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Tim Green has been OD'ing on Macbeth. As you read KINGDOM COME, his new thriller, you realise that he's taken one of Shakespeare's best-known storylines and adapted it to modern-day America. Thane Coder and his wife Jessica appear to be an all-American couple. They have a cute son, a gorgeous home, and Thane is a high achiever in his job with the empire set up by patriarch James King. Thane, King's son Scott and Ben were all friends from college, now working together. From this point on, if you know the Macbeth story, you'll guess the gist of what happens. Thane, egged on by ambitious and materialistic Jessica, wants more power. So the bodies start to pile up. Added to the mix are two witches (no, I don't know what happened to the third one) in the shape of FBI agents Rooks and Lee. They're referred to as witches because apparently Jessica can't bring herself to say bitches. Yeah, right . . . And there's also a woodsman called Bucky with revenge on his mind, a sleazy gangster/businessman and some corrupt unions. The book alternates between Thane in prison, awaiting his move to witness protection, and talking to a shrink, and the main action where no one is quite sure who is double-crossing whom. KINGDOM COME is a very clever conceit. It kept me reading more because of that cleverness rather than because I engaged with the characters. And there, of course, is the risk that Green doesn't quite pull off a well-rounded novel -- you don't learn that much about the characters in any depth and in the end aren't that fussed about their fate, as they are really only ciphers. Nonetheless, KINGDOM COME is well worth your time, even if there is a slightly odd tacked-on chapter which hurtles out of nowhere near the end and makes it all a little too neat. And if we're really being fussy, Green leaves himself with nowhere to go in the final denouement and you may find yourself, as I did, jumping up and down and shouting 'hang on, isn't this cheating?' But kudos to the author for trying something a little unusual with the thriller format.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, March 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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