Magazine Subscribers (How to Find Your Reader Number), POLICE AT THE STATION AND THEY DON'T LOOK FRIENDLY. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Book Description: It's something parents do every morning: Rachel Klein drops her daughter at the bus stop and heads into her day. The Chain by Adrian McKinty. [22] Some reviewers have criticised the explicit use of violence in his novels. Lisa Jewell Buy "The Chain" on Barnes & Noble The answer was always, distressingly, yes. This is nothing short of JAWS for parents., Diabolically gripping. Inspired by the "exchange kidnappings" that take place in Mexico and the old-school chain letters of his childhood, crime novelist McKinty (Police at the Station and They Don't Look Friendly, 2017, etc.) Its a fast read with plenty of excitement and emotion. [27] In the Morning I'll Be Gone was named as one of the 10 best crime novels of 2014 by the American Library Association. 4.9. Because the chain always uppercased as The Chain, as if it had magic powers isnt as silly or one-note as it initially sounds. Max Brooks Rachel isn't alone. It's a ride I won't soon forget. His books have won the Edgar Award, the Ned Kelly Award, the Anthony Award, the Barry Award and have been translated into over 20 languages. 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. RELEASE DATE: July 9, 2019. [3][4], After graduating from Oxford in 1993, McKinty moved to New York and found work in a number of occupations: security guard, barman, bookstore clerk, rugby coach, door to door salesman and librarian for the Columbia University Library. It was also a book I swore I'd never read, because it sounded too scary. In 2019 after giving up writing Adrian had a global hit with his standalone novel The Chain. He's the real deal. But would we root for him if he kidnapped another person's an innocent person's child? March 2011 by Bantam Books Torrie's Rating: The Plot (Goodreads): [] Read More. 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. To McKintys great credit, he can make readers wonder at any point whether the ground may fall beneath their feet and how much evil they might be pushed toward. Winners announced at the Audie Awards Gala in New York City on May 28th hosted by award winning author Jack Gantos", "2015 Shortlist | Australian Crime Writers Association", "Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce the Nominees for the 2016 Edgar Allan Poe Awards", "bloody delighted to be shortlisted for best mystery audiobook! Weight: 288 g. Dimensions: 196 x 128 x 30 mm. Baby Driver helmer Edgar Wright will direct, while Jane Goldman (Kingsman January 25, 2023; Tagged film, miscommunication trope, romance, romantic comedy, single parent. Something much better than expected. Rarely does second-to-second pacing feel justified; here, its essential. (July). * My receiving a copy from the publisherfor review purposes did not impact the expression of my honest opinions. It turns out that kidnapping is only the beginning. 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 . Current price is $16.99, Original price is $18.99. 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. I raced to the end of the book and then went back to see how Adrian McKinty pulled it all off. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and grew up in Victoria Council Estate, Carrickfergus, County Antrim. Psychological notes are played deeply. Just brilliant. [2] 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 Anthony Award and the International Thriller Writers Award. This inherent breakneck quality lends The Chain structural confidence. But what the masterminds behind The Chain know is that parents will do anything for their children. Publisher: Mulholland Books/Little, Brown, Categories: GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | Fortunately, her daughter Kylie is made of stern stuff, and as Rachel moves from task to task at the behest of The Chain, she finds out what stuff she herself is made of, too. There are breakneck thrillers and then there's The Chain. . However, this storys execution fell short of my expectations. [7], The third Duffy book, In the Morning I'll Be Gone, won the 2014 Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel. And he brings that experience and talent fully to bear upon the reader with. Okay, I will start to bidding with five stars, I think I heard five hundred stars! (2.5) Good idea, meh execution. It's Taken for mothers. VICTIM. 2.0 stars I hate to spend a lot of time reviewing this book because I was thoroughly unimpressed. TO FREE THEM YOU MUST ABDUCT SOMEONE ELSE'S CHILD. McKinty was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1968. In 2019, the author made this comment about that novel: "It didnt sell very well, but it ended up getting the best reviews of my career. You might think you couldn't do it but would you let your child die? To McKinty's great credit, he can make readers wonder at any point whether the ground may fall beneath their feet and how much evil they might be pushed toward. The parent added to the Chain in McKintys telling is Rachel, an academically minded single mother whose breast cancer is resurfacing. But when little Kylie finds a wrench in the room where shes chained, the outcome is just surprising enough to heighten interest, not kill it. For every child kidnapped, another must be taken. They are like mice, these people, mice in the hay fields, and shes the peregrine swooping over them, seeing every little thing they do. 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. 