From Publishers Weekly
With this sixth novel in as many years (following last year's Sphere of Influence), Mills departs from his usual suspense thriller format of mass murder, conspiracy and terrorist threat. What he presents instead is a timely and chilling tale hinging on the power of Big Tobacco to bring the American government and economy to a standstill. Trevor Barnett, 32, is heir to a giant tobacco conglomerate called Terra. He is also a lazy ne'er-do-well who works for the company only because his trust payments are tied to his employment in the tobacco industry. He knows cigarette smoking kills people, but doesn't really care, believing that smokers have the right to make their own decisions. The tobacco industry is about to lose a $250-billion class-action lawsuit, a judgment the industry cannot appeal. Such a ruling will permanently bankrupt all of the tobacco companies, and Terra's ruthless CEO, Paul Trainer, is not about to let that happen. After making some snappy and irreverent comments at a board meeting, Trevor suddenly and unwillingly finds himself spearheading a tobacco offensive that shakes the nation. Big Tobacco closes all its plants and recalls all its tobacco products in a clever game of chicken, facing down the courts, Congress, the White House and the antismoking lobby. The result is a catastrophic loss of tax revenue and political donations, and an angry population of smoking voters who want their cigarettes back. The novel's plot is carefully crafted and original, filled with corporate and political intrigue, treachery, betrayal and the complex backroom deals that keep big companies humming along. With a refreshing lack of sanctimony, Mills turns the tobacco wars into grist for an absorbing business thriller. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Trevor Barnett is the ne'er-do-well descendant of one of the original tobacco dynasties. He lives off a trust fund and has an insignificant position at the family's tobacco firm. But the free ride may soon be over. The industry is looking at a $250 billion judgment in a lawsuit funded by the antismoking industry. A decision is made to throw Trevor to the wolves in a national television appearance with the anti-smokers' pit bull, Angus Scalia. Although scared to death, Trevor acquits himself well through a combination of honesty and anger at Scalia's personal attacks. Voila! The smoking industry has a likable persona. Trevor then develops the industry's new strategy: give up. Pull all product off the shelves, close distribution centers, stop buying from tobacco farmers, and lay off all their workers. The ensuing economic chaos leads to smokers' riots, attempts on Trevor's life, and, finally, a compromise in which it's acknowledged that tobacco users bear the responsibility for their own choices. Mills, best known for thrillers such as Sphere of Influence [BKL Ag 02], breaks away from the world-in-peril theme to explore a burning social issue. He does an exemplary job of presenting both sides of the issue--essentially, health versus choice--and presents a Swiftian solution designed to bring both warring factions to their knees. This may disappoint a few of the author's usual fans but will gain him many new ones. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Kirkus Reviews
Provocative.
Publishers Weekly
Timely and chilling.
Tom Clancy
Mills is quickly becoming the new master.
Book Description
Through a series of unwanted promotions, Trevor Barnett has become the lead spokesman for the tobacco industry-just as a two-hundred-billion-dollar lawsuit is about to bankrupt it. Now, Big Tobacco is going on the offensive-and Trevor is caught in the crossfire.
Smoke Screen FROM THE PUBLISHER
Through an inexplicable series of unwanted promotions, Trevor Barnett has become the lead spokesman for the tobacco industry just as it's on the verge of extinction. Plaintiff's attorneys have finally found the weakness they've been searching for, and filed a $200 billion lawsuit that the industry will be unable to appeal.
America's tobacco companies react by doing the unthinkable - they close their plants and recall their products from retailers' shelves. Trevor is charged with the task of going on national television and making the announcement: Not another cigarette will be manufactured or sold until the industry is given ironclad protection from the courts.
As the economy falters and chaos takes hold, Trevor becomes the target of enraged smokers, gun-toting cigarette smugglers, and a government that has been cut off from one of its largest sources of revenue. Soon it becomes clear that this has always been his function - to take the brunt of the backlash and shield the men in power from the maelstrom they've created.
