The Chain Adrian McKinty 3.80 89,970 ratings12,229 reviews Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Mystery & Thriller (2019) It's something parents do every morning: Rachel Klein drops her daughter at the bus stop and heads into her day. If any of these things don't happen, your child will be killed. A masterpiece of tension. SUSPENSE | I read several of the negative reviews of THE CHAIN posted here by other fans of McKinty's previous work and have to thoroughly disagree with . By definition this is a thriller that doesnt slow down long enough to develop the characters. Hang on tight, because once you start this book, you cant stop youll be caught in THE CHAIN. As Rachel becomes more determined to bring the whole chain down, McKinty loses a bit of narrative credibility; more frustratingly, in the back half of the book, he slows down, adding fat to what initially reads like a tremendously lean novel. When The Chain chooses her, it's as though she has opened the door of her car in a supermarket parking lot and found herself stepping into hell. The very definition of a page-turner. Adrian McKinty has never written a book I have not loved, and this intense, dark psychological thriller is just brilliant with its killer and diabolical premise of the chain. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. "Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author of The Better Sister and The Wife"The Chain is diabolical, unnerving, and gives a whole new meaning to the word 'relentless.' As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The Book: The Chain by Adrain McKinty, 2019. If I dont make it, dont let them cast some asshole to play me in the movie version of this Adrian McKinty, The Chainif(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'bookloverbookreviews_com-leader-1','ezslot_4',683,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-bookloverbookreviews_com-leader-1-0'); The Chain is an unashamedly commercial novel that I think will be better suited to the big screen, and I really hope it makes it there Not because I think this particular novel is more deserving than others, but so that McKinty then has the means and international platform to return to producing the top-quality fiction long-time fans know and love. He is a winner of the Edgar Award, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, the Macavity Award, the Ned Kelly Award, the Barry Award, the Audie Award, the . Police at the Station and They Don't Look Friendly: A Detective Sean Duffy Novel: 6 : McKinty, Adrian: Amazon.com.mx: Libros . What the anonymous masterminds behind The Chain know is that parents will do anything for their children. The Characters: Rachel, her daughter Kylie . The terrifying premise alone is worth the readand once you are fully involved with the story, you're led through a maze that leaves you wondering if the protagonists will ever make their way out. Im Jo, an Aussie book reviewer. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you. Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System, and theres always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. [22] Some reviewers have criticised the explicit use of violence in his novels. This is nothing short of JAWS for parents. This was not a good book, and I feel like everyone is pretending it is just to piss me off. The morning starts like any other. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser, Buy One, Get One 50% Off Books for All Ages. You have never read anything quite like THE CHAIN and you will never be able to forget it. Book Description: It's something parents do every morning: Rachel Klein drops her daughter at the bus stop and heads into her day. Kylie has been abducted from the bus stop, and Rachel gets a call from a stranger telling her she is now part of the chain, a chain that she will never be free of, where the consequences of breaking the chain are too dreadful to contemplate. Far fetched and contrived would be the two words that immediately come to mind. She has a brother-in-law, a former Marine officer who at first glance looks as though he might possess the "particular set of skills" that will be required to come through this situation until his flaws come to light. But McKinty waits until the last third of the book to reveal who created The Chain, and how they run it, day-to-day. When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. In the meantime, I urge readers to check out this highly talented authors far superiorback catalogue. Read more >>. No law enforcement, no politicians, no journalists. YOU WILL BECOME EACH ONE. McKintys admiration for Winslow is apparent in the psychopathic behavior he injects into some of The Chains power players, in the long reach of Mexican drug cartels, in the presence of a highly sympathetic major character whos gotten hooked on hard drugs, and in the basic decency of the books central family. Disclosure: If you click a link in this post and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Anyone can read what you share. Behind the scheme is a sociopathic monster collecting a ransom for each child in the Chain. . Sure, Rachel is a gutsy protagonist and of course I wanted her to prevail, but her self-deprecation continually broke my emotional engagement. YOUR CHILD WILL BE RELEASED WHEN YOUR VICTIMS PARENTS KIDNAP ANOTHER CHILD. TO FREE THEM YOU MUST ABDUCT SOMEONE ELSE'S CHILD. Adrian McKinty McKinty has been an especially astute observer of class in fiction. Working within a vividly chilly New England locale, McKinty conjures a fatalistic sense of mystery and confusion. Adrian McKinty is a Northern Irish writer of crime and mystery novels and young adult fiction, best known