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Mark Beamon #2
Storming Heaven
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp Series
Punished for his maverick ways, FBI agent Mark Beamon has been exiled from Washington, D.C., to a sleepy Southwest office where he's got one last chance to play by the rules. But that's not going to happen, not when he's on a case that may be too hot even for his unorthodox talents to handle.
A local millionaire and his wife are brutally murdered. Jennifer, their teenage child and sole heir; is the prime suspect -- and she's gone missing. Laying everything on the line, Beamon sets offon a trail that takes him from a remote survivalist's cabin in the Utah mountains, through the labyrinthine headquarters of a cultlike church, into the shadowy, interlocking boardrooms of a powerful high-tech communications empire.
Just when he thinks he's close to finding answers, Beamon discovers the killing of Jennifer's parents is far more sinister than even he could have guessed. Now he isn't just looking for a young girl -- he's got to stop a bizarre conspiracy that could bring America to its knees...
Punished for his maverick ways, FBI agent Mark Beamon has been exiled from Washington, D.C., to a sleepy Southwest office where he's got one last chance to play by the rules. But that's not going to happen, not when he's on a case that may be too hot even for his unorthodox talents to handle.
A local millionaire and his wife are brutally murdered. Jennifer, their teenage child and sole heir; is the prime suspect -- and she's gone missing. Laying everything on the line, Beamon sets offon a trail that takes him from a remote survivalist's cabin in the Utah mountains, through the labyrinthine headquarters of a cultlike church, into the shadowy, interlocking boardrooms of a powerful high-tech communications empire.
Just when he thinks he's close to finding answers, Beamon discovers the killing of Jennifer's parents is far more sinister than even he could have guessed. Now he isn't just looking for a young girl -- he's got to stop a bizarre conspiracy that could bring America to its knees...
Mass Market Paperback
First published July 10, 1998
410 people are currently reading
788 people want to read
About the author
Kyle Mills
33 books2,514 followersI grew up in Oregon but have lived all over—D.C., Virginia, Maryland, London,
Wyoming. My father was an FBI agent and I was a bureau kid, which is similar to being an army brat. You tend to spend your time with other bureau kids and get transferred around a lot, though, I fared better on that front than many others.
One positive aspect of this lifestyle is that you can’t help but absorb an enormous amount about the FBI, CIA, Special Forces, etc. Like most young boys, I was endlessly fascinated with talk of chasing criminals and, of course, pictured it in the most romantic terms possible. Who would have thought that all this esoteric knowledge would end up being so useful?
I came into writing from kind of a strange angle. When I graduated from college in the late eighties, I had the same dream as everyone else at the time—a corporate job, a nice car, and a house with lots of square footage.
It turns out that none of that really suited me. While I did go for the corporate job, I
drove a beat-up Jeep and lived in a tiny house in a so-so Baltimore neighborhood. Most of the money I made just kind of accumulated in my checking account and I found myself increasingly drawn to the unconventional, artistic people who lived around me. I was completely enamored with anyone who could create something from nothing because I felt like it was beyond me.
Enter rock climbing. I’d read an article on climbing when I was in college and thought it looked like an incredible thing to do. Someday, I told myself, I would give it a try. So one weekend in the early ’90s, I packed up my car, drove to West Virginia, and spent a
weekend taking lessons. Unknown to me at the time, this would be the start of an
obsession that still hangs with me today. I began dating a girl who liked to climb and we decided we wanted to live somewhere with taller rocks and more open space.
Moving to Wyoming was the best decision we ever made. The place is full of the most amazing people. You might meet someone on a bike ride and find out they were in the Olympics, or climbed Everest, or just got back from two months trekking in Nepal. In a roundabout way, it was these people who made it possible for me to write a novel. They seemed to have no limitations. Everything was possible for them and I wanted to be that type of person, too.
I was working for a little bank in Jackson Hole, spending my days making business loans and my afternoons and weekends climbing. For some reason, it finally occurred to me that I’d never actually tried to be creative. Maybe I could make something from nothing. Why not give it a shot?
