Terrific. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. . This adds immeasurably to the excitement, making it not merely a well-told page-turning thriller, but a truly sophisticated bit of novel-writing. 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. 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. 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). Adrian McKinty's most popular book is The Chain. ", "Of the current crop of 'high concept' summer thrillers, The Chain is the highestcompulsively page-turning and scaryThe Chain is highly-charged fun. In 2019 after giving up writing Adrian had a global hit with his standalone novel The Chain. 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 Chain scared the hell out of me but I could not put it down! Communication. Stanley Milgram's postwar experiments in social cruelty, determining what kind of electric shocks subjects would administer to other people if they thought it was normal, aren't directly cited here, but they are essentially what The Chain is aboutBeneath its surface of high-speed thrills, The Chain is clearly the work of the philosophical thinker McKinty has always beenHe would like you to realize that what you're reading is existentialism in action, with Rachel defining herself moment by moment with each choice she makes. Rarely does second-to-second pacing feel justified; here, its essential. Magazine Subscribers (How to Find Your Reader Number), POLICE AT THE STATION AND THEY DON'T LOOK FRIENDLY. "Attica Locke, author of the Edgar Award-winning Bluebird, Bluebird"Diabolically gripping. Adrian McKinty was born and grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the Troubles of the 1970s and 1980s. Two pages later, the two kidnappers are stopped by a New Hampshire state trooper and of course have to kill him, because The Chain has also been sold as a movie. Iactually felt McKinty plumbed far greater depth in the narrative ofThe Chain mastermind than that of Rachel or her daughter.if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,50],'bookloverbookreviews_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_1',685,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-bookloverbookreviews_com-large-leaderboard-2-0');if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,50],'bookloverbookreviews_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_2',685,'0','1'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-bookloverbookreviews_com-large-leaderboard-2-0_1'); .large-leaderboard-2-multi-685{border:none !important;display:block !important;float:none !important;line-height:0px;margin-bottom:7px !important;margin-left:auto !important;margin-right:auto !important;margin-top:7px !important;max-width:100% !important;min-height:50px;padding:0;text-align:center !important;}. Hang on tight, because once you start this book, you cant stop youll be caught in THE CHAIN. Otherwise The Chain will be broken. Rachel isn't alone. "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? One of the finest novels ever produced in the genre. takes what at first seems like a fantastical scenario and imbues it with all the terror, stress, trauma, and messiness of reality. Dannii Minogue looked very loved-up with her rarely seen boyfriend Adrian Newman at a women's national basketball league (WNBL) game in Melbourne.. 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. SURVIVOR. [ This book was one of our most anticipated titles of July. And he brings that experience and talent fully to bear upon the reader with. 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. This was not a good book, and I feel like everyone is pretending it is just to piss me off. Listen, I dont even care that the plot is crazy and ridiculous - I picked it up for specifically that reason. 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'll miss meals, sleep, and your stop on the bus - guaranteed. 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!! Rachel is an ordinary woman, but over the coming days she will be pushed beyond ordinary limits to save her daughter. Offers may be subject to change without notice. No law enforcement, no politicians, no journalists. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. 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. Kylie has been abducted from the bus stop, and Rachel gets a call from a stranger telling her she is now part of the chain, a chain that she will never be free of, where the consequences of breaking the chain are too dreadful to contemplate. I raced to the end of the book and then went back to see how Adrian McKinty pulled it all off. 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. "James Swallow, author of Exile"There are many elements that recommend Adrian McKinty's The Chain: A devilishly clever plot, well-drawn characters that leap from the page, a writing style that verges on the electric and the imaginative way he is able to blend fear, panic and determination throughout each chapter. Buy "The Chain" on IndieBound. The kind that threatened you with plagues and curses if you didnt strictly follow their instructions? What the anonymous masterminds behind The Chain know is that parents will do anything for their children. But what they dont know is that they may have met their match. 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 what initially reads like a tremendously lean novel. He states that The Detective Up Late is in fact finished and Book 8 (Hang On St Christopher) is pretty much done, and that early versions of these two novels have already appeared in German language editions. The Chain: The Award-Winning Suspense Thriller of the Year Hardcover - 9 July 2019 by McKinty (Author), Adrian (Author) 8,287 ratings Editors' pick Hand selected reads See all formats and editions Kindle Edition 2.99 Read with Our Free App Audiobook 0.00 Free with your Audible trial Hardcover Remember those? In the movie Taken, Liam Neeson's retired CIA officer chases one man to his death, tortures another and kills a half dozen more. She cant do this, she must do this, she is now a completely different person who has done this. This is no ordinary kidnapping: the caller is a mother herself, whose son has been taken, and if Rachel doesn't do as she's told, the boy will die. 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 . Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead mans heart and lungs. Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene. Its only once in a great while when a high concept this good comes along for a book. The woman, whose own child has been kidnapped, and Rachel are now links in a chain of abductions. 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. PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER, by Book Description: It's something parents do every morning: Rachel Klein drops her daughter at the bus stop and heads into her day. His debut crime novel Dead I Well May Be was shortlisted for the 2004 Dagger Award and was optioned by Universal Pictures. You wont shake it for a long time. From Austin Butler and Cate Blanchett to a potential Best Supporting Actress toss-up, see who EW thinks will win at the 2023 Oscars. "Gene Walz, Winnipeg Free Press"Adrian McKinty is one of the most striking and most memorable crime voices to emerge on the scene in years. 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. I can't believe what went through my mind while reading it--the things I might be willing to do to save my child. [5] In 2000, he relocated to Denver, Colorado to become a high school English teacher.[3]. Seriously after reading this book I feel like Ive missed out and will need to catch up on his other boos ASAP!! 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. Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. If your child was kidnapped, how far would you go to get her back? In the meantime, I urge readers to check out this highly talented authors far superiorback catalogue. The fourth of five children, he grew up in the Victoria area of Carrickfergus, County Antrim. Just brilliant. Your child will be released when your victim's parents kidnap another child. says the actress. Las mejores ofertas para The Chain Lib/E de McKinty, Adrian estn en eBay Compara precios y caractersticas de productos nuevos y usados Muchos artculos con envo gratis! Is McKinty up to the task, though, for well over 300 pages? Were three pages in. Her mind races. Hope you enjoy browsing my book reviews & following my reading adventures. [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. 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. 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. "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." New York Times bestselling author of Mystic River and Since We Fell - Dennis Lehane Max Brooks. 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 . RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020. #GiveawayContinue, Read More In The Morning Ill Be Gone by Adrian McKinty, Review: Stirring humanityContinue, Read More FLATLAND A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott, Book ReviewContinue, Read More Trust by Chris Hammer (Martin Scarsden #3), Book Review + GiveawayContinue, Read More UPRISING by Nic Low, Book Review: Candid walk through historyContinue, Read More DEAD LIONS by Mick Herron, Book ReviewContinue. This is the worst version of a chain letter you can possibly imagineand be a part of!! When Rachel (and her brother-in-law, Pete, a military veteran who helps her along the way) settles on a target, things inevitably go wrong, and McKinty stretches the bounds of belief in the plots progression. 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. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesnt know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. How Marvel went big with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The only thing is it is a high concept and for him to do it again it will require another fantastic idea like this one. Adrian McKinty | The Chain. 2.0 stars I hate to spend a lot of time reviewing this book because I was thoroughly unimpressed. Its free and takes less than 10 seconds! This is up there with Marathon Man and The Silence of the Lambs. We arewell, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).