for his 2020 award-winning thriller, The Chain, and the Sean Duffy novels set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. At the peak of the action, discordant notes pop out: A revolver with a safety catch; a Massachusetts colloquialism that doesn't ring quite true. You are now part of the chain. Until last week, one of McKintys best-known phrases was less approachable than that, and came from a Tom Waits song: Police at the Station and They Dont Look Friendly. That was the title of one of his many fine, non-best-selling books part of his Belfast-set Detective Sean Duffy series, which had won him esteem, an Edgar Award and a following too small to save him from driving an Uber to make ends meet. And because McKinty hangs on to his wit and literacy even under duress. Truly a nail-biter that will pull you in from start to finish. The fourth of five children, he grew up in the Victoria area of Carrickfergus, County Antrim. GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | 5.0. I raced to the end of the book and then went back to see how Adrian McKinty pulled it all off. Iactually felt McKinty plumbed far greater depth in the narrative ofThe Chain mastermind than that of Rachel or her daughter.if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,50],'bookloverbookreviews_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_1',685,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-bookloverbookreviews_com-large-leaderboard-2-0');if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,50],'bookloverbookreviews_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_2',685,'0','1'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-bookloverbookreviews_com-large-leaderboard-2-0_1'); .large-leaderboard-2-multi-685{border:none !important;display:block !important;float:none !important;line-height:0px;margin-bottom:7px !important;margin-left:auto !important;margin-right:auto !important;margin-top:7px !important;max-width:100% !important;min-height:50px;padding:0;text-align:center !important;}. BOOK RATING: The Story 4 / 5 ; The Writing 3 / 5 Overall 3.5 Get your copy of The Chain from: Bookshop US Amazon Book Depository Booktopia AU OR listen to the audiobook FREE with Audible's Trial (check eligibility) I have also since read McKinty's second blockbuster action-thriller The Island. Pre-publication book reviews and features keeping readers and industry Do yourself a favor and skip this predictable yawner. Na pewno jest nieodkadaln, wietn rozrywk na jesienne deszczowe wieczory, ale czy zapadnie w pami - raczej nie . Paddy Hirsch is an editor at NPR's Planet Money. Darn it. I have read earlier McKinty novels and really enjoyed the prose, characters and storytelling. Can Rachel be the one person to finally break The Chain? How thoroughly can we be spied upon? You wont shake it for a long time. The premise of this book is chilling. I asked myself again and againwould I do that? Genre:Thriller, Action, Mystery, Crime-Detective. 35 year old Rachel Klein is a divorced single mother, with 13 year old daughter, Kylie, living on Plum Island, Massachusetts. Adrian McKinty's The Chain is the rare thriller that's not only fiendishly clever but also powerfully empathetic, . But a cell phone call from an unknown number changes everything: it's a woman on the line, informing her that she has Kylie bound and gagged in her back seat, and the only way Rachel will see her again is to follow her instructions exactly: pay a ransom, and find another child to abduct. [29], Two more Sean Duffy novels to be published by Blackstone Publishing[70][71], On a blog post dated July 15, 2021 on his oficcial site, McKinty explains that the 7th Sean Duffy novel (The Detective Up Late) may be out in late 2022. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. When a beautiful young British woman vanishes on the island of Corsica, a prime ministers career is, #1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva delivers another stunning thriller in his latest action-packed tale of high stakes international intrigue featuring the inimitable Gabriel, Greg Iles continues the electrifying story begun in his smash New York Times bestseller Natchez Burning in this highly anticipated second installment of an epic trilogy of blood and race, family and, From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Penn Cage series comes a gripping World War II thriller that vaporizes almost every clich about the limits of the, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE 2014 EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL WINNER OF THE 2014 DILYS AWARD A SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF 2013 From New York Times bestselling author William Kent. His father was a boilermaker and ship's engineer and his mother a secretary. BOOK RATING:The Story 4 / 5 ; The Writing 3 / 5 Overall 3.5, OR listen to the audiobook FREE with Audibles Trial (check eligibility). I started this website in 2009 and quickly realised I enjoy writing and blogging about books almost as much as reading them. "[25], His novel The Dead Yard was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the 12 Best Novels of 2006. Psychological notes are played deeply. The characters and their actions seemed stupid and to say I did not connect to the writing would be an understatement. See the full list. Something much better than expected. Listen, I dont even care that the plot is crazy and ridiculous - I picked it up for specifically that reason. Buy "The Chain" on Amazon This inherent breakneck quality lends The Chain structural confidence. After writing several short stories, a novella and book reviews, his debut crime novel, Dead I Well May Be, was published by Scribner