To be completely honest, I was expecting this to be a Da Vinci Code clone. The book was first published under the title Kingdom Come, and rereleased with a title that would obviously appeal to DVC fans (it’s a recipe for success, no? Name of someone from the book + synonym for “code,” violà! Runaway bestseller in the making).
But I was surprised. Yes, eventually the book steers towards a secret society or church that believes Mary Magdalene gave birth to Christ’s child, but that doesn’t come up until well into the second half of the book. In fact, for most of the story, I found myself thinking the title was just a misleading attempt by the publisher to cash in on the whole DVC phenomenon.
The book is about a guy named Jack Dunphy who works for the CIA. When a London professor Dunphy was bugging is found murdered in a bizarrely ritualistic matter, Dunphy finds himself sentenced to menial office work back in the States. Some investigation on his part uncovers a secret section of the CIA whose sole duty it is to create what we think of as extraterrestrial activities ~ unexplained lights in the sky, the crash at Roswell, cattle mutilations, crop circles. The further Dunphy goes, the more he discovers that these activities are believed to be signs of the “end times,” and the secret church known as the Magdalene Society has created these activities to “force” the change it wishes to see in the world.
Yeah, it’s a bit hooey. But it was a fast-paced read and there were scant mentionings of gay characters (though they were “bad” guys, or at least shady characters, so I don’t know what that says about the author’s view of homosexuality), so it wasn’t all about Dunphy and Clem. And there was no outright sex, thank God. The ending seemed a bit ... I don’t know, unresolved? Almost as if there’s a sequel planned, though I haven’t heard of it if there is one.
All in all, a good book. Kept me reading, at any rate, through to the end. I probably wouldn’t have picked it up if it were titled Kingdom Come, so I guess the publisher knew what they were doing after all, eh?