A zombie apocalypse is one thing. [5] In 2000, he relocated to Denver, Colorado to become a high school English teacher.[3]. It turns out that kidnapping is only the beginning. 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. Get help and learn more about the design. YOU WILL BECOME EACH ONE. Current price is $16.99, Original price is $18.99. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. I defy anyone to start this book and put it down without finishing it. But what the masterminds behind The Chain know is that parents will do anything for their children. Adrian McKinty was born and grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the Troubles of the 1970s and 1980s. Nail-biting, smart, and convincing. by Book review: The Chain by Adrian McKinty The Book: The Chain by Adrain McKinty, 2019. 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. influencers in the know since 1933. by It's an infuriating choice, to torture the reader this way, but it's the smart one. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppys mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. On a Thursday morning, 7:55am, a teenage girl, Kylie, is sitting at the bus stop checking the likes on her Instagram feed, when a man wearing a black ski . Otherwise The Chain will be broken. Adrian McKinty | The Chain. SUSPENSE, by If Rachel doesnt follow the program, Kylie will die. $13.99 + $3.65 shipping. When the first bullet hit my chest, I thought of my daughter Dr. Marc Seidman has been shot twice, his wife has been murdered, and his six-month-old daughter has been kidnapped. From Austin Butler and Cate Blanchett to a potential Best Supporting Actress toss-up, see who EW thinks will win at the 2023 Oscars. Brilliant. GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | I recommend his award-winning In The Morning Ill Be Gone, Gun Street Girl and Rain Dogs unreservedly. [26] Audible selected Falling Glass as the Best Mystery or Thriller of 2011. Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. 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. EMAIL NEWSLETTER: We email our website newsletter containing latest book reviews, giveaways and author interviews to subscribers no more frequently than fortnightly. When he gets the, Master of international intrigue Daniel Silva follows up his acclaimed #1, An ambitious stand-alone thriller that is both an absorbing crime story and an in-depth exploration of grief, betrayal and corruption Iless latest calls to mind the late, great. The author at times seems to be at war with the demands of his genre: A sort of cruelly, engrossingly simple story of parental desperation bumps up against corny crime staples larger conspiracies, literal shadowy figures, the occasional red herring. STEPHEN KING, McKinty is one of the most striking and most memorable crime voices to emerge on the scene in years. I have never read an Adrian McKinty book before. 2.0 stars I hate to spend a lot of time reviewing this book because I was thoroughly unimpressed. The rules are simple: find the money, find your victim, and then commit a horrible act youd have thought yourself incapable of just 24 hours ago. That darkness and corruption dwell behind the shiny, happy faade of middle-class life is a common enough theme in American storytelling. Daniel Silva delivers another spectacular thriller starring Gabriel Allon, The English Girl. Letters From The Light author Shel Calopa: Dystopia Now? Were glad you found a book that interests you! Otherwise The Chain will be broken. What I do care about is terrible and unnecessarily pretentious writing, men who insist on writing women despite seemingly never having met a women in their lives, and enormous plot holes you could drive a burning trunk through. "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). [19] The Chain was published in 37 countries. . VICTIM. Janet Maslin, "Here's an Existential Thriller:Pass It On. That darkness and corruption dwell behind the shiny, happy faade of middle-class life is a common enough theme in American storytelling. But a cell phone call from an unknown number changes everything . Now the girl, Kylie, thinks about how worried her mother will be. I have also since read McKintys second blockbuster action-thriller The Island. #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. If they dont, the child will die. Rachel is an ordinary woman, but over the coming days she will be pushed beyond ordinary limits to save her daughter. I can't believe what went through my mind while reading it--the things I might be willing to do to save my child. Read More Letters From The Light author Shel Calopa: Dystopia Now? A pitch-perfect psychological thriller. Adrian McKintys novel The Chain makes readers wonder how much evil they might be pushed toward. [ This book was one of our most anticipated titles of July. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. 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. Adrian McKinty has 58 books on Goodreads with 414630 ratings. * My receiving a copy from the publisherfor review purposes did not impact the expression of my honest opinions. Kirkus Reviews (starred review) " The Chain is that rare thriller which ends up being highly personal. The Chain asks this of a series of characters who realize themselves capable of far worse than they ever imagined. Hooking readers into her moral doubts and trial by fire is done very deliberately. She cant do this, she must do this, she is now a completely different person who has done this. January 25, 2023; Tagged film, miscommunication trope, romance, romantic comedy, single parent. Since the clients do most of the work themselves, one criminal says, what it turns out to be is the goddamn Uber of kidnapping., To Save Her Abducted Daughter, This Heroine Has to Kidnap a New Victim, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/books/review-chain-adrian-mckinty.html. Peter (on semi hiatus and trying to catch up), Sandy *TheworldcouldendwhileIwasreadingndIwouldnto, https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2018.html. You can now read McKintys origin story everywhere, so lets move on to the question of whether his new embrace of James Pattersons sentence structure works for him. [18], Patrick Anderson of the Washington Post has praised McKinty as a leading light of the "new wave" of Irish crime novelists along with Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes and John Connolly. I really wanted to read this, swoon & write a glowing review. Genre: Fiction + Literature Genres. No law enforcement, no politicians, no journalists. Beneath its surface of high-speed thrills. Adrian McKinty There are breakneck thrillers and then there's The Chain. B. