Book cover of The Chain

Book description


When a mother is targeted by a dangerous group of masterminds, she must commit a crime to save her kidnapped daughter—or risk losing her forever—in this "propulsive and original" award-winning thriller (Stephen King).

It's something parents do every morning: Rachel Klein drops her daughter at the bus stop and heads…

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Why read it?

5 authors picked The Chain as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This book was edge of your seat reading.

The Chain is one of my most recent reads.

I’d categorise it as a dark thriller that created some of the tightest knots in my stomach. The concept alone was enough to generate terror, anxiety, and anger from the first page onward. But anything that involves the endangerment of children does that to me.

A gripping tale that puts the victims, both the kidnapped and the kidnappers, in peril from an unseen syndicate who controls their actions with a phone call.

Very realistic. Very scary.

From Robert's list on suspense to lose yourself in.

This book made me wonder.

Rachel’s daughter has been kidnapped, and to get her back, Rachel must pay a ransom and abduct another child. The kidnapper is another mother whose child has been kidnapped—by someone else whose child has been kidnapped, by someone else whose... Well. You get the idea. As I tore through this novel, I couldn’t help wondering what I would do in that situation. Could I actually kidnap somebody else’s child? I still don’t have an answer, but watching this ingenious plot unfold was a rollercoaster ride I’ll never forget.

From Kimberly's list on children in peril.

If you love The Chain...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

I had to share my favorite piece of fiction from the past decade, and that’s McKinty’s The Chain. A book I always recommend to folks looking for a high-octane, edge-of-your-seat thriller. Adrian takes the concept of “chain letters” and heightens it into a game of murder and manipulation. Any time a work of fiction makes you feel like you’re watching a movie unfold in your brain, you know it’s working.

Strap yourself in. Ask yourself, what would I do, if this happened to me? Look, if I was tossed into the middle of the zombpocalypse, I already know I’d die off right away, because I can’t run fast. I like to kid myself that if I suddenly became the main character in a thriller, I’d figure out all the tricks and make it to the end, but the truth is, I’m not sure I’d have the guts to do even a single thing the mom in The Chain has to do. This book had me tapping my tablet so fast…

If you love The Chain...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

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