a conspiracy to take over the nation's telecommunications infrastructure and extend the cult's hold over the movers and shakers of the country--including Beamon's boss and other FBI honchos. A tidy little millennial thriller with echoes of Waco, Ruby Ridge, and those comet-happy cultists in San Diego who followed their leader to a higher plane last summer, this should win Mills (author of Rising Phoenix) a legion of new fans. --Jane Adams