In The Tango Chain, Linda MacDonald explores life’s changing rhythms through two women at very different stages who find themselves questioning what they want and where they go next.
- Category : Literary Fiction
- Publisher : Troubador Publishing
- Publication date : 28 July 2026
- Language : English
- Print length : 334 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1806344750
- ISBN-13 : 978-1806344758
Two women, two dangerous obsessions, one tangled web of love, longing, and lies.
When newly retired teacher Taryn stumbles into the seductive world of the Argentine tango, the unexpected reappearance of her charismatic ex, Marc, threatens to unravel the stable life she’s built with steady, dependable Neil. As she spirals between exhilaration and self-destructive temptation, Taryn risks repeating the very mistakes she once swore she’d left behind.
Down the road, Rachel – clever, impulsive, and half Taryn’s age – is trapped in an affair with a married man she calls “Sam”. She knows he’s wrong for her. She knows the relationship is doomed, but Rachel can’t tear herself away. When Taryn, determined to save her from heartbreak, draws her into the tango scene, a truth erupts that leaves both of them reeling.
With their lives suddenly entwined, Taryn and Rachel must confront the illusions that have kept them captive: illusions about love, about themselves and about the people they’ve placed on pedestals.
The Tango Chain Review
You don’t need to have read the previous books that link these characters to follow The Tango Chain, but having read them myself, I felt I had a deeper understanding of the tangled emotions and relationships that have gone before.
Rachel is setting out on her own somewhere unfamiliar, and a chance encounter leads her to question her own morality and ethics. Taryn has retired from teaching and is faced with an empty space in her life that she doesn’t quite know how to fill. Her circumstances are very different from Rachel’s, but she too begins cross-examining her motives.
Despite the age difference between Rachel and Taryn, I found it interesting how similar the questions they ask themselves are at their core. Both are a little lost and need to find their way.
Both narratives are introspective, and I thought that the questions they ask themselves are ones many of us have probably asked too. There’s something quite uncomfortable (in a good way) about those thoughts that might represent how we genuinely feel at a particular moment but which we’d be reluctant or even ashamed to acknowledge to anyone else.
It’s clear that Linda MacDonald has researched the different elements of tango, which gives these scenes a real sense of authenticity. I could understand why Taryn was drawn into this world; the close physical contact, the emotional connection created through non-verbal communication, and the sense of community all seem to offer something she needs at this point in her life. And I could just see her rifling through her wardrobe for something with plenty of glitz and pizzazz!
I enjoyed seeing a side of Taryn I hadn’t known existed before. I guess you could call it her professional face, and it made her feel even more multi-faceted.
I loved that we got a few glimpses of Marianne!
The Tango Chain explores people finding their way when life shifts beneath them — and how age doesn’t necessarily make the questions about who we are, what we want, or whether our motives are entirely honourable any easier to answer.
Although The Tango Chain can be read as a standalone, several of its characters have stories and connections that reach back through Linda MacDonald’s earlier books. If you’d like to follow those threads, you can read my reviews of Meeting Lydia, A Meeting of a Different Kind, The Alone Alternative and The Man in the Needlecord Jacket on Goodreads. Having already spent time with these characters certainly added another layer to my reading experience.
Author Info
Linda MacDonald is the author of five novels: Meeting Lydia, A Meeting of a Different Kind, The Alone Alternative, The Man in the Needlecord Jacket and The Tango Chain. After studying psychology at Goldsmiths’ London, Linda taught secondary science and biology for several years, later moving to a sixth-form college to teach psychology. She was born and brought up in Cockermouth, Cumbria. She now lives in Weymouth with her husband and dog.
