The Chain
Rachel Klein's life ends with a phone call. Her daughter has been kidnapped, the voice on the line says, and Rachel will not get her back until she does two things: pay a ransom, and abduct another child to hold for another parent in the same impossible position. This is the Chain, a self-sustaining network of terror that has been preying on ordinary families for years and quietly turning each victim into the next predator. As Rachel is forced further into the scheme, she begins to understand that the only way to save her daughter and herself is to find whoever built the machine and break it from the inside. Adrian McKinty's thriller is a high-concept nightmare executed with the tight pacing of a chase novel and a sharp eye for the moral compromise at its center.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about The Chain
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Single mom Rachel Klein gets a phone call telling her that her daughter has just been kidnapped, and that the only way to free her is to abduct another child. The Chain has been running quietly for years, and breaking it kills.
The Chain was written by Adrian McKinty and published in 2019. McKinty also writes the Sean Duffy detective series set in 1980s Northern Ireland. The Chain became a bestseller and won the International Thriller Writers Award.
Yes. A film adaptation has been announced. As of 2025, the project remains in development.
The Chain is 384 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Chain takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
The Chain is a standalone novel by Adrian McKinty, not part of a series.
The Chain is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.