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. Beneath its surface of high-speed thrills. The Book: The Chain by Adrain McKinty, 2019. The call told her that Kylie had been kidnapped, and she was now part of The Chain. "If the hotel walls had ears, this would be their story", "Roger Ferris, International Man of Mystery", "Five-minute memoir: Adrian McKinty recalls a scary school run during", "Aged 16, I vowed never to read another novel", "Mean season: In Northern Ireland, the Troubles come as regular as rainBy Adrian McKinty (Harper's Magazine)", "From Uber driving to a huge book deal: Adrian McKinty's life-changing phone call", "I gave up writing and found work in a bar a year and a half later my book was sold to 36 countries", "New Thriller 'The Chain' Has An Origin Almost As Exciting As Its Plot", "Troubles fiction too urgent and topical to be historical", "Review - Dead I Well May Be by Adrian McKinty", "Fifty grand by Adrian McKinty | Book review", "Adrian McKinty's Hard-Boiled Belfast Trilogy", "The best recent thrillers reviews roundup", "CLAU - Beehive Award Nominees: 2007-2008", "Spread the Word 2009 | Fiction and Non-Fiction Books | National Book Tokens | World Book Day | Booksellers Association", "2010 Spinetingler Award Best Novel: Rising Star WINNER | Spinetingler", "Booktrade.info - Book Trade Announcements - 2011 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Longlist Revealed", "2013 Spinetingler Award Best Novel: Rising Star/Legends WINNER Spinetingler", "Le tueur se meurt de James Sallis: meilleur polar de l'anne 2013", "Announcing the 2013 Ned Kelly Shortlist | Australian Crime Writers Association", "Grand Prix de Littrature Policire 2014 la slection", "Long List Announced for Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2014", "Carrick author Adrian McKinty scoops literary accolade for Troubles thriller", "20th Annual Audie finalists announced in thirty categories. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. We arewell, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006). By definition this is a thriller that doesnt slow down long enough to develop the characters. 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. She has survived the devastating trauma and treatment of breast cancer, and horror of horrors, it now appears to have returned. . Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. The pacing was excellent but I did prefer the first half over the second. latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellies disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. YOUR CHILD WILL BE RELEASED WHEN YOUR VICTIMS PARENTS KIDNAP ANOTHER CHILD. He now lives in New York City with his wife and two children. Paddy Hirsch is an editor at NPR's Planet Money. Reviews & Interviews; Publisher: Mulholland Books Year: 2019 Synopsis: YOUR PHONE RINGS. She must pay a ransom and kidnap another familys child, and then that family must do the same for her daughter to be released. SUSPENSE, by And the seemingly inescapable web of guilt and lies, is highly plausible and thus compelling. Anyone can read what you share. 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. Subscribe or feel free to browse our newsletter archives. "John Katzenbach, #1 internationally bestselling author of The Analyst"Just when you think every single plot has been done along comes something new. This adds immeasurably to the excitement, making it not merely a well-told page-turning thriller, but a truly sophisticated bit of novel-writing. Her brain tells her to run, but she doesn't make the correct split-second decision, and she is taken at gunpoint. The Chain belongs in the elite company of world-class thrillers like Gone Girl and The Silence of the Lambs. 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. Rachel Klein drops her daughter, Kylie, at the bus stop and heads into her day. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppys mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellies experiences and Laurels discoveries in the present. Alongside these, McKinty wrote the three books in his Lighthouse Trilogy, a series of science fiction young adult novels set in New York City, his native Ireland, and the fictional planet Altair. Adrian McKinty just leapt to the top of my list of must-read suspense novelists. Leah Garrett It must stick to certain rules, including the one McKinty identifies as. 2019-04-28For every child kidnapped, another must be taken. New Thriller 'The Chain' Has An Origin Almost As Exciting As Its Plot. SUSPENSE | Thirteen-year-old Kylie is waiting for the school bus on Plum Island, Massachusetts, when a man and a woman pull up wearing ski masks. 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/. Listen, I dont even care that the plot is crazy and ridiculous - I picked it up for specifically that reason. From Austin Butler and Cate Blanchett to a potential Best Supporting Actress toss-up, see who EW thinks will win at the 2023 Oscars. One of the finest novels ever produced in the genre. "Booklist (starred review)"The Chain has all the hallmarks of a monster hit, including a terrifying premise that had me wondering: Is this actually happening somewhere right now? 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. YOUR CHILD WILL BE KILLED. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. Ten years later, Ellies remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. Further details on how this Booklover Book Reviews site manages data can be found in our Privacy Policy. He lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and two children. Now the girl, Kylie, thinks about how worried her mother will be. And so it goes: The Chain. 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 . He grew up reading science fiction and crime novels by the likes of Ursula Le Guin, J G Ballard and Jim Thompson. TO FREE THEM YOU MUST ABDUCT SOMEONE ELSES CHILD. More highly recommended action thrillers: Remember those? Best known for his outstanding Sean Duffy series, set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, McKinty has also written several gripping stand-alones, of which this one is the best yet; in fact, it may well be the biggest thriller of the summer . Disclosure: If you click a link in this post and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Choose from Same Day Delivery, Drive Up or Order Pickup. And I bet I won't be the only one. The woman, whose own child has been kidnapped, and Rachel are now links in a chain of abductions. The Chain cannot be broken or the childrenher child, her Kyliewill be executed. 