The Chain

One of my favorite authors decided to write a book for the American market and yeah, it was pretty cool. It tells the story of The Chain of kidnappers, playing on the fears of any parent, as they force parents to kidnap another child to get their child back. Told in a propulsive fashion, using local Boston landmarks as locations, it moves fast and leaves no prisoners.

It was fun, even if it wasn't as interestingly personal as the amazing Sean Duffy series. I could total sympathize with mother who would do anything to get her daughter back, even if it included kidnapping another kid. And how it so wrecked both her and her daughter. He did a very good job with the local northeast Massachusetts descriptions and kept the story moving along.

There was some magic computer work, which always gets me a little disappointed. And there seemed to be a little too many "problems", from cancer to a heroin addiction, for the major players. And maybe some armchair psychology, which I always find a bit annoying. The person is a psychopath - they don't need a reason or a history either.

But it was a great read and I highly recommend it, especially if you are a parent. McKinty definitely knows how to tell a great story and the ending was especially exciting and a real page turner. There was an amazing coincidence that got confidently explained away, so I am very happy with the end result.

It's a devious crime setup! It's upsetting trying to imagine being in such a scenario. It's a great basis for a plot.

I felt like the delivery was maybe a bit formulaic. I liked that it was anchored hard in 2019 with Bitcoin, Instagram, Tor, Uber making appearances and using iPhones as flashlights with guns in the other hand. But other than that I don't think there are any surprises.

There is one plot twist (Marty's girlfriend being the mastermind) but its delivery felt botched to me. The reader learns it way before the characters, so some scenes (looking up Kylie's GPS trace) feel somewhat impotent. Also it's a bit random. The mastermind hooked up with Marty because he's just so handsome???

The characters obviously go through severe hardships and there is a good amount of writing devoted to examining their anguish and how they try to process the events. This has good potential, but I don't think I got much new out of it. They just grit their teeth, suffer, etc. But it's a bit flat I think. It doesn't manage to give real life to the characters. The main character is a professor of philosophy which is another opportunity that is a bit wasted. (There are no musings on philosophy.) She is also a woman. I think the (male) author did an okay job of writing women, but perhaps a female writer would have been able to make them more real.

But this is basically an action movie in a book form, so I'm not sure all this criticism is warranted. It has an awesome setup, a decent plot, and exciting action scenes. It's a quick read and entertaining. I'm not really complaining! If they make a movie out of it, I'll watch that too.