My first bright idea was to learn to build furniture. That plan had some drawbacks, the most obvious of which being that I’m not very handy. It was my wife who suggested I write a novel. It seemed like a dumb idea, though, since I majored in finance and had spent my entire college career avoiding English courses like the plague. Having said that, I couldn’t completely shake the idea. Eventually, it nagged at me long enough that I felt compelled to put pen to paper. Eight months later, I finished Rising Phoenix and about a year after that I managed to get it published.
The success of Rising Phoenix and my subsequent books has allowed me to make my living as a writer, which isn’t bad work if you can get it. Other than that, my life hasn’t changed all that much. Aging elbows have forced me to replace climbing with backcountry skiing and mountain bike racing. I got the not-so-smart idea of restoring an old pickup to replace the dying Jeep. And, I still live in Wyoming...
Wyoming. My father was an FBI agent and I was a bureau kid, which is similar to being an army brat. You tend to spend your time with other bureau kids and get transferred around a lot, though, I fared better on that front than many others.
One positive aspect of this lifestyle is that you can’t help but absorb an enormous amount about the FBI, CIA, Special Forces, etc. Like most young boys, I was endlessly fascinated with talk of chasing criminals and, of course, pictured it in the most romantic terms possible. Who would have thought that all this esoteric knowledge would end up being so useful?
I came into writing from kind of a strange angle. When I graduated from college in the late eighties, I had the same dream as everyone else at the time—a corporate job, a nice car, and a house with lots of square footage.
It turns out that none of that really suited me. While I did go for the corporate job, I
drove a beat-up Jeep and lived in a tiny house in a so-so Baltimore neighborhood. Most of the money I made just kind of accumulated in my checking account and I found myself increasingly drawn to the unconventional, artistic people who lived around me. I was completely enamored with anyone who could create something from nothing because I felt like it was beyond me.
Enter rock climbing. I’d read an article on climbing when I was in college and thought it looked like an incredible thing to do. Someday, I told myself, I would give it a try. So one weekend in the early ’90s, I packed up my car, drove to West Virginia, and spent a
weekend taking lessons. Unknown to me at the time, this would be the start of an
obsession that still hangs with me today. I began dating a girl who liked to climb and we decided we wanted to live somewhere with taller rocks and more open space.
Moving to Wyoming was the best decision we ever made. The place is full of the most amazing people. You might meet someone on a bike ride and find out they were in the Olympics, or climbed Everest, or just got back from two months trekking in Nepal. In a roundabout way, it was these people who made it possible for me to write a novel. They seemed to have no limitations. Everything was possible for them and I wanted to be that type of person, too.
I was working for a little bank in Jackson Hole, spending my days making business loans and my afternoons and weekends climbing. For some reason, it finally occurred to me that I’d never actually tried to be creative. Maybe I could make something from nothing. Why not give it a shot?
My first bright idea was to learn to build furniture. That plan had some drawbacks, the most obvious of which being that I’m not very handy. It was my wife who suggested I write a novel. It seemed like a dumb idea, though, since I majored in finance and had spent my entire college career avoiding English courses like the plague. Having said that, I couldn’t completely shake the idea. Eventually, it nagged at me long enough that I felt compelled to put pen to paper. Eight months later, I finished Rising Phoenix and about a year after that I managed to get it published.
The success of Rising Phoenix and my subsequent books has allowed me to make my living as a writer, which isn’t bad work if you can get it. Other than that, my life hasn’t changed all that much. Aging elbows have forced me to replace climbing with backcountry skiing and mountain bike racing. I got the not-so-smart idea of restoring an old pickup to replace the dying Jeep. And, I still live in Wyoming...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
May 11, 2020
Our maverick FBI Special Agent, Mark Beamon, is at it again; fixated on yet another complex case. This time he's matching wits with a huge, well endowed church group whose target goals include more than saving souls. Mr. Mills is a good story teller and particularly good, I think, in fleshing out his characters so that they come alive for the reader. I liked it.
