Fade

Kyle Mills has matured into a wonderful storyteller. Fade combines the humor of Smoke Screen with the pragmatic action of the earlier Mark Beamon series. All wrapped up in a post 911 world that is both highly relevant and tongue in cheek at the same time.

This is a different type of action story. It takes a former navy seal and places him on the wrong side of the law. He is a bad guy with a heart of tarnished gold. I could go on about plot, setting, characters, and tempo but that would be a waste of time. This is a very good story that will keep you reading late into the night. You will learn to care about most of the characters and really hate one. This is a really good ride.

This by the author who will take over writing for Vince Flynn's series on Mitch Rapp, Counter-terrorism Operative. We, in this household, love the series and Flynn's death was a shock and a loss to many of us. I wanted to see what Mills writing was like and picked this at random. I saw no correlation or similarities to Flynn's writing style by this example. What was expected from the reviews was a very serious thriller but turned out to be more of a spoof, or maybe perhaps a B-rated action movie screenplay. Cavalier humor intermingled in unlikely scenarios, just didn't cut it for me.

Example: Main character, former Navy Seal American-Arab bad-ass "Fade's" recorded message on his answering machine: "You've reached the phone of Salam al Fayed. I'm on a tri-state killing spree right now, but if you leave a message after the beep, I'll get back to you." Say what?? Does this even sound credible? It sounds stupid to me.

There were a lot of unrealistic comments, a lot of it was quite silly, and the ending unsatisfactory. I was disappointed, expected more, but intend to give Mills another try in hopes that his later novels show his ability to pick up where Flynn left off in writing the Rapp series we love so much.

The story told in FADE by Kyle Mills initially seems...well, familiar. A Special Ops guy --- in this case, a Navy SEAL --- is retired, quietly living his life and attempting to exorcise his personal and professional demons, when Uncle Sam comes calling, wanting to bring him in for one last mission. The ex-op, who is the best ever at what he does, refuses. The government tries to force him into it, and things go downhill from there, with the ex-op taking on the Army, or a town, or whatever. Like I said, it sounds familiar. At first. But FADE cannot be dismissed as another Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle. By the time movies like Commando or First Blood end, FADE is just getting warmed up.

Fade is Salam Al Fayad, an off-the-scale soldier who was forced to retire as the result of a grievous gunshot wound sustained in the line of duty. A bureaucratic snafu denied him the medical attention he needed; as a result, the bullet lies buried in scar tissue near his spine, causing him irrevocable nerve damage and bringing him closer to paralysis with each passing day. When Homeland Security decides to create a covert military surgical strike team, a career bureaucrat named Hillel Strand thinks that Fade is just the man for the job and assists on recruiting him, over the objections of Matt Egan. Egan, who had worked with Fade in the field and was at one time Fade's best friend, is well aware of Fade's bitterness toward his former employer --- a bitterness that includes Egan, who Fade blames (incorrectly) for the denial of his medical treatment.

Strand and Egan nonetheless approach Fade, who is living in solitude, eking out a living by building and repairing furniture while stoically awaiting the paralysis that will eventually result from his injury. When Fade predictably rebuffs the pair, Strand engineers a wrong-headed operation that sends a local police SWAT team to arrest Fade on trumped-up charges, a maneuver that is supposed to force Fade back into the fold of the U.S. government. Fade, however, believes that the SWAT team invading his home is actually an assassination squad, and successfully wipes out the entire crew, save for one: Karen Manning, the SWAT team leader, who is quickly taken hostage by Fade. Manning slowly begins to realize that Fade was set up, but it is too late.

Strand, hoping to cover up his duplicity in the action that has gone so horribly wrong, has set the might and majesty of the Federal Government against Fade. Well aware that his days are numbered, Fade has only his wits and planning abilities to aid him in his final quest, which is to obtain the ultimate revenge against Strand.

