"We are our own secret police,"single mother Rachel Klein observes,given that this is how the Chain has identified her as the perfect victim for its evil scam. She’s a resilient cancer survivor with a grounding in philosophy who will do anything it takes to get her kidnapped daughter Kylie back. Rachel is going to need all that resilience,and more than a few philosophical insights,because now it's her turn to kidnap a child. This is how the Chain works,demanding its victims not only pay a ransom,but also set up the next victim.
It's quite a premise. Inspired as McKinty has explained,by his experience of receiving chain letters as a child in Northern Ireland and his philosophy studies at Oxford during the 1980s. For anyone who missed out on the chain letter,the point of receiving one was that you then had to write at least three more that you passed on to others who you then implored to do likewise or something bad would happen.
The ethical stakes in McKinty’s chain,however,are much higher:break it and your child will die. This prompts the question,would an intelligent woman well-versed in moral philosophy actually go along with such a proposition?