Abandoned by friends, family, and the industry his own ancestors helped build, Trevor finds an unlikely ally in a beautiful anti-tobacco lobbyist with whom he's secretly been in love with for years. Together they hatch a plan to fight back.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
With this sixth novel in as many years (following last year's Sphere of Influence), Mills departs from his usual suspense thriller format of mass murder, conspiracy and terrorist threat. What he presents instead is a timely and chilling tale hinging on the power of Big Tobacco to bring the American government and economy to a standstill. Trevor Barnett, 32, is heir to a giant tobacco conglomerate called Terra. He is also a lazy ne'er-do-well who works for the company only because his trust payments are tied to his employment in the tobacco industry. He knows cigarette smoking kills people, but doesn't really care, believing that smokers have the right to make their own decisions. The tobacco industry is about to lose a $250-billion class-action lawsuit, a judgment the industry cannot appeal. Such a ruling will permanently bankrupt all of the tobacco companies, and Terra's ruthless CEO, Paul Trainer, is not about to let that happen. After making some snappy and irreverent comments at a board meeting, Trevor suddenly and unwillingly finds himself spearheading a tobacco offensive that shakes the nation. Big Tobacco closes all its plants and recalls all its tobacco products in a clever game of chicken, facing down the courts, Congress, the White House and the antismoking lobby. The result is a catastrophic loss of tax revenue and political donations, and an angry population of smoking voters who want their cigarettes back. The novel's plot is carefully crafted and original, filled with corporate and political intrigue, treachery, betrayal and the complex backroom deals that keep big companies humming along. With a refreshing lack of sanctimony, Mills turns the tobacco wars into grist for an absorbing business thriller. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
In his latest thriller, Mills (Free Fall) mines familiar territory with completely new and powerful tools. Trevor Barnett is a self-described "trustafarian," a young man with a trust fund-and it's making him miserable. Trevor's money comes from Terra, the tobacco company his family built from the ground up. But he can only gain access to his money by working for the family business he despises. With a lawsuit pending in Montana that may wipe out the tobacco companies, Trevor starts to realize the futility of his life. He wants out. Unfortunately, every move he makes to escape gets him promoted. Soon he's unwillingly assisting the power-hungry, economy-shaking machinations of Terra CEO Paul Trainer. In this thriller, less is more. While the action still counts-the thrills come from Trevor's out-of-control and often hilarious trajectory-it is Mills's smart and witty writing that makes this essential reading. Like a lower-key Carl Hiaasen, he pokes knowledgeable fun at the politicians, the anti-tobacco campaigners, the ruthless tobacco company execs, and the idea of personal responsibility. Readers who are convinced that they know where they stand on the tobacco issue may have to think again. Highly recommended.-Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Funny, near-credible fantasy about an unlikely hero who takes on Big Tobacco and cuts it down to size. Terra Holding Corporation, the tobacco colossus widely viewed as "the last word in corporate evil," employs, in a lowly, computer-nerdish capacity, one Trevor Barnett, whose great-great-great-grandfather once walked tall in the industry. Not so, Trevor, of course, whose natural inclination is to cower. Or if not precisely that, at least to blend in so effectively as to give fresh meaning to the phrase "protective coloration." A "whiny putz," says Paul Trainer, Terra Corp's CEO, dismissively. But he's wrong. There are two sides to Trevor. For one thing, he's smart. For another, he has a certain inner-deeply inner-fortitude that blocks the easy hypocrisy so prevalent in his family history. What he lacks is self-regard-until, that is, the lovely and estimable Anne Kimball decides to take him in hand. As a staunchly idealistic member of SY (Smokeless Youth), she is at first distinctly anti-Trevor. Still, she's the one who sees in him what there is to see and, having fallen in love despite herself, lights a fire under him. Interestingly enough, Trevor does have a point of view. Acknowledging that tobacco is quite as harmful as its worst critics say it is, he insists that "the question we need to answer isn't whether Americans should smoke; it's whether they should be allowed to smoke": in other words, it's a question of self-determination, of personal liberty. How this vaults him into a position of power, befuddles his enemies, wins him his girl, makes him rich, and reshapes Big Tobacco forever is the burden of a wry, sly Frank Capra-esque tale. Fast, lively, provocative. If at resolutiontime Mills (Burn Factor, 2001, etc.) blows a little smoke, you'll at least have been thoroughly entertained.
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