It would be easy to classify FADE as an extremely entertaining novel; indeed, it is a fast-paced work, one during which the reader never knows what will happen from one moment to the next. But Mills brings an element of moral ambivalence to the work that places it several steps above the garden variety explosions-and-karate one normally encounters in the genre. Almost all of the primary characters in FADE --- with the exception of Strand, and one other, whom we do not meet until the end of the book --- are innocents, cast against each other in a deadly dance where fates seem preordained and no one escapes entirely unscathed.

FADE, in its way, is a modern re-telling of the Frankenstein myth, done up in geopolitical dress and given a new relevance for our times. While there is plenty of action here for fans of the thriller genre, there is much for thoughtful, if disturbing, reflection as well. Recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Kyle Mills has written a few good novels, primarily involving his hard-luck FBI agent Mark Beamon. Beamon is not in Fade, but that doesn't stop it from being Mills's best book yet, a top-notch thriller that avoids the usual cliches.

Fade is the nickname for Salem Al Fayad, an American of Arab descent who in pre-9/11 days was an elite government assassin, with a definite gift for killing. A mission left him facing paralysis with a bullet in his back and the government unwilling to pay for the only surgery that could help him.; to try and come up with the money himself, he did some mercenary work in Columbia for a drug lord, and though he got the money, it was too late. The surgery was no longer possible and someday he would become a quadriplegic.

Now, six years later, ambitious Homeland Security bureaucrat Hillel Strand has decided that he wants Fade for a mission. He is discouraged by his co-worker Matt Egan, who was once Fade's friend, but Strand decides he will recruit Fade anyway. When Fade, now a recluse, soundly rejects the offer, Strand comes up with a clever ploy: frame Fade for a crime, have the police arrest him, and then Strand will bail him out on condition that he will work for Homeland Security. Karen Manning, a SWAT team leader, is tasked with arresting Fade against her better judgment.

Unfortunately, she proceeds as ordered, and Fade, expecting a raid by Strand's men, routs the cops and kills most of them, with only Manning left as a temporary hostage. He realizes what he has done and is regretful, but knows that now his days are limited: if the stress of his new battles doesn't paralyze him, then Strand will have to arrange his death to cover his own tracks in this debacle. Fade vows to kill Strand and Egan and the cat-and-mouse game is on, with both sides switching between the feline and rodent roles.

Besides Fade, the story also follows Manning and Egan. Manning has to deal with the fallout of the botched raid and her mixed feelings about Fade: he is a cop-killer, but it seemed to be in self-defense. In addition, she is involved with the hunt for a serial killer called the Collector. How this subplot is resolved is interesting and a bit unexpected. As for Egan, he's also been involved with his share of government wet work, but now he wants a quiet family life; he knows, however, that he may not have long to live if Fade wants to kill him; his ex-friend is far too adept at what he does.

Mills is at his best with this novel which fits the bill as a page-turner. He avoids predictability, offers plenty of action and has a few dashes of humor to lighten things up from time to time. This is a satisfying read that really works well.

This is an exciting, can't-put-it-down, thriller, post 911, that asks some interesting if not ancient questions. But I'll get to that in a moment.

Salam al Fayad, Fade, is American born of Middle Eastern parents who finds solace in the service, the SEALs in particular, where he discovers what he is really good at: killing bad guys.

Matt Egan, also coming from humble beginnings, ends up in the SEALs but his forte is thinking the mission out. At the risk of a terribly cliched comment, Egan is the rifle, Fade is the trigger. The two become best of friends until a mission in the Gulf War gets fouled up and Fade takes a bullet in the back, the projectile ending up within a hair of his spinal column. No problem. There's a surgeon with a new procedure that can remove the bullet and Fade, we assume, would be at least mobile again.

But the government gets involved (reference Ruby Ridge and Katrina) and 'they' refuse to pay for the very expensive operation.

Karen Manning is a beautiful, educated, physically powerful SWAT team leader, hated by her colleagues because of her gender, threatened by her bosses who feel incompetant next to her, and, I guess my father would have said, additionally she 'has a mouth on her,' no doubt fueling the fires of resentment and envy.

The government (Homeland Security) now wants Fade back in service but Fade tells them . . . . well there are two words and the last one is 'no.'

