More Sounds: The Chain by Adrian McKinty, 2019,
Don Winslow was praising McKinty to high heaven for the past few months. Winslow enjoyed McKinty's work enough that he championed this last novel and McKinty scored a decent publishing deal that led to the bestseller list. This was pretty a decent novel but almost nothing can match the kind of blurbs that McKinty received. I just don't rate this book that high.
Rachel is divorced, has a 15-year-old daughter named Kylie, and has been cancer free for one year. She is on her way to a follow up oncologist appointment when a woman calls to say Kylie has been kidnapped. After that call Rachel receives another call by a computer disguised voice representing the Chain. Rachel has to pay $25k and kidnap another child for Kylie to go free. If Rachel does not pay or kidnap another child then Kylie will be murdered.
The Chain requires the kidnap victims's families to have no association with police, reporters, or politicians. Everything is kept silent because the parents are forced into a violent crime and are under threat and the coercive force of The Chain. They can be recalled at any time to follow, investigate, or even murder people that The Chain wants information on.
The whole operation depends on The Chain as being practically omnipotent: we know who you are, what you do, who you talk to, where you go. Your entire family can be killed whenever we want.
Anyhoo. Rachel cannot tell her chatty ex-husband what is occurring, so on her own she starts scrambling to raise money and search social media for likely victims. Her former brother-in-law (and unemployed junkie Veteran) helps later on.
McKinty lays it thick on the idea that a parent will do anything for a child. And it is all believable. The Chain gives a timeline, clear threats, and people willing to carry out the threats. Of course everything turns out well in the end but you never know who may get killed off along the way.
Comments:
1. Bitcoin love.
2. Many Gun Guy gripes on accuracy.
3. Old Volvo love.
4. Skip the novel if you cannot read about children being attacked, threatened, abused, etc. Those parts made me very uncomfortable. McKinty raised some surefire anger at the way the kids were treated and how the bad guy masterminds were sociopathic shits.
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2 comments:
I love his writing but I cannot read this.
Yeah, skip it.
I'm listening to an audio book by Lars Kepler (which I JUST NOW discovered is a husband-wife team) that has two brutal murders with a child victim and child trafficking. Not an easy listen at times.
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