In his novels, Kyle Mills tackles controversial issues while entertaining readers at the same time. In Fade, a man is falsely accused of being a terrorist.  In Smoke Screen, he examined the social issues surrounding the tobacco industry.  Now, he creates a timely thriller that exposes the dangers of the world’s dependence on oil in Darkness Falls.

What sparked the idea for Darkness Falls?

I was interested in the topic of the world's dependence on oil and, more specifically, what would happen if availability was suddenly cut off. 

It also presented a substantial challenge:  How do you wipe out such a durable and diverse resource?  Right up my alley, since my favorite part of writing thrillers is figuring out how to pull off ridiculously difficult crimes.

Why bring back the character of Mark Beamon now, after a three book absence?

Oh, I missed him something awful. 

Seriously, not writing Mark was less a conscious decision to get rid of him as it was an attraction to subject matters that didn’t work for him. I always knew he’d come back when I discovered the right venue.

Do you think we are fighting in the Middle East for oil?

No question. If the Middle East didn’t have oil, we’d pay no more attention to it than we do sub-Saharan Africa.  And without money flooding in from around the world, they would have no capacity to build weapons that could be any real threat.

Does a bacteria and organisms that eat oil actually exist?  Should we be concerned?

Yes on both fronts. The real-world counterpart of my bacteria is Geobacillus thermodenirificans, an organism recently found in a Chinese oil well.  It can survive in temperatures as high as 165F with crude oil as its sole energy source, and it is easily altered on a genetic level to tailor it to specific tasks.{mospagebreak}

What would the consequences be of the drastic reduction in oil that you depict in Darkness Falls?

A disaster beyond your wildest imagination.

People in the developed world rely on a very delicate web of specialized skills and complex supply chains.  Think about it:  What would you do if there was suddenly no food in the grocery stores and no gas to put in your tank?  How would you eat?  Go to work?  Heat your home?  If you needed the police or an ambulance, how would they get to you?  How would the incredibly high-tech medical and pharmaceutical industry that we’ve come to rely on keep going?  And, in the end, how would you prevent chaos when people became desperate?

What can we do to help get rid of this oil dependence?

I don’t think there is the political will to try to reduce our dependence and that means we’re going to have to wait until it becomes scarce.

Depending on which statistics you read, we either have plenty of oil or we are going to run out anyway in less than fifty years.  What do you see fifty years in the future?

By 2057, I’m confident that oil will be scarce and expensive.  I seriously doubt it will be used for things like transportation anymore because it won’t be able to compete with available alternatives. Even with current technology, a jump in gas prices to seven dollars starts to make a $35,000 plug-in hybrid look attractive.

Will your next novel incorporate the changes you describe at the end of Darkness Falls? 

No, though with Mark Beamon, I seem to have accidentally created an alternate universe a la Tom Clancy.  Maybe that will signal the end of Mark. I’m not sure.  Honestly, the whole idea of him being permanently gone doesn’t sit well with me.  We have such history together.

The book I’m working on now is about an American who inadvertently becomes entangled in organized crime and politics in Africa.  I spend a lot of time in South Africa and have always wanted to try to capture the dangerous energy of that continent. 

Click to read an except from DARKNESS FALLS.