The Chain by Adrian McKinty (Audiobook)

 

Rachel is on her way to a doctor's appointment when she receives a disturbing call from a mysterious woman. The woman informs her that she has kidnapped her daughter, Kylie, and unless she follows a strict set of rules her daughter will be killed. One of the rules is that she must kidnap another child.

From the very opening, The Chain by Adrian McKinty is full of tension. You are immediately gripped by the kidnapping of Kylie. The narrator, January Lavoy, conveys both the lack of experience of the kidnappers and the terror they are feeling. When the kidnappers contact Rachel to explain the situation the shock factor is taken to another level. Rachel is told that she is now part of "The Chain" and that to ensure the safe release of her daughter she must pay a ransom and kidnap another child to replace her daughter on "The Chain". 

Rachel is initially skeptical, however, the kidnappers provide sufficient evidence to convince her they have Kylie. They also tell Rachel that if she tries to contact the police, her daughter will be killed. Rachel still has some doubts. It is made very clear that once you are on "The Chain", you are there for good, should someone further down the line break the rules, the consequences could impact on you. All of this adds to the suspense.

This is really about the lengths a parent will go to in order to protect their child. We see how determined and resourceful Rachel is. Alongside this, she also has to struggle with the anguish of knowing that she is about to put another family through the horror she is currently experiencing.

Social media plays an important part in the story-line. In her quest to find a suitable child to kidnap, Rachel uses social media to find appropriate children and discovers how some families give out a vast amount of information regarding their day-to-day lives and schedules. This really should make some people think about how much information they share.

The pace of the story never lets up for a moment. I particularly enjoyed the sections where we learned about the inception of "The Chain", these really did add an extra dimension to the story and made for an enthralling and frantic conclusion.