in 2003. Once he sets up the idea that each set of parents with a kidnapped child must kidnap some other, random young victim or know that The Whatever will kill their kid, find them where they live, inflict unspeakable misery and never go away, his book becomes much more reasonable. The happy couple were very smiley as they cosied . In 'The Chain,' McKinty hooks the motif up to a power supply, connects it to wi-fi and plunges it into the Dark Web. This nightmarish story is incredibly propulsive and original. takes what at first seems like a fantastical scenario and imbues it with all the terror, stress, trauma, and messiness of reality. The call told her that Kylie had been kidnapped, and she was now part of The Chain. A masterpiece of tension. Okay, I will start to bidding with five stars, I think I heard five hundred stars! Reasonable shipping cost. Adrian McKinty's novel "The Chain" makes readers wonder how much evil they might be pushed toward. And where it moves at the speed of a T3 connection: Its victims want to get their children back as quickly as possible, so they race through their tasks, funneling huge amounts of money to The Chain's creators. You have never read anything quite like The Chain and you will never be able to forget it. And as brilliant The Chain is a superb construct; it's a self-perpetuating, self-disciplining system that relies on fact that the vast majority of kidnappings are resolved quickly, bloodlessly and profitably. A pitch-perfect psychological thriller. She knows she shouldnt have gotten into the vehicle. ", "A masterpiece. Liam McIlvanney, writing in the Irish Times, singled out McKinty's lyrical prose style as the defining characteristic of the Duffy series. The Chain, Adrian McKintys unashamedly commercial new stand-alone thriller, features a chilling plot and seems written for the big screen. #Giveaway, In The Morning Ill Be Gone by Adrian McKinty, Review: Stirring humanity, FLATLAND A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott, Book Review, Trust by Chris Hammer (Martin Scarsden #3), Book Review + Giveaway, UPRISING by Nic Low, Book Review: Candid walk through history, Booklover Hub, 100+ Authors Seeking Book Reviewers, Aussie Author Reading Challenge 2021, Booklover Book Reviews, Aussie Author Reading Challenge 2020: Championing Australian writers & book reviews. RELEASE DATE: April 24, 2018. Only when Rachel is a victim, a perpetrator, has herself driven someone else to commit a kidnapping and has had to accept that she might have to kill a child to save her own, only then will Rachel's daughter be released. And because McKinty hangs on to his wit and literacy even under duress Where McKinty succeeds, in a book that feels heavily worked over to ensure no tangents detract from main events, is in making sure the premise isnt the main event. Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. Youre teetering right along with them. What comes next is clunky and a little didactic, making the story bigger than it needs to be, but at least were in the hands of someone who knows how to finish things off with one last irresistible sprint into darkness. Adrian went to Oxford University on a full scholarship to study philosophy before emigrating to the United States to become a high school English teacher. Your child will be released when your victim's parents kidnap another child. Which could easily have happened with a premise like this. The Chain is a straight-up, stone-faced thriller, a present-tense race to find out how Rachel will react to the unthinkable and then find a way to do the unthinkable herself. MEG GARDINER, THE CHAIN is the rare thriller thats not only fiendishly clever but also powerfully empathetic, with both hair-raising twists and complex, fully-realized characters., VIEW MORE at ravencrimereads.wordpress.com, VIEW MORE at thebeachreader.wordpress.com, VIEW MORE at thetattooedbookgeek.wordpress.com, VIEW MORE at lipsquidbookblog.wordpress.com, VIEW MORE at emmathelittlebookworm.wordpress.com, all web content Adrian McKinty and The Story Factory, 2023. all rights reserved, Pairing an irresistible concept with a winner protagonist, THE CHAIN promises to be your new addiction once you succumb to the first enticing page.. What an elaborate conceptand nightmare! Weight: 288 g. Dimensions: 196 x 128 x 30 mm. The woman on the line tells Rachel she has kidnapped her daughter. Adrian went to Oxford University on a full scholarship to study philosophy before emigrating to the United States to become a high school English teacher. It's something parents do every morning: Rachel Klein drops her daughter at the bus stop and heads into her day. Adrian McKintys novel The Chain makes readers wonder how much evil they might be pushed toward. Las mejores ofertas para The Chain Lib/E de McKinty, Adrian estn en eBay Compara precios y caractersticas de productos nuevos y usados Muchos artculos con envo gratis! Hope you enjoy browsing my book reviews & following my reading adventures. Her brain tells her to run, but she doesn't make the correct split-second decision, and she is taken at gunpoint. What would you do to save your kids? 