So in order to pressure Fade who has buit is farmhouse into something akin to the gunfight at the OK corral, without telling Manning any important information like, Fade was the best they ever saw, they send her and her team to arrest Fade on trumped up charges. And man, that's just in the first 30 pages.

Very exciting novel. But it also asks the question of what we do for the men and women we train to do the hard jobs? Do we turn our backs on them when they are of no more use? That's my reference to Alan Ladd's Shane in the title. Gunfighters, the men of Easy Company, Vietnam veterans. We don't necessarily treat them well.

Mills writes a great story. Certainly one of his best if not the best. And he poses some uncomfortable questions along the way. 5 stars. Larry Scantlebury

Salam al Fayed is an assassin abandoned by his government after he is badly wounded while returning from a mission. The US government won't pay for the expensive, exotic surgery he needs. Known as Fate, he faces death or total paralysis from his wounds when an ambitious government bureaucrat, Hillel Strand, decides Fate is needed as part of a new counter-terrorism team. Strand is not dissuaded by the protestations of Matt Egan, Fate's one-time partner.

Strand makes a terrible mistake and tries to extort Fate into joining his team. Deadly tragedy ensues and Fate is now the subject of a manhunt. Karen Manning, a local police officer has been left to twist in the wind by her poltically ambitious boss. Soon her path with cross with Fate's in unanticipated ways.

Fate vows deadly revenge against Strand and Egan. After all, with a bullet lodged near his spine, Fate has little to lose. But Egan does: a loving, unconventional wife and his young daughter.

Mills winds up the plot beyond clockspring tightness. There isn't a page without often adrenaline producing action. Fate is a fearsome hunter. Strand is a craven coward who doesn't hesitate to lie and manipulate. Egan is a friend conflicted by what he should do about Fate, who has vowed to kill him. Other sharply drawn characters weave in and out of this tightly plotted thriller.

There's nary a missed beat in this novel. From start to finish, it is entirely engrossing, the characters jumping off the page and the action inventive and non-stop. Not a book to pick up when you're facing a deadline --- because you'll forget about work or anything else until the last page. And maybe not even then.

Jerry

Since Kyle Mills has been chosen by the Flynn family and publisher to continue writing Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series of stories, I guess I expected the Mills writing to be more in sync with Vince's, and for me at least, it just wasn't. It simply lacked the degree of gripping excitement and page-turning anticipation that I always get from reading Vince Flynn's novels (I re-read them frequently). Had I never read any of Vince Flynn's work, I would probably have given this book "Fade" 5 stars, because it's a good story, but just not what I was expecting from the man who is apparently to carry on where Vince Flynn unfortunately left off upon his premature death. In all fairness to Kyle Mills, I freely admit that I may be judging his work unfairly by trying to compare him to Vince Flynn, because I firmly believe we won't see the likes of Vince's talent again anytime soon. However, again, for the person who has been chosen to pick up and carry the torch on Vince's behalf, I would have expected his writing to more closely parallel that of Vince. For me, it just simply did not. It fell flat, and I was greatly disappointed. I sincerely hope he does better when writing about Mitch Rapp, who has been an action hero to all of us who so dearly loved and enjoyed each new novel that Vince Flynn wrote. I do intend, however, to read other Kyle Mills novels and ascertain if I'm too harshly criticizing him.

"Fade" has restored my faith in Mr. Mills. With none of the gratuitous sex and violence that marred his last couple works, he has managed to tell a compelling action story about an operative trained to deal with morally-ambiguous circumstances who is shamefully abandoned by his government. Do not misunderstand--I do not issue a blanket condemnation of sex and violence, we are all impacted by such and such themes have a place in literature. However, a fine writer can leave much to the imagination that a lesser writer will force his reader to wade through. I applaud Mr. Mills for having sufficient faith in his plot and prose to avoid unnecessarily explicit writing.

Even though the protagonist is a wonderfully-drawn complex character, I greatly enjoyed the skewering of a governmental weenie-type. The kind of fellow who masters office politics and rises far beyond his ability, Hillel Strand is the type of person who avoids ethical dilemmas by construing all situations in terms of self-interest.

