Next to writing reading is my passion, I typically don’t write book reviews, but this will be my first review. Bear with me as I am not a seasoned book reviewer but feel if this helps those out there who read my blog to find the next best read, than thank you for taking the time to read my review.
Background on the Author
Adrian Mckinty born and grew up in Carrickfergus, Norther Ireland. He studied Philosophy at Oxford University on a full scholarship before immigrating to the United States. He is an author of a dozen crime novels that have won the Edgar Award, Ned Kelly Award, Barry Award, and Anthony Award and have been translated into more than twenty languages. He is a book critic for the Sydney Morning Herald, The Irish Times and The Guardian. He currently lives in New York with his wife and two daughters.
The Attention of the World for his Struggle
Adrian caught the world’s attention not only because he is a gifted writer, but because of his story which I find most intriguing. Adrian is an author that although received recognition for his writings, never truly hit the mainstream until now, with the encouragement from another author Don Winslow. Adrian about to give up writing stopped writing for two years, before turning this current book from a short story into The Chain.
Adrian was an Uber driver at one point, evicted from his home until his writing caught the attention of new representation with the Story Factory and now a movie deal with Paramount, true rags to riches type of story, which is inspiring to say the least.
The Review
The Chain an American Novel set in Massachusetts on any other day, when suddenly a young girl name Kylie is kidnapped, causing her mother Rachel Klein to jump into action. Rachel soon discovers this is No ordinary kidnapping but something called “The Chain” forcing Rachel to kidnap another child in exchange to get her daughter back. As Don Winslow so eloquently stated in his review “Its Jaws for Parents”
In deed it is, taking you on the unimaginable as a parent works to with the unknown, someone Rachel has no idea who it, eventually doing her own investigation in the Chain.
My Thoughts
I book I felt was well written, personally not being familiar with the writings of Adrian McKinty, but a fan of Don Winslow’s Novel “The Cartel”. Don Winslow appears to have been a major advocate for the writer and seeing the true struggle Adrian went through, believing his talent. Adrian’s and Don’s books are considered Crime Novels, but the genre was a perfect alignment to Don’s book.
The writing was easy to understand, not too complex, which I actually liked about this text. Many times writers can over write, making complex sentences, analogies and meanings in their writings which can lose the reader at times. I loved the shorter chapters which usually consisted of one or two pages, compared to other texts I have read which were anywhere from 12-14 pages. Every writer has their own personal style, but I happen to like this style because of the bite size chapters making it easier to read through.
The story flowed naturally; displaying Adrian’s years of talent moving the story along and leaving the reading in suspense throughout the book.
Like mentioned, I have not read this authors other books, so I am not sure how he wrote his other novels in comparison, as this was meant to be an American Novel, set in America.
The characters were characters you actually cared about, but towards the end of text, you kind of start to allude to the ending, but really not sure until the end. Lots of Action, Language such as cuss and swears is minimal so really anyone can read it.
I can’t really say that I didn’t like anything about this novel, but if I had to choose it would be that I wish the story was longer. I am love a long novel anywhere between 350-400 pages, similar to Don Winslow’s book. As a Writer myself I hope to write stories in that range, but overall the story was the right length being that it originated from short story.
The other area of the overall book, although this is an original story, there were definite influences to other books and films that I like, but still feel this book will be unique film on its own.
Being that this book was so easy to read through I was able to finish it within a few days, but I have heard many read it in one sitting which is quite possible.
I would definitely recommend this book for anyone like a good Crime thriller with a unique twist at the end.
Joseph’s Adventures in Writing 