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. PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER, by While Rachel scrambles to get the money together (even though it isn't about the money, she is told) and pick a child to steal, it becomes clear that she is being tracked and her every move is being monitored. In The Chain, McKinty hooks the motif up to a power supply, connects it to wi-fi and plunges it into the Dark Web, where The Chain slithers like a basilisk, feeding on our obsession with social media, and our blithe ignorance of online privacy and security. The Chain : Adrian McKinty : 9781409189589 Share The Chain : The Award-Winning Suspense Thriller of the Year 3.8 (89,187 ratings by Goodreads) Hardback English By (author) Adrian McKinty List price: US$15.67 Currently unavailable Add to wishlist AbeBooks may have this title (opens in new window). Shipping speed. And I bet I won't be the only one. McKinty has the last laugh at the makeshift work that drove him around the bend, when a character talks about how efficient The Chain was designed to be. McKinty's writing is paced to match. The pacing was excellent but I did prefer the first half over the second. Adrian McKinty just leapt to the top of my list of must-read suspense novelists. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. It just doesn't get any better than this. Choose Expedited Shipping at checkout for delivery by, Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser, Best Mystery Nominees->2020 Macavity Awards, Best Thriller Nominees->2020 Barry Awards, October 2020 Barnes & Noble Monthly Picks, House of Spies (Gabriel Allon Series #17), The English Girl (Gabriel Allon Series #13), The English Spy (Gabriel Allon Series #15), Natchez Burning (Natchez Burning Trilogy #1) (Penn Cage Series #4), The Bone Tree (Natchez Burning Trilogy #2) (Penn Cage Series #5), Desolation Mountain (Cork O'Connor Series #17), Windigo Island (Cork O'Connor Series #14). [5] In 2000, he relocated to Denver, Colorado to become a high school English teacher.[3]. They are like mice, these people, mice in the hay fields, and shes the peregrine swooping over them, seeing every little thing they do. But what they dont know is that they may have met their match. . SUSPENSE | Your child is kidnapped and to get them back you must kidnap someone else's child and tell his/her parents that they need to kidnap a child to get their own back and so the Chain keeps going. This is up there with Marathon Man and The Silence of the Lambs. Adrian McKinty was born and grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland during the Troubles of the 1970s and 1980s. VIEW MORE at usatoday.com. Would I? Here's the premise: a child is kidnapped, and the parents are only able to get him or her back if they kidnap somebody else's child, pay a generous ransom in bitcoin, and convince the parents of the child they kidnapped to do the same in turn. 4.8. One of the finest novels ever produced in the genre. In 2019 after giving up writing Adrian had a global hit with his standalone novel The Chain. $13.99 + $3.65 shipping. influencers in the know since 1933. by Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. But the element that is most striking is the significant intelligence that goes into the story. Accurate description. The novel is at its best when its focus narrows, with punishing clarity, on the emotional intensity of its central predicament. Rachel is a part-time philosophy lecturer; divorced, recovering from cancer and struggling to make ends meet. DON WINSLOW, Diabolical, unnerving, and gives a whole new meaning to the word relentless. Rarely does second-to-second pacing feel justified; here, its essential. It's a ride I won't soon forget. CRIME & LEGAL THRILLER | SUSPENSE | The last third was kind of pointless, didn't care anymore. Buy "The Chain" on Barnes & Noble [28], In 2016, The Guardian included book 5 of the Sean Duffy series, Rain Dogs, about the investigation of a death at Carrickfergus Castle, in their "The best recent thrillers" coverage. Stanley Milgrams postwar experiments in social cruelty, determining what kind of electric shocks subjects would administer to other people if they thought it was normal, arent directly cited here, but they are essentially what The Chain is about. But something far worse is to hit her and Kylie. WELCOME BOOKLOVERS! Over and over as you read, you'll find yourself asking, Would I do this? It took four countries, three continents, a couple of careers, philosophy studies at Oxford, serious writing awards and major gonna-make-you-a-star-kid machinations in several fields of endeavor to yield this opening sentence from Adrian McKinty: Shes sitting at the bus stop checking the likes on her Instagram feed and doesnt even notice the man with the gun until hes almost next to her.. "David Lagercrantz, author of The Girl in the Spider's Web and The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye (Continuing Stieg Larsson's Millennium Series). AUSSIE AUTHOR CHALLENGE: We hosted this reading challenge from 2010-2022, amassing several hundreds of participant book reviews of titles by Australian writers. His plots tempt you to read at top speed, but dont give in: this writing sharply observant, intelligent and shot through with black humor should be savored. Nominee for Best Mystery & Thriller (2019). Trouble signing in? Pam Grier reflects on her most iconic roles, from, Motherhood meets the sci-fi surreal in Helen Phillips brilliant, Looking for a mind-bending summer read? And McKinty finds a lot to work with in the suspenseful possibility of its undoing. She must pay a ransom and kidnap another family's child, and then that family must do the same for her daughter to be released. Description When a mother is targeted by a dangerous group of masterminds, she must commit a crime to save her kidnapped daughter--or risk losing her forever--in this "propulsive and original" award-winning thriller (Stephen King). The Chain asks this of a series of characters who realize themselves capable of far worse than they ever imagined. He moved to the United States in the early 1990s, living first in Harlem, New York and from 2001 on, in Denver, Colorado, where he taught high school English and began writing fiction.