Sure, Fade is an action story and there is plenty of fighting and high-end carrying on--but it is much more than that. The novel has a depth that was missing in earlier works precisely because it treats issues of deep moral import and resolves them with a measure of respectful ambiguity thereby leaving the reader to think about the story rather than merely turn the pages. It is about who issues orders, whether they should be followed and how such orders change the world.

I was gratified to find that Mr. Mills has, at least in this offering, abandoned much of the coarseness that pervades action thrillers. In so doing, he elevated both his prose and the power of his story. In a world where the sympathies of combatants in the battle of good vs. evil are no longer easily identifiable, it pays to think about the consequences of power and exercises thereof.

THE TEASER
The novel begins with a unnecessary teaser, a loathsome device used to catch bookstore browsers with upfront action, but usually confusing the reader. However in this case the teaser does not cause as much potential confusion to the reader because the structure of "Fade" is very simple and straightforward and features only three (maybe four, depending on how you count them) principal characters.

THE SETUP
The central character in "Fade" is Salam al Fayed (nicknamed Fade), an American ex-special forces warrior/assassin. Fade has retired because a bullet is lodged in his spine. He is angry because the U.S. government would not pay for (what then was considered experimental) surgery to have it removed. Someday, the bullet will shift and paralyze him. The chief of a unit of Homeland Security decides that Fade the is perfect man for a mission. When Fade refuses the mission, the chief leaks false charges to the Virginia State Police which sends a swat team to apprehend Fade. The Chief's purpose was simply to get more leverage on Fade. Fade, naturally believing that the attack team is a special forces hit squad, spectacularly escapes, killing them all, except Karen Manning the team leader, whom he kidnaps That's the setup. The rest of the story is the chase by the police and Homeland Security (including Fade's friend Matt Egan), and the evasion from them by Fade and Manning.

COMMENTS
The question of the futility/necessity of police action--including the police action on an international scale as practiced by special forces is a well developed recurring theme. Pacifist will find the arguments compelling. Activist law-and-order types will find the arguments equally compelling.

THE VERDICT
The character of Fade is well developed and compelling. The story is very well told: fast paced, exciting, entertaining, often humorous, ultimately satisfying, and even gives you something to think about This is one of the best action novels I have read in quite a while.

> Click on “Stoney” just below the product title to see my other reviews, or leave a comment to ask a question.

A director of Homeland Security,Hillel Strand is trying to recruit agents for undercover work in the Middle East.Strand gets his second in command Matt Egan to approach his former

friend Salam al-Fayed better known as Fade.Fade is a former Navy

Seal who speaks Arabic and is the son of Middle East immigrants.

There is one problem.Fade was shot in the back in Iraq and the

American government denied him help.

He is now living a low income life with a bullet near his spine that could cause paralysis.Fade is bitter towards the

government and Matt Egan blaming both for his present situation.

He refuses to go back into government service.Strand convinces the local police to arrest Fade on false charges so he can attempt to strike a deal for Fade's cooperation.A police SWAT

team is killed by the former Navy Seal.He becomes a fugitive at

large because of this incident.A massive effort is launched to

arrest or assassinate Fade.There is nonstop action as the

authorities attempt to apprehend Fade.It has a very exciting finish.Be sure to read this book.

I wanted to like this...because the author is writing the next Vince Flynn Mitch Rapp book...due out in October. Mills is a good writer...but I just couldn't buy the premise of this story...I kept reading until around page 100...that's when Fade takes an old Cadillac into a Discovery channel mechanic shop to have James Bond type modifications made to the vehicle. The storyline got too hokey for me. I quit. I won't be buying the Mitch Rapp book in October. Sorry.

