Posted by Hey Book Friends!
Sorry for the delay, but getting back to regularly scheduled programming. I finished reading “The Chain” by Adrian McKinty, and this book has more twists and turns than real/fake kidnapping stories…
The 2020 thriller novel by the Irish author is based on an unusual Mexican drug cartel’ business’ plot. McKinty told the Associated Press June 17, 2019, that the inspired players would “kidnap one of your family members. And while you’re raising the ransom to pay off the kidnappers, you can arrange to be swapped out for this more vulnerable member of your family. They swap you for your grandmother, and meanwhile, the rest of the family raises money for your ransom.”
“The Chain,” set in Boston, follows the protagonist, Rachel, in the Boston metro area. A single mother to her preteen daughter Kylie, she gets a telephone call that would scare all parents: her child has been kidnapped. The voice on the other line says the only way to get her daughter back safely is to wire thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency and that she must kidnap the child of another family and instruct them the same. The conditions provided by ‘The Chain’ says the families selected as the next target cannot be connected to politicians, law enforcement, and journalists.
Our protagonist, a true mama bear, executes her part. Splitting funds between credit cards and a bank loan, Rachel wires the money to the account provided to her by a disguised voice on a burner app and kidnaps her target. Although she eventually gets Kylie back, she can’t help but feel an enormous amount of guilt and vows to end The Chain.
The system is run and maintains itself on fear, vulnerability, and a parent’s love for their child. No one would intentionally bring pain and harm to another family, but in the case of me-or-you, The Chain will make families decide. Did I mention the powers that kill the children of families who don’t go through it? Wild.
I’m not a thriller reader, too anxious, but I liked this novel. The flow, the concept, and the layout of the story were absolutely compelling. The book’s second half did tiptoe around being absurd, but the climax made up for it. Some of the backstories were more than extra, but I’ll let those slide.
Overall, it was an exciting book. Would I recommend it? Yes, yes I would.
Four stars
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