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. Remember those? You wont shake it for a long time. Max Brooks She can't do this, she must do this, she is now a completely different person who has done this. Hes the real deal., "The Chain is a unique and unforgettable thriller. ", "A masterpiece. Please enter an email address so you can get access to our awesome newsletter. The Chain . Except better, because it's so utterly believable. The Chain By Adrian Mckinty Unabridged Version Audio Book. 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.. Paddy Hirsch is an editor at NPR's Planet Money. It was also a book I swore I'd never read, because it sounded too scary. 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. In 1999, while his wife studied for a Fulbright in Israel, McKinty played loose head prop forward for the Jerusalem Lions Rugby Club. The Chain by Adrian McKinty is worthy of the hype its getting. "Linwood Barclay, #1 internationally bestselling author of Never Look AwayThe Chain is a rocket ship, tremendous in pace and filled with suspense. You think this is hitting rock bottom and surely Rachel has experienced all the bad luck possible? You have never read anything quite like The Chain and you will never be able to forget it. https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/. No law enforcement, no politicians, no journalists. I am blown away. I started this website in 2009 and quickly realised I enjoy writing and blogging about books almost as much as reading them. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. 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. This was not a good book, and I feel like everyone is pretending it is just to piss me off. 3.5 w sumie cakiem dobry krymina z wtkiem sensacyjnym. ..a satisfying and deeply rewarding read." . "Lou Berney, author of November Road"Starting The Chain is like climbing aboard a runaway train. Rachel is now part of a terrifying scheme The Chain. 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). Beautifully written. "Meg Gardiner, author of Into the Black Nowhere"Adrian McKinty's The Chain is the rare thriller that's not only fiendishly clever but also powerfully empathetic, with both hair-raising twists and complex, fully-realized characters. Learn more and receive a FREE set of personalized book recommendations! But this abduction happens in the beachy community of Plum Island, Mass. ", Adrian McKinty interviewed by Jeff Glor on CBS This Morning, "The Author behind, Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, "Author Adrian McKinty strikes it rich with The Chain reaction", "Class, Race and the Case for Genre Fiction in the Canon", "Rain Dogs by Adrian McKinty is October's Irish Times Book Club pick", "Go into The Story Interview: Adrian McKinty". I have been very busy and unable to read a lot lately, but I have been wanting to read this one for a while, so I decided to give it a try. If any of these things don't happen, your child will be killed. Rachel's 13-year-old daughter Kylie was waiting at the bus stop while she headed to a doctor's appointment. The suspense here is intense, as one would expect, given the premise, but the true brilliance in this unrelenting novel comes from the way McKinty makes Rachel confront her own capacity for evil and deal with its reverberations, not only on herself and the child she kidnaps, but also on her own child, Kylie. And McKinty finds a lot to work with in the suspenseful possibility of its undoing. Some scoffing is in order when the disguised, disembodied voice of The Chain recommends antiquated gimmicks like burner phones, the dark web and Bitcoin as the basics of this operation. Pairing an irresistible concept with a winner protagonist, The Chain promises to be your new addiction once you succumb to the first enticing page. Max Brooks. Publisher: Mulholland Books/Little, Brown, Categories: It seemed like any other morning. This nightmarish story is incredibly propulsive and original. Her mind races. GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | Part of the appeal lies in a fiendishly clever and original premise, a premise Adrian McKinty plots out flawlessly. isnt as silly or one-note as it initially sounds. Detailed seller ratings. The scheme brings to light a spectrum of humanity ranging from unimaginable viciousness to well, Rachel thinks she knows her own nature until this storys onslaught of terrible choices hits her. The pacing was excellent but I did prefer the first half over the second. In 2019 after giving up writing Adrian had a global hit with his standalone novel The Chain. I admit I was a skeptic at first and poo-pooed the idea, that it wouldnt work. He would like you to realize that what youre reading is existentialism in action, with Rachel defining herself moment by moment with each choice she makes. Following Rachel as she wades through this inexplicable nightmare, or staying with Kylie as she pieces together exactly whats happening to her, works as well as it does because of how off-balance the author keeps them. PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER, by Annabel Monaghan / Book Review. You get a call from a stranger saying that they have kidnapped your child, they say you have to kidnap someone elses child for your child to stay alive, WOULD YOU DO IT!! He now lives in New York City with his wife and two children. Offers may be subject to change without notice. $7.98 . A masterpiece of tension. 