First published 2019
Rachel Klein drops her daughter Kylie at the bus stop like any other morning. Then her phone rings. A stranger tells her that Kylie sits bound and gagged in the back of her car. The caller delivers impossible instructions: pay money and kidnap another child, or Kylie dies. The woman on the phone is a mother too. Her own son was taken. She must follow orders or watch him die. Rachel has joined The Chain, a system that transforms victims into criminals. The rules are brutal and simple. Parents must find money quickly, select a target, and commit acts they never imagined possible. Each victim becomes the next perpetrator. Someone grows wealthy while families destroy each other. Rachel discovers that parents will cross any line to save their children. She must choose between her moral code and her daughter's life. The Chain feeds on this choice, turning love into a weapon.
Genres: suspense, crime, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: high-stakes, moral-dilemma
357 pages · Hardcover · Mulholland Books
Content warnings: kidnapping, violence