An urbane and well-written study of the portrayal of Israel in Kings. Linville’s working assumption, following the lead of P.R. Davies in particular, is that Kings should be seen as a reflection of post-exilic views on the nature of Israel rather than as a source for earlier Israelite history. Linville is at his strongest in assessing previous scholarship, with a satisfying demolition of attempts to use Deuteronomistic historiography as the hermeneutical key to Kings. His own interpretations of Kings are less satisfying, notably the attempt to bring together a reading of Kings from the post-exilic period with a reconstruction of social realities of that period. But still, an interesting book.