August 2, 2020
Storming Heaven
Kyle Mills
1998
Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind. ~ Albert Einstein
Picked up this old paperback and it helped pass some time with some enjoyable background reading.
The story and concepts are Ok, if the plot is a bit predictable and plodding, but then it is not every day that one goes against a cult in a small town.
3.5 stars.
Lino P Matteo
Punished for his maverick ways, FBI agent Mark Beamon has been exiled from Washington, D.C., to a sleepy Southwest office where he's got one last chance to play by the rules. But that's not going to happen, not when he's on a case that may be too hot even for his unorthodox talents to handle.
A local millionaire and his wife are brutally murdered. Jennifer, their teenage child and sole heir; is the prime suspect -- and she's gone missing. Laying everything on the line, Beamon sets offon a trail that takes him from a remote survivalist's cabin in the Utah mountains, through the labyrinthine headquarters of a cultlike church, into the shadowy, interlocking boardrooms of a powerful high-tech communications empire.
Just when he thinks he's close to finding answers, Beamon discovers the killing of Jennifer's parents is far more sinister than even he could have guessed. Now he isn't just looking for a young girl -- he's got to stop a bizarre conspiracy that could bring America to its knees...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ADQK9CA/...
Kyle Mills
1998
Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind. ~ Albert Einstein
Picked up this old paperback and it helped pass some time with some enjoyable background reading.
The story and concepts are Ok, if the plot is a bit predictable and plodding, but then it is not every day that one goes against a cult in a small town.
3.5 stars.
Lino P Matteo
Punished for his maverick ways, FBI agent Mark Beamon has been exiled from Washington, D.C., to a sleepy Southwest office where he's got one last chance to play by the rules. But that's not going to happen, not when he's on a case that may be too hot even for his unorthodox talents to handle.
A local millionaire and his wife are brutally murdered. Jennifer, their teenage child and sole heir; is the prime suspect -- and she's gone missing. Laying everything on the line, Beamon sets offon a trail that takes him from a remote survivalist's cabin in the Utah mountains, through the labyrinthine headquarters of a cultlike church, into the shadowy, interlocking boardrooms of a powerful high-tech communications empire.
Just when he thinks he's close to finding answers, Beamon discovers the killing of Jennifer's parents is far more sinister than even he could have guessed. Now he isn't just looking for a young girl -- he's got to stop a bizarre conspiracy that could bring America to its knees...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ADQK9CA/...
February 11, 2019
There were times when reading this one that it came off as dated, like the stuff with computers, cell phones and paying for calling long distance. At other times this one seemed in the now, like with the controversy surrounding Scientology, which is similar to the religion in this book.
Mark did a good job following clues, even as it took him to odd places, even as the people around him were killed and his reputation was shredded. Yet Mark wouldn't give up on the teen girl, she was who he was really working for.
Mark did a good job following clues, even as it took him to odd places, even as the people around him were killed and his reputation was shredded. Yet Mark wouldn't give up on the teen girl, she was who he was really working for.
April 19, 2024
When a millionaire's family is killed, a maverick FBI agent in on the case to find the only survivor, the daughter, who is also a prime suspect. This takes him to a cult, and the usual conspiracy to topple the USA.
Pretty rote.
Pretty rote.
July 29, 2021
So So
The story is to long and the last part of it just isn’t believable. I like Beamon as a character and I liked Book 1 but this one gets weaker and weaker as the story progresses .
The story is to long and the last part of it just isn’t believable. I like Beamon as a character and I liked Book 1 but this one gets weaker and weaker as the story progresses .
June 15, 2017
I have already read Kyle Mills contribution to some of the Mitch Rapp series, and I enjoy his writing style. This book was much different from anything Mitch Rapp - but that was one of the intriguing things about it. Mills kept me hooked, not just to the flawed character of Mark Beamon, but fun supporting cast members like Ernie, Goldman, and Chet Michaels...not to mention the heroin, Jennifer Davis. I liked the pace, and Mr. Mills first attempt at "creating his own religion" came out through the pages nicely. This was a great five star for me. Maybe I am easy to please, but I was impressed.
