Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Chain
Adrian McKinty
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Chain
Adrian McKinty
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Chain, by Adrian McKinty, is the tense story of a girl, Kylie, and her mother, Rachel, and all the other mothers and children in the plot. As Kylie is on her way to school, she is forced into a car and driven to a house where she is handcuffed in the basement. A highway patrolman is shot by the kidnappers. Meanwhile Kylie’s mother, on her way to the oncologist for a blood test report, receives a phone call that gives her specific instructions on how to get her daughter back. She must pay a hefty ransom, and kidnap another child. She must keep the chain going.
Told from the viewpoint of each character, the story is updated every half hour, keeping the reader in suspense. Kylie tries to think of an escape plan, Rachel follows the instructions given to her. She goes to the bank and gets $15,000 dollars from the manager and wires it to an unknown person via the internet. She buys a small handgun and a dozen burner phones. Pete, Kylie’s uncle, comes on the scene. The Chain allows him to assist Rachel.
Rachel breaks into a large house with a basement near the river. Danny Peterson is her number one choice, but his father is a cop, so she drops him as her choice. Pete injects heroin and gathers his guns. He’s a vet of several wars. He gives Rachel advice and will do anything to save Kylie. Toby Donleavy is Rachel’s next choice and Pete climbs into their back yard after they have gone to work and school and bugs their phones. Because Toby has gone to a friend’s house after soccer practice, Rachel and Pete kidnap his little sister, eight-year-old Amelia, and take her to the basement of the big house on the river. Rachel calls the mother and tells her about the ransom money. It’s $100,000 dollars this time.
They give Amelia cold cereal for breakfast, but because of the nuts she has an allergic reaction. As she is dying, Pete rushes to find a doctor or an antidote to the reaction. Meanwhile Kylie has found a wrench on the floor of the basement and when the male kidnapper comes in, she hits him on the head and grabs his gun. But when she fires it finds he has put empty cartridges in it. He confesses that his wife doesn’t love him and wouldn’t care if Kylie did shoot him. Rachel and Pete give Amelia the meds and she recovers. Author McKinty quotes Macbeth and Schopenhauer in the middle of this horror story. Kylie now has no plan but is released after Rachel kidnaps Amelia and the money is sent. The next mother kidnaps a boy in a wheelchair and the chain continues.
The next kidnap victim has an uncle who is a retired U.S. Marshall. Rachel is determined to end this terrible chain and goes to see the Marshall. Is Rachel successful in ending the chain? Who is managing it? Do Rachel and Pete fall in love? Is this nightmare over? Find out the answers on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
Told from the viewpoint of each character, the story is updated every half hour, keeping the reader in suspense. Kylie tries to think of an escape plan, Rachel follows the instructions given to her. She goes to the bank and gets $15,000 dollars from the manager and wires it to an unknown person via the internet. She buys a small handgun and a dozen burner phones. Pete, Kylie’s uncle, comes on the scene. The Chain allows him to assist Rachel.
Rachel breaks into a large house with a basement near the river. Danny Peterson is her number one choice, but his father is a cop, so she drops him as her choice. Pete injects heroin and gathers his guns. He’s a vet of several wars. He gives Rachel advice and will do anything to save Kylie. Toby Donleavy is Rachel’s next choice and Pete climbs into their back yard after they have gone to work and school and bugs their phones. Because Toby has gone to a friend’s house after soccer practice, Rachel and Pete kidnap his little sister, eight-year-old Amelia, and take her to the basement of the big house on the river. Rachel calls the mother and tells her about the ransom money. It’s $100,000 dollars this time.
They give Amelia cold cereal for breakfast, but because of the nuts she has an allergic reaction. As she is dying, Pete rushes to find a doctor or an antidote to the reaction. Meanwhile Kylie has found a wrench on the floor of the basement and when the male kidnapper comes in, she hits him on the head and grabs his gun. But when she fires it finds he has put empty cartridges in it. He confesses that his wife doesn’t love him and wouldn’t care if Kylie did shoot him. Rachel and Pete give Amelia the meds and she recovers. Author McKinty quotes Macbeth and Schopenhauer in the middle of this horror story. Kylie now has no plan but is released after Rachel kidnaps Amelia and the money is sent. The next mother kidnaps a boy in a wheelchair and the chain continues.
The next kidnap victim has an uncle who is a retired U.S. Marshall. Rachel is determined to end this terrible chain and goes to see the Marshall. Is Rachel successful in ending the chain? Who is managing it? Do Rachel and Pete fall in love? Is this nightmare over? Find out the answers on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.