Books and Beverages Book Review: "Darkness Falls" by Kyle Mills

Mark Beamon is back. For any of you that are familiar with Kyle Mills' novels you are probably familiar with his recurring character, FBI Agent, Mark Beamon.
In "Darkness Falls" Agent Beamon now works for Homeland Security in energy security. Agent Beamon is about to tackle a case that will not only test his abilities, but may destroy society planet wide.

With this book you may need to sit back with a Gil T's Mochaccino. The hot chocolate/espresso mix will comfort you throughout this book while at the same time give you that extra caffeine boost you may need, because you won't want to put this book down. At the end of the review I'll give you the directions on how to make this mochaccino using 3 t-discs on your Tassimo brewer.

All the oil in the world is finite, meaning when it's gone it's gone. Ask any environmentalist or Saudi and they will tell you that's true. As it stands right now, the earth's oil supply may be depleted by the year 2050. So that's not too bad, plenty of time to discover/develop alternative fuels, right? What if that date was moved up to say maybe the year 2010? or this year? What would you do? That's exactly what could be happening in "Darkness Falls."

A mysterious bacteria has infected the oil drilling operations in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and the largest drilling facility in Saudi Arabia. This bacteria is a hydrocarbon eating bacteria, which is to say, it eats oil, and leaves nothing usable behind. In comes Erin Neal. Erin has been living a secluded life, off the grid in the Arizona desert since the death of his girlfriend, and fellow scientist Jenna, and let's just say, he isn't happy when an oil company executive appears on his doorstep. A number of important Saudi oil wells have stopped producing and Erin is the world's foremost expert in analyzing and preventing oil field disasters. In fact after his years of environmental activism he went to work for Saudi companies but has now retired and wants to be left alone in his self sustaining adobe structure.

Mark Beamon, former FBI agent, now working with Homeland Security, just wants to settle down, get married and retire from government work. However, Mark's unique no holds barred, tell it like it is investigation procedures make him the prime agent on this case. He also soon realizes that if this is not stopped life on Earth will completely change. Erin & Mark quickly find themselves stuck in the Saudi desert studying a new bacteria with a voracious appetite for oil and also an ability to corrode drilling equipment. Worst of all is its ability to spread.

It soon becomes clear that if this contagion isn't stopped, it will infiltrate the planet's petroleum reserves and cut the industrial world off from the energy that provides the heat, food, and transportation necessary for survival. As the scale of the coming disaster continues to grow, Erin realizes that there's something familiar about this bacteria. And that it couldn't possibly have evolved on its own.

Throughout the reading of this book, I "became aware" of how much I and society depend on oil, and even found myself checking gas prices. In the book they go up to $12US / gallon and after reading several chapters I would have to verify that gas was still Under $5US. Whew, talk about getting lost in a story, this book will definitely do suck you in.

In a book that about 10 years ago could have been labeled science-fiction, you will find yourself wanting to stay up all night to find out what happens next. There are 2 things that help with that. First, the book is filled with several short chapters that allow you to stop and go online to check the local gas prices...or maybe to watch a few minutes of news to verify we are okay (so far). Second is the great Gil T's Mochaccino.

Here's your recipe for your Tassimo brewer:
You will need 3 discs, 2 of which come with any Tassimo cappuccino mix, I prefer the Gevalia Cappuccino mix. The 3rd disc is Hot Chocolate, Suchard Hot Chocolate
was what I used.

First get a large cup, place the Suchard Hot Chocolate disc in the machine and let it brew. Second you will put in the espresso disc that comes with the cappuccino. And finally top it off with the foaming milk disc from the cappuccino mix. mix and drink. This will be a nice comforting hot chocolate taste with some espresso boost to get you through.


Stay tuned tomorrow when I'll be posting my Interview with "Darkness Falls" author Kyle Mills. We'll find out what makes him tick and where the character Mark Beamon comes from.