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 . They are like mice, these people, mice in the hay fields, and shes the peregrine swooping over them, seeing every little thing they do. Rachel is a part-time philosophy lecturer; divorced, recovering from cancer and struggling to make ends meet. SURVIVOR. It's something parents do every morning: Rachel Klein drops her daughter at the bus stop and heads into her day. The fourth of five children, he grew up in the Victoria area of Carrickfergus, County Antrim. An Amazon Best Book of July 2019: The Chain is one of those white-knuckle, stay-up-till-3 a.m. thrillers that keeps you reading feverishly because you just need to know how this one plays out. Adrian McKinty just leapt to the top of my list of must-read suspense novelists. 2023 Oscars predictions: See who will win at the 95th Academy Awards. 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. books have won the Edgar Award, the Ned Kelly Award (3 times), The Anthony Award, Barry Award, Macavity . Adrian McKinty has written a novel that's nail-biting, smart, and convincing, with a plot-jolting twist that readers of Gone Girl will love. AUSSIE AUTHOR CHALLENGE: We hosted this reading challenge from 2010-2022, amassing several hundreds of participant book reviews of titles by Australian writers. SUSPENSE | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION | Adrian McKinty has written a novel thats nail-biting, smart, and convincing, with a plot-jolting twist that readers of Gone Girl will love. 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. The Chain - by Adrian McKinty (Paperback) $11.99When purchased online In Stock Add to cart About this item Specifications Dimensions (Overall): 8.2 Inches (H) x 5.4 Inch (W) x 1 Inch (D) Weight: .75 Pounds Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up Number of Pages: 368 Format: Paperback Genre: Fiction + Literature Genres Sub-Genre: Thrillers You have never read anything quite like THE CHAIN and you will never be able to forget it. 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. Which could easily have happened with a premise like this. You are now part of the chain. He writes with confidence, heart, and style to spare. On the way she received a call from an unknown number. Baby Driver helmer Edgar Wright will direct, while Jane Goldman (Kingsman In 2008 McKinty moved with his family to Melbourne, Australia, to become a full-time writer. I first heard of the book when another author, Don Winslow, began to tout . How thoroughly can we be spied upon? This adds immeasurably to the excitement, making it not merely a well-told page-turning thriller, but a truly sophisticated bit of novel-writing. We learn Kylies kidnapping is just the latest in a horrifyingly effective ransom scheme, wherein parents are tasked with taking a child hostage in order for their own child to be released. Read more >>. [6] He found his greatest success and critical acclaim with the Sean Duffy series, following the eponymous Royal Ulster Constabulary Sergeant during The Troubles, beginning with 2012's The Cold Cold Ground. The very definition of a page-turner. Were three pages in. I assumed it would be a sure thing as Im a HUGE fan of the authors other books. The parent added to the Chain in McKintys telling is Rachel, an academically minded single mother whose breast cancer is resurfacing. Adrian McKinty's most popular book is The Chain. 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 . His father was a boilermaker and ships engineer and his mother a secretary. Try AbeBooks Description VICTIM. Adrian McKinty: Working-Class Hero of Irish Crime Fiction. 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. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people. Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. 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. Its free and takes less than 10 seconds! McKinty's writing is paced to match. Copyright 2023 Kirkus Media LLC. Retrieve credentials. She knows she shouldnt have gotten into the vehicle. But McKinty waits until the last third of the book to reveal who created The Chain, and how they run it, day-to-day. a high-concept thriller that draws creatively on familiar tropes . Beneath its surface of high-speed thrills, The Chain is clearly the work of the philosophical thinker McKinty has always been. [72] Categories: Your child will be released when your victim's parents kidnap another child. 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 . Because the chain always uppercased as The Chain, as if it had magic powers isnt as silly or one-note as it initially sounds. In Adrian McKinty's thriller The Chain, that's precisely what the victims are required to do. FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | It must stick to certain rules, including the one McKinty identifies as Chekhovian (and didnt have to, in this genre): Is there a gun? 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. RELEASE DATE: July 9, 2019. The psychopathy of The Chain perpetrators and the ease with which they toy with their victims, the self-inflicted nature of that torture is chilling. (2.5) Good idea, meh execution. I went on a wild ride. Its called the Chain, and its a Ponzi scheme from hell: if you dont keep the chain going by becoming a kidnapper, and if the next parents dont kidnap a child in turn, your child dies. . His father was a boilermaker and ship's engineer and his mother a secretary. 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. Number of pages: 416. Guys. Hes the real deal., A grade-A-first-rate-edge-of-your-seat thriller. You know youre having a bad day when you get a phone call telling you your daughter has been kidnapped, and, to get her back, you must not only pay $25,000 but also kidnap somebody else. He lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and two children. "John Katzenbach, #1 internationally bestselling author of The Analyst"Just when you think every single plot has been done along comes something new. And he brings that experience and talent fully to bear upon the reader with. A STRANGER HAS KIDNAPPED YOUR CHILD. But these are just tiny bumps, loose pebbles on the rails of an otherwise thunderous ride into the darkest, most fearful reaches of a parent's mind. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser, Buy One, Get One 50% Off Books for All Ages. Her mother, Rachel, then receives a call that she is now part of The Chain. The MCUs tiniest heroes are kicking off its biggest phase yet, setting up the next several years of storytelling.