Saturday, June 08, 2019

'The Chain' by Adrian McKinty

The Chain by Adrian McKinty
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Your child is kidnapped. In order to get her back, you need to find to pay a ransom. And you have to kidnap another child. If that child’s parents don’t ante up, you are to kill your hostage and choose another target. You are now on The Chain, and the only way off is death.

Rachel O’Neill’s daughter Kylie is taken from the school bus stop on Plum Island, Massachusetts, and is put on The Chain. Rachel reaches out to her ex, Kylie’s dad, but he is out of town, so she call’s Pete, his brother and a combat vet.

As Rachel races to meet the demands to get her daughter back, she’s faced with horrific existential questions: to what lengths will go to see her daughter again? What is she turning into? We also wonder, how did The Chain get started? How did anyone become that demonic? We and Rachel will find out.

At once a heart-pounding page turner and a meditation on evil, Adrian McKinty’s The Chain is a master work of crime fiction. The prose is strong, spare, and direct. The characters, particularly Rachel and Pete, and full-fleshed humans. Rachel’s determination and grit emerge in this book of her trials nobody should have to endure.

If you read one mystery this summer, make it The Chain. You won’t regret or forget it.

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