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I sacrificed --- quite willingly --- a beautiful spring Sunday afternoon on the altar of KINGDOM COME, Tim Green's latest and perhaps penultimate novel. Green has always been a competent and constantly improving wordsmith, but nothing he has done before has foreshadowed the addictive readability of this work.
The plot is a loose modernization of MACBETH, a fact that Green reveals early on with an introductory quote from that work as well as the name of his primary character. Thane Coder has a life that many, if not most, would envy. He has a fabulous job working for King Corp, a giant real estate entity that has become one of the richest, most powerful companies in the United States under the strong hand of founder James King. Coder also has Jessica, his beautiful, seductive wife, and a salary that can provide him with everything he wants. He lives in a dream come true for someone who came from less-than-humble beginnings.
As he freely confesses, however, this is not enough. When King announces that he's taking the company public and promoting his son Scott ahead of Coder, Coder refuses to accept the news. Putting himself in the pocket of a powerful and corrupt construction union, Coder --- with Jessica's careful plotting and subtle encouragement --- murders James and frames Scott for the deed. Things begin unraveling almost immediately, and not always in the way one might expect. Coder and Jessica give themselves over to an opulence and indulgence that quickly corrupts them from within and without. Killing becomes easier, and as both of them play the FBI and the union against each other, it slowly becomes clear that they are headed down an inevitable path of ruin.
Green's pacing is exquisite, particularly in the latter half of the novel, wherein the pending doom is held at bay even as it dips and swirls in and out of the story. Green also infuses the climax with a fine and just symmetry that is not revealed until the very end, thus leaving the reader satisfied at precisely the right moment.
Whether you are a longtime reader of Green's work or have never read him before, KINGDOM COME is an imperative addition to your must-read list. Highly recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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