Kyle Mills has outdone himself with Fade, a very tight and fast paced story from start to finish. Torn from the pages of current events in the wake of September 11th, Mills weaves a compelling story of Salem al Fayed (aka Fade) a former Navy SEAL and CIA operative who simply wants to live in obscurity following his service to his country. A simple twist of fate (and some duplicitous government actions) makes al Fayed both the hunted and the hunter. Old friendships are challenged, while new allegiances are established. Character development is very strong, with the reader quickly coming to understand the emotional underpinnings of the characters in support of the main storyline and interwoven subplots.

All-in-all, Fade is fantastic. It will be difficult to put down once you start.

Several thrillers follow the same path. The villain is not really a bad guy. In this book, our villain/hero Fade has done some bad things. He is a sympathetic character but he does kill people which is not socially acceptable even if there is good reason. As a result we watch his work with his old friend Matt Egan and his strange relationship with Karen Manning with interest. How can it end. We hope for a happy ending. Fade is a good guy even if he has tried to kill an evil government functionary.

As I write this I am raising my grade to 4 stars because even if there can not be hoped for ending it is a fun read. It is my first Kyle Mills and I will read some more.

When a book starts off with an early scene depicting the protagonist committing violent acts against other 'good guys,' you can be sure that you're not in for one of those stereotypical Baldacci book by numbers.

Kyle Mills delivers a fast-paced thriller in which many of the typical twists and turns and unbelieveable romantic side stories never appear. Hooray! This book delivered on the promises made on its jacket, and kept me reading far past my bed-time.

An excellent and exciting thriller.

In Fade, Mills delivers a thriller that holds your attention from first page to last. His main characters are well-developed and not the run-of-the mill action figures, particularly Salem al-Fayed. What keeps this book from getting a 5-star rating is that while the plot is filled with action, much of it is predictable. Further, several of the secondary characters are one-dimensional and stereotpical. While Fade didn't live up to the high expectations I had for it based on its very exciting first half of the book, it is still worth reading and a notch above many of the other recent books in this genre.

Simply put, Fade is perhaps the best thriller book I have read to date. Actually, to be more precise Fade ranks right up there with the best books I have read across all genres.

Not only does Mills deliver fast paced, exciting and clever narrative and dialogue, but the depth of the character development throughout Fade is remarkable (especially for a thriller). As I read this book, I began to really get transported into the story and start to truly "feel" it come to life. This of course made it very hard, if not impossible for me to put the book down once I had started it.

The action sequences in Fade are also worth mentioning separately as they are very well delivered. Although I am no expert in the fields of law-enforcement and military operations Mills' depiction of these seemed very vivid and realistic to me.

I highly recommend Fade both to anyone looking to get into the thriller genre and seasoned thriller readers alike. Either way, Fade will not disappoint.

I've loved Kyle Mills work, especially the Mark Beamon series. Smoke Screen was a departure, but Fade is just bad. As we've seen with many authors -- have some success and the editor pays you less attention. Shame. Fade is poorly written with a story that is just contrived. Not up to Mills' earlier efforts. Won't be bad for a summer escapist piece, but if you're like me and crave a good read every time you invest in a book, then Fade will let you down. I finally had enough of the poor writing and gave up about 10 chapters in. Sorry, Kyle. You let us down.

Excellent reading. The characters are not your usual black/white type but most of them are in the grey area, neither good nor bad. The author also avoids the usual "tough on crime" approach that many of his colleagues share. The story line is interesting and keeps you turning the pages.

This is a highly entertaining story with one particularly interesting character...Fade. It was so hard not to care about him, even with full disclosure. I was really hoping his journey would come to a more promising end, though it probably ended the only way it could. And with me in tears.

While the title character seems a little too humorous at times to jive with his big, bad history I still enjoyed this quite a bit. It was the perfect blend of suspense and humor. Well done and I can't wait to read the next one!

Average number of books read per week = 3

Having said that. Fade was the best book I read in 2006. Once read, I passed it to my boyfriend. This Christmas season we bought copies for his grown children. Action packed page turner. Read it in one sitting (yes it is that good!).

This is a fun book and highly entertaining. Mills does a great job of making the reader care about the lives of his characters, and relating the violent and lethal nature of the characters without making them too over the top or bulletproof.