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. [72] Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser, Buy One, Get One 50% Off Books for All Ages. In 1999, while his wife studied for a Fulbright in Israel, McKinty played loose head prop forward for the Jerusalem Lions Rugby Club. [16] Upon hearing of his situation, fellow crime author Don Winslow passed some of his books to his agent, the screenwriter and producer Shane Salerno. At once a commentary on social media, greed, revenge, love, and true evil, and written with an almost lyrical quality, this book will have readers searching for more McKinty titles to devour. Hes the real deal., A grade-A-first-rate-edge-of-your-seat thriller. So by the second page of The Chain, the man with the gun has forced the girl with the Instagram into a car where his accomplice is waiting. Hope you enjoy browsing my book reviews & following my reading adventures. Adrian McKinty's novel "The Chain" makes readers wonder how much evil they might be pushed toward. ABDUCTOR. 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. Read it that way and its a thriller on more levels than one. I have also since read McKintys second blockbuster action-thriller The Island. Read more >>. Average for the last 12 months. Her mother, Rachel, then receives a call that she is now part of The Chain. (Shed been in remission for a year.) 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. Na pewno jest nieodkadaln, wietn rozrywk na jesienne deszczowe wieczory, ale czy zapadnie w pami - raczej nie . Nail-biting, smart, and convincing. . He set that all aside in this one. 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. BOOKLOVER HUB: The Booklover Hub provides another channel for authors and indie publishers to make a connection with a book reviewer. In Adrian McKinty's thriller The Chain, that's precisely what the victims are required to do. 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. 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. Brilliant. He writes with confidence, heart, and style to spare. Part of the appeal lies in a fiendishly clever and original premise, a premise Adrian McKinty plots out flawlessly. influencers in the know since 1933. by PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER, by Thrillers, at least in terms of premise, dont get much more psychologically rich than The Chain, the buzzy new novel from Adrian McKinty (the Sean Duffy series). Its free and takes less than 10 seconds! How closely can we be tracked? It's something parents do every morning: Rachel Klein drops her daughter at the bus stop and heads into her day. It's called the Chain, and it's a Ponzi scheme from hell. says the actress. Divorced teacher Rachel Klein, a cancer survivor, lives on Massachusettss Plum Island with her 13-year-old daughter, Kylie. The Chain is diabolical, unnerving, and gives a whole new meaning to the word 'relentless.'. 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. "Attica Locke, author of the Edgar Award-winning Bluebird, Bluebird"Diabolically gripping. Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. AUSSIE AUTHOR CHALLENGE: We hosted this reading challenge from 2010-2022, amassing several hundreds of participant book reviews of titles by Australian writers. [3] The book was followed by two sequels in what would become to be known as the Michael Forsythe Trilogy. I may not read a better thriller in my lifetime. [20] He often uses the classic noir tropes of revenge and betrayal to explore his characters' existential quest for meaning in a bleak but lyrically intense universe. I can't believe what went through my mind while reading it--the things I might be willing to do to save my child. The Chain . I can't believe what went through my mind while reading itthe things I might be willing to do to save my child. 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. Five hundred, five thousand, do I heard five billion, oh that redhead woman raised her hand, SOLD to five billion stars to this precious, mind hunting, terrifying, nerve bending, good night sleep killer book! Agent: Shane Salerno, Story Factory. Who would create something as evil as The Chain? Her brain tells her to run, but she doesnt make the correct split-second decision, and she is taken at gunpoint. [ This book was one of our most anticipated titles of July. 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. Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up. Falling Glass - Adrian Mckinty - Unabridged CD Audiobook. Inspired by the exchange kidnappings that take place in Mexico and the old-school chain letters of his childhood, crime novelist McKinty (Police at the Station and They Dont Look Friendly, 2017, etc.) His Sean Duffy books remain one of my favourite all time series. Good for him: Those were the bad guys, after all. I recommend his award-winning In The Morning Ill Be Gone, Gun Street Girl and Rain Dogs unreservedly. That, or lose their own children forever. He has been shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and the Grand Prix de Littrature Policire. "Steve Cavanagh, author of Thirteen"The Chain is a grade-A-first-rate-edge-of-your-seat thriller. His father was a welder and boilermaker at the Harland and Wolff shipyard before becoming a merchant seaman. GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | And McKinty finds a lot to work with in the suspenseful possibility of its undoing. A zombie apocalypse is one thing. GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | Accurate description. "Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author of The Cartel and The Force"Rachel Knight's daughter has been abducted, and the only way Rachel can save her is to add another kidnapped child to the terrifying chain. Pairing an irresistible concept with a winner protagonist, The Chain promises to be your new addiction once you succumb to the first enticing page. [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.