Should you give Chance a chance? It depends if you've read, and enjoyed Nunn before. If you have, go ahead. If you haven't, pick up any of his others for a gentler introduction to his world.

Like the famous Stephen King, Nunn's style can be relied upon from book to book. I love how he puts you right in the thought center of a character's brain; his players are often fully aware that they are about to make a poor decision, but go ahead with it anyway, because...well, it's just who they are. Ces't la vie.

No, the problem with Chance lies with the characters, or rather lack of. The novel basically has no antagonist. You get a corrupt cop that shows up now and then, but not enough to cause any real drama, which is a shame because his few brief appearances have an intimidating quality. His two showdowns with D (the best creation in the book) should be highlights, but instead you get a debriefing from D as he and Eldon Chance make a getaway and a confusing sequence towards the end where Eldon's cognition finally succumbs to fatigue, depression and fear for his life. That's really the main conflict here - Eldon versus himself.

The Jackie Black character is also underused. An attractive woman with multiple personality disorder as written by Nunn sounded very appealing, but apart from a romantic rendezvous in a motel mentioned in other reviews already, there aren't many scenes where she lifts the book to great heights.

I'd label this an unfocused effort that's still worth your time.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance digital copy.