The Chain
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4.1 • 9 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
WINNER NED KELLY AWARD 2020
Longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2020
VICTIM. KIDNAPPER. CRIMINAL. YOU WILL BECOME EACH ONE.
The morning starts like any other. Rachel Klein drops her daughter, Kylie, at the bus stop and heads into her day. But then a phone call changes everything. A woman has Kylie bound and gagged in her back seat, and the only way Rachel will ever see her again is if she pays a ransom - and kidnaps another child. The caller is a mother herself, whose son has also been abducted, and if Rachel doesn't do exactly as she's told, both children will die. Rachel is now part of a terrifying scheme - The Chain.
The rules are simple: find the money, find your victim, and then commit a horrible act you'd have thought yourself incapable of just 24 hours ago. Rachel is an ordinary woman, but over the coming days she will be pushed beyond ordinary limits to save her daughter. What the anonymous masterminds behind The Chain know is that parents will do anything for their children. But what they don't know is that they may have met their match.
Can Rachel be the one person to finally break The Chain?
#DONTBREAKTHECHAIN
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
What would you do if the only way to save your own child was to kidnap another one? And what kind of person would enforce those rules in the first place? This nightmare scenario plays out in Adrian McKinty’s striking thriller. The Chain is simultaneously terrifying and impossible to put down. McKinty excels at making us ask ourselves extremely difficult questions, all while building a labyrinthine story full of disturbing characters and mounting dread.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An original premise, relentless pacing, and strong female characters lift this nail-biter from Edgar winner McKinty (the Sean Duffy series), which takes a no-holds-barred look at how far a parent will go to protect her child. Divorced teacher Rachel Klein, a cancer survivor, lives on Massachusetts's Plum Island with her 13-year-old daughter, Kylie. She's driving to Boston one day to see her doctor when she gets a call from an unidentified woman who sounds upset. The woman tells Rachel that she has kidnapped Kylie, and the only way to get Kylie back is for Rachel to kidnap another child. The woman, whose own child has been kidnapped, and Rachel are now links in a chain of abductions. If Rachel doesn't follow the program, Kylie will die. In desperation, Rachel and her retired military brother-in-law, Pete O'Neill, eventually kidnap a random child to win her daughter's release. At that point, an angry Rachel and Pete, ignoring warnings to continue to remain silent and do nothing, go on the offensive to track down the people responsible for the kidnapping chain, culminating in a violent confrontation in a marshy area south of Plum Island. Readers won't be able to put this thriller down.
Customer Reviews
Excellent read
Fully gripping