The surprise of a lifetime awaits him when he discovers that the prison break was engineered by none other than Richard Scanlon, the FBI agent who framed him for the heist he didn’t commit. Scanlon admires Brandon for his expertise in his chosen profession and believes that Brandon is the only one who can help him. A covert offer has been made by some Ukrainians to sell a dozen nuclear warheads for $200 million dollars and Scanlon figures that the volatile Middle East situation will prompt the sale of said warheads to one of the interested parties resulting in a nuclear holocaust which will destroy the planet.

Scanlon wants Brandon to intercept a truckload of cash being transferred from Las Vegas casinos to a Federal Reserve facility in San Francisco. He plans to use this cash to buy the warheads and bury them in some remote location where they will do no damage. Brandon is intrigued by the challenge of stealing such a large well guarded chunk of cash, but he is unsure about trusting the people who have been made available to help him. In truth, he has no choice. If he doesn’t agree to help Scanlon, he will be returned to prison to spend the rest of his life.

The Second Horseman, unlike many thrillers, has some well developed characters who are individuals in their own right. Although Mills has fleshed out Brandon enough to provide a smart, basically good person in an unlikely profession, he has left enough of his personal background unexplained to provide an enigmatic character. Catherine, Brandon’s cohort in the heist is also an intriguing character. Her background is even less well known than Brandon’s and she has a bit of ruthlessness to her unusual in a woman. The interplay between the duo results in some unexpected dialogue and action.

The story is really divided into two parts — the planning and execution of the heist and the attempt to purchase the nuclear warheads from some rather shady Ukrainians. The former is quite well done, while the latter is straight of a poorly done film. There is considerable action with the Ukrainians in which totally unbelievable evens occur. Flying in a cargo plane with nuclear warheads packaged in unsecured wooden crates as well as unsecured human being is just a tad over the top.

Recently it has become popular to set novels in the Middle East with some sort of Biblical connection and The Second Horseman is no exception. The title provides the Biblical connection referring to the second horseman of the apocalypse who stands for the terrible warfare that will occur resulting in the end of the world. No mention of the second horseman is given in the text of the book so the title’s significance depends totally on the reader’s prior knowledge. The Middle East connection comes through the potential for the warheads to be sold to someone who has designs on improving the balance of power among the Jews, Arabs, and Palestinians to his own advantage. The description of this phase of the story is big on action with little cohesive rationale behind it. I think the book would have been better if the reason Brandon was required to steal the money was a different one.

Though the novel began in a promising manner, and both Brandon and Catherine are likeable, unique characters, the story deteriorated severely with the introduction of the nuclear warhead Middle East connection. I hope Mr. Mills brings back these two characters but gives them something more reasonable to do with their talents.

--Andy Plonka