July 20, 2021
Really enjoy reading Mark Beamon series by Kyle Mills. Alas, he took over for Vince Flynn and Mitch Rapp superseded The Beamon arc! Mr. Mills is very talented in his own right and developed a winsome character in Mark Beamon. Wish there were more, but the Mitch Rapp series is top gun, understandably!
March 25, 2023
Good read but a lot of type-o's
The book was decent but far fetched. Had more misspelled words and typos than any other book I've ever read. Expected better quality from this author and publisher.
The book was decent but far fetched. Had more misspelled words and typos than any other book I've ever read. Expected better quality from this author and publisher.
September 26, 2017
This Mills plot has more twists and turns than a putting green at Pebble Beach during a strong wind. Very entertaining, good tension and humor. FBI agent, Mark Beamon, is the guy we want on our side.
November 29, 2021
Great Story
I love Beamon. Such a great character, who’s flaws make me root for him more than most protagonists.
I’m a little disappointed in the end, just because I wanted more.
I’m VERY disappointed in the editing. I am confident that this huge negative cannot be attributed to Kyle Mills, as I’ve read several of his works, but to the publisher or whomever is in charge of converting the books to a Kindle copy. If I pay $8 for an e-book, I want it to be readable, not fraught with typos, unfinished sentences, and glaring mistakes. I’ll be contacting the publisher, bc I doubt I reread this unless I can have a corrected version. So basically a waste of money, despite my wanting to support the author.
I love Beamon. Such a great character, who’s flaws make me root for him more than most protagonists.
I’m a little disappointed in the end, just because I wanted more.
I’m VERY disappointed in the editing. I am confident that this huge negative cannot be attributed to Kyle Mills, as I’ve read several of his works, but to the publisher or whomever is in charge of converting the books to a Kindle copy. If I pay $8 for an e-book, I want it to be readable, not fraught with typos, unfinished sentences, and glaring mistakes. I’ll be contacting the publisher, bc I doubt I reread this unless I can have a corrected version. So basically a waste of money, despite my wanting to support the author.
June 19, 2023
finished 18th june 2023 good read three stars i liked it kindle library loaner have read a number of stories from mills kyle on the series he continued that the other writer began...mitch rapp is it? sheesh, memory is going. those are all good...this one no different, a large powerful, influential church is involved in nefarious activity. they're the second coming of christ, happens every 2,000 years, or every four years if you're into elections. entertaining and fast-paced read.
January 24, 2020
I came to be reading Kyle Mills after finishing Vince Flynn/Kyle Mills most recent book. I enjoyed the first in this series. The second, Storming Heaven, took my by surprise. The novel felt more mature. Great character development without beating things to death - that was what I least enjoyed about Mills' first novel in the series. If you've read the first .... I'd advise you to press on. The second one is even better. I'm going to start the third now.
Dave Dampf, author Ghosts of Saratoga
Dave Dampf, author Ghosts of Saratoga
January 1, 2020
Terrifying good read!
I love the Mark Beamon series because he is so unconventional. He’s not the typical lead, and it makes it fun to read his exploits. This read really got to me! Beamon’s case revolved around Jennifer Davis and Mills wrote her beautifully. It freaked me out and then having a cult like church thrown in the mix made for a crazy read. I’m thoroughly invested in the Mark Beamon series now!
I love the Mark Beamon series because he is so unconventional. He’s not the typical lead, and it makes it fun to read his exploits. This read really got to me! Beamon’s case revolved around Jennifer Davis and Mills wrote her beautifully. It freaked me out and then having a cult like church thrown in the mix made for a crazy read. I’m thoroughly invested in the Mark Beamon series now!
August 17, 2021
I’m growing to enjoy Mark Beamon. A little overweight… sarcastic… drinks too much… smokes too much… feels pretty normal. I also like that he doesn’t have to shoot himself out of impossible situations like other heroes. He seems a little more normal in that regard. I’m not sure I enjoyed the fanatic religious angle, but all and all… pretty solid! I did thoroughly enjoy how he stuck it to his bosses at the end!!
