The Chain: The Award-Winning Suspense Thriller of the Year

From start to finish this book grips you. Loved it and highly recommend.

The tension never lulls in this fast paced thriller. The concept is excellent and always makes you wonder if you should be looking over your shoulder whilst reading it. Definitely recommend this book

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I don't read many fictional thrillers but have been a huge fan of McKinty's novels since discovering DEAD I WELL MAY BE, nearly 15 years ago. I loved that series so much that I bought copies for several friends. I've read all McKinty's books, excepting the Lighthouse Trilogy for young adults. Whether it's a great standalone like Hidden River, Falling Glass or The Sun is God, or one of his reliably excellent series entries, I always look forward to them and am always highly engaged and thoroughly entertained. Reading his work, one often feels transported into a high-stakes action film written by a poet-philosopher turned novelist.McKinty's well-documented, recent success is something I have cheered wholeheartedly, as it's long been apparent that this guy's work is extraordinarily literate, lyrical, learned and lithe. It's easy to pull for his characters, as they're fully present, with distinctive personalities, motivations and dilemmas. It would have been a great tragedy if he hadn't at long last found himself a great agent and a solid deal with some actual marketing push behind it.Brace yourself because there is a tidal wave of cinematic stuff ripe for adaptation that is likely just making the rounds in Hollywood producer circles. It'll be fantastically exciting to see McKinty's many indelible characters come to life on the big screen over the next decade or so. I wonder if he's tried his hand at adapting his own work into screenplays yet?With THE CHAIN, I feel like he's trying a different tack, testing out a slightly different voice and perhaps courting the mainstream readers who have mostly eluded him--to their great misfortune (and his). We're all lucky he didn't give up.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 them, though we're all entitled to our opinions. First of all--if you don't read the entire book--please do us all a favor here and don't review it. Why do people still do this? Secondly, why fill up your review with plot summary? Why?Finally, I feel like far too often people want to put writers into little boxes, expecting them to do ONE thing very well but to NEVER stray outside these restrictive boxes they've created with their own expectations. The fact is that writers write different things at different times for different audiences for different reasons and often see versatility as a virtue. Why punish them for it? Again, reviews are opinions, and we all are entitled to them.As for mine, I'm certainly thrilled to report that while this new novel represents a shift in tone from the many books in his reliably great series, it is no less addictive and just as transporting. This is very fast-paced, white-knuckle reading at its best. I wished I were at the beach reading this one, but that didn't stop me from blasting through THE CHAIN in basically no time at all.Bravo, Adrian! Cheers to your newfound success! Keep cranking 'em out.

The Chain has abducted Rachel's daughter. An unknown caller notified Rachel of the rules, pay a ransom and find another child to kidnap. This is no ordinary kidnapping: the caller is a mother whose son has also been taken, and if Rachel doesn't do as she's told, the boy will die. Rachel is now part of The Chain, an eternal and innovative scheme that turns victims into criminals, making someone else rich. But what the masterminds behind The Chain don't know is that parents will do anything for their children.⠀⠀THE CHAIN is a cleverly planned thriller that puts parents on a ride from hell. Pay a ransom and kidnap someone else's child to save yours. It's entirely revolting and undeniably cruel to the fearful parents looking for a way to escape this shocking nightmare. Rachel, and her ex-brother-in-law Pete, have joined forces to rescue Kylie. I, off the bat, connected with Rachel and her tremendous strength throughout the story. Any child would be lucky to have her as a mother. As for Pete, I discovered his military background was helpful, but his inner torments became a bit of a nuisance in certain aspects.⠀⠀I'm not going to lie; the creators of The Chain were rather scary yet ridiculously intelligent. How does one start this operation and get away with it!? Fear is a torturous controller, friends. As the narrative unfailingly flowed, I hooked on to every possible effect Adrian McKinty threw at me. It switched gears by the second part of the story, and it took me a minute to get back into it. However, it also helped me understand why this whole scheme started. It wrapped up decently, but the twist wasn't overly shocking, which left me feeling underwhelmed. I'm not a massive fan of missing children tropes, but THE CHAIN delivered an impactful plot with consistent heart-pumping action.