Chance

By Kem Nunn

From the LA Times Book Prize-winning author comes a suspenseful and mind-bending novel about Eldon Chance, a forensic neuropsychiatrist at the end of his rope - now a Hulu TV series starring Hugh Laurie and Gretchen Moi.
Chance is a dark story about psychiatric mystery, sexual obsession, fractured identities, and terrifyingly realistic violence; a tale told amid the back streets of California's Bay Area, far from the cleansing breezes of the ocean.
Dr. Eldon Chance, a neuropsychiatrist, is a man primed for spectacular ruin. Into his blighted life walks Jaclyn Blackstone, the abused, attractive wife of an Oakland homicide detective seemingly suffering from a dissociative identity disorder. In time, Chance will fall into bed with her; or is it her alter ego, the voracious and volatile Jackie Black? The not-so-good doctor, despite his training, isn't quite sure and soon finds himself up against her husband, Raymond, a formidable and dangerous adversary.
Meanwhile, Chance also meets a young man named D, a self-styled, streetwise philosopher skilled in the art of the blade. Around this trio of unique and dangerous individuals, long-guarded secrets begin to unravel, obsessions grow, and the doctor's carefully arranged life comes to the brink of implosion.
Chance is a twisted, harrowing, and impossible-to-put-down head trip through the funhouse of fate; it's not pretty, it's not sweet, but it is disturbing and unforgettable.

• Language: English
• Publisher: No Exit Press
• Release date: Jun 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9780857301635

Kem Nunn

Kem Nunn is a third-generation Californian whose previous novels include The Dogs of Winter, Pomona Queen, Unassigned Territory, and Tapping the Source, which was made in to the film Point Break. Tijuana Straits won the Los Angeles Times Book Award. He lives in Southern California, where he also writes screenplays for television and film.

Reviews for Chance

[tobinelliott · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not terrible, not stupendous.

Nunn gives us some interesting characters, but I found that he made some curious choices toward the final third of the novel (taking some off the board, changing some, almost abandoning others).

I understand this is supposed to be a slow boiler, and on that level, it mostly worked, but the end left some raggedly gaping holes that I wasn't happy with.

So, okay. Not terrible, not stupendous.

[catherineburkehines · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I chose this book after reading an interview with Hugh Laurie in the WSJ magazine; evidently, he is going to star in a made-for-TV movie based on Chance. I did not enjoy the book; I kept waiting for something to happen for the first 3/4 of the book beyond endless driving around San Francisco in the fog, and then was sort of 'meh' about the deus ex machina ending. Plus, I find unreliable narrators annoying. Sorry.

[mrgan-2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I've stayed a fan of Nunn's through his shakier works, but this new novel is a real challenge. It's as if he has literally forgotten how to write. Never a master of believable or well-structured plot, here he loses control of style and character as well, so what remains is a something like a Dean Koontz/Stephen King piece, minus the usually focused premise, but plus the occasional turn of memorable phrase.

'Chance' opens with a setting, character, and theme quite removed from Nunn's typical fare, though it quickly becomes the same old descent into violent underground madness. But that setting is neither believable not a great idea in itself; who, in 2014, writes a noir/crime tale carried by multiple personality disorder, hallucinations, etc? Oy.

[ktp50 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really like Kem Nunn and his earlier work. This one, however, is not very good. The plot line is derivative and predictable. The characters are instantly forgetable. While there is some decent writing in the book, as a whole, Kem Nunn is capable of much more.

[dougj110 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A twisted tale of sexual obsession and bad choices by a San Francisco neuropsychiatrist. The protagonist, along with some quirky and bizarre characters, take this tale so far that the reader needs to suspend belief and rational thinking, to continue reading.

[zmagic69 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is really 2 1/2 stars. I love this authors books, or I did until this one. I think the author has been writing for TV too much lately. This book is choppy throughout loaded with unneeded detail, drifts away from the story and has very little dialogue between the characters. The story, what little there is of one, is amateurish and easy to see how it will play out. Not a good book at all.