February 13, 2022
mein 3. Buch mit dem FBI-Agenten Mark Beamon... aber sicher nicht mein letztes.
"Coole Socke" der Typ ;-)
mir gefallen der teilweise schwarze Humor die Ironie mit denen er sich selbst oft selbst und brenzelige Situationen betrachtet - und - fast wie McGyver - fällt ihm immer wieder eine Lösung ein.
allzeit aktuelles Thema und flottes Tempo führen dazu dass man das Buch "wie im Flug" durchliest
ich weiss nur nicht was der deutsche Titel mit dem Buch zu tun haben soll (wie so oft, leider)
"Coole Socke" der Typ ;-)
mir gefallen der teilweise schwarze Humor die Ironie mit denen er sich selbst oft selbst und brenzelige Situationen betrachtet - und - fast wie McGyver - fällt ihm immer wieder eine Lösung ein.
allzeit aktuelles Thema und flottes Tempo führen dazu dass man das Buch "wie im Flug" durchliest
ich weiss nur nicht was der deutsche Titel mit dem Buch zu tun haben soll (wie so oft, leider)
April 17, 2021
Storming Heaven (and Kyle Mills) does not disappoint. Moving forward from the first Mark Beamon book, Kyle Mills creates clear characters with real lives - flaws and all. Yet, the good guys draw a line in sand and don't cross it, just as the bad guys are really very bad. I have already started the third book in the series. So very glad to have found his books.
January 4, 2019
I think it would have been a good read but I gave up on it because of bad language. I can handle some but the main character rubbed me the wrong way too. This is my first attempt with this author so maybe I’ll try again some day.
January 11, 2019
Really great story.
A bit dated since it takes place in the 1990s, so the tech references seem kind of quaint... but that's easy to get past. I'll be reading more of this character.
A bit dated since it takes place in the 1990s, so the tech references seem kind of quaint... but that's easy to get past. I'll be reading more of this character.
August 11, 2019
Religion gone wild
Riveting story on how a religous belief can turn criminal. Who can be trusted and who cannot, even some of the FBI leaders. Just wish there was a little bit more to the ending.
Riveting story on how a religous belief can turn criminal. Who can be trusted and who cannot, even some of the FBI leaders. Just wish there was a little bit more to the ending.
March 30, 2020
I enjoyed the book the first time well enough that I put it on my husband's to read shelf. That was in 1999. Today, it seem terribly dated. It has computers and cell phones, so it isn't that. It is still a good read, just not as good as when it first came out.
February 15, 2021
Cold weather and good books, how does it get any better than this?
Like a Tom Clancy novel. Interesting concept about a crazed religious organization that begins to contol the population. Realistically unreal. Yep. Those are the words for this.
Like a Tom Clancy novel. Interesting concept about a crazed religious organization that begins to contol the population. Realistically unreal. Yep. Those are the words for this.
June 11, 2022
Good books, the build up of the story 492 pages the ending 6. Just seems like your left hanging at the end and I hate that. I want details of the ending. Still I will continue to read Kyle's books. Free Fall is next.
July 14, 2025
Enjoyable
I really enjoyed the story. Very imaginative.
Mark is brought to the brink and over comes. I just wish that it had been Ernie that sent the email. Quite a few spelling errors.
I really enjoyed the story. Very imaginative.
Mark is brought to the brink and over comes. I just wish that it had been Ernie that sent the email. Quite a few spelling errors.
June 14, 2017
A kidnapping mystery/thriller that combines FBI maverick Mark Beamon with an unusual array of talented people pitted against religious zealots.
June 17, 2017
Too much religion
October 31, 2017
Honestly just falling in love with this writer. Will be starting book number 3 this week
February 18, 2018
Long book but a great read!
February 23, 2018
Good story
May 17, 2018
I kept complaining about how stupid the main character was being. Very frustrating.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews