Title: KINGDOM COME
Author: J. G. Ballard
ISBN: 0007242891
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Pages: 280
Reviewed By: Adam Donnison

Richard Pearson has come to the Heathrow hinterland town of Brooklands to settle his father's estate and to find out who killed him and why. Richard's life is going nowhere after being fired from his advertising career for his eccentric ideas, and his estranged father is as much a mystery as the circumstances of his death. Richard takes it upon himself to try and figure out why a gunman would open fire on a crowded shopping mall, and why his father was in the firing line. When the main suspect is let free after eye witness testimony Richard becomes convinced that the witnesses are too convenient.

The scene of the crime, the Metro-Centre shopping complex, begins to attract Richards attention in his quest for answers. In the process he becomes aware of the nexus of sport, violence and consumerism that is centred on the complex. Richard's relationship with the centre and with its figurehead, the cable channel presenter David Cruise, becomes dangerously ambiguous as Richard uses his advertising ideas, shunned by his employer, to stunning effect in transforming a second rate actor into a powerful cohesive force for the bored, and somewhat bewildered denizens of the Metro-Centre.

In KINGDOM COME, Ballard takes what could have been a rather pedestrian whodunit and twists it into a chillingly believable exploration of racial violence and its roots in boredom. While it is a cautionary tale KINGDOM COME is also an engrossing read, mainly due to Ballard's deft prose. J.G. Ballard has a unique ability to evoke complex imagery out of a few carefully chosen words.

KINGDOM COME will delight fans of J.G. Ballard, and will no doubt win new fans. As usual his work is hard to categorise, but there is no doubt that KINGDOM COME is something special. Few readers will walk into a shopping mall without a new appreciation and awareness.