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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 into her day. But a cell phone call from an unknown number changes everything: it's a woman on the line, informing her that she has Kylie bound and gagged in her back seat, and the only way Rachel will see her again is to follow her instructions exactly: pay a ransom, and find another child to abduct. This is no ordinary kidnapping: the caller is a mother herself, whose son has been taken, and if Rachel doesn't do as she's told, the boy will die."You are not the first. And you will certainly not be the last."Rachel is now part of The Chain, an unending and ingenious scheme that turns victims into criminals—and is making someone else very rich in the process. The rules are simple, the moral challenges impossible; find the money fast, find your victim, and then commit a horrible act you'd have thought yourself incapable of just twenty-four hours ago.But what the masterminds behind The Chain know is that parents will do anything for their children. It turns out that kidnapping is only the beginning."McKinty is one of the most striking and most memorable crime voices to emerge on the scene in years. His plots tempt you to read at top speed, but don't give in: this writing—sharply observant, intelligent and shot through with black humor—should be savored."—Tana French"A masterpiece. You have never read anything quite like The Chain and you will never be able to forget it." —Don Winslow"Diabolical, unnerving, and gives a whole new meaning to the word "relentless". Adrian McKinty just leapt to the top of my list of must-read suspense novelists. He's the real deal."—Dennis Lehane"Pairing an irresistible concept with a winner protagonist, The Chain promises to be your new addiction once you succumb to the first enticing page."—Alafair Burke"A grade-A-first-rate-edge-of-your-seat thriller. I can't believe what went through my mind while reading it." —Attica Locke



About the Author

Adrian McKinty

Adrian McKinty is an Edgar Award winning crime novelist from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has been shortlisted for the Dagger Award, Anthony Award, Theakston Award and has won the Ned Kelly Award, the Barry Award and the Edgar Award.

Adrian studied law at Warwick University and philosophy at Oxford University. In the early 90's he emigrated to New York City where he worked in bars, building sites and bookstores for seven years before moving to Denver, Colorado to become a high school English teacher. In 2009 he moved again, this time to Melbourne, Australia with his wife and kids.

His first Sean Duffy novel, The Cold Cold Ground, won the 2013 Spinetingler Award and was picked as one of the best crime novels of the year by The Times (of London) . The second Sean Duffy novel, I Hear The Sirens In The Street, won the 2014 Barry Award for best paperback original crime novel of the year.

In The Morning I'll Be Gone (Sean Duffy #3) won the 2014 Ned Kelly Award for best novel and was picked as one of the top 10 crime novels of 2014 by the American Library Association, The Daily Mail & The Toronto Star.

Gun Street Girl (Duffy #4) was shortlisted for the 2016 Edgar Award, the 2015 Ned Kelly Award, The 2016 Anthony Award and was picked as one of the best books of 2015 by The Boston Globe and The Irish Times.

Sean Duffy #5, Rain Dogs, won the 2017 Edgar Award (best paperback original) , was the Boston Globe's #1 Mystery novel of 2016, was an Irish Times book of the year and was shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2016, the 2016 Ned Kelly Award, the 2017 Barry Award and the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award 2016.

Sean Duffy #6 will be out in early 2017

newspaper reviews for some of the Duffy books:

If Raymond Chandler had grown up in Northern Ireland The Cold Cold Ground is the book he would have written.
The Times

A locked room mystery within a manhunt killer [is] a clever and gripping set-up that helps makes Duffy's third outing easily his best so far.
The Sunday Times

Not content with constructing a complex plot, McKinty further wraps his story around a deliciously old-fashioned locked room mystery, the solution to which holds the key to Duffy's entire investigation. Driven by McKinty's brand of lyrical, hard-boiled prose, leavened by a fatalistic strain of the blackest humour, In the Morning I'll Be Gone is a hugely satisfying historical thriller.
The Irish Times

[A] superb trilogy reaches its finality...The hunt for [Duffy's quarry] begins and ends spectacularly. McKinty is particularly convincing in painting the political and social backdrops to his plots. He deserves to be treated as one of Britain's top crime writers.
The Times

An action movie view of the Troubles...a fast and thrilling ride



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