"Jack Carr is in mourning for his lost wife and drinking himself to death. He's the hard-boiled head of a newsroom in Nashville, TN at a TV station under new management. A delusional, greedy SOB who is the son of the previous Grand Ol' Opree type owner has taken over running his father's successful media empire, but is only interested in stripping the assets to play restauranteur--and to cover his gambling debts. Things go from bad to worse at the station, but Carr's still got a nose for news. When his favorite investigative reporter starts to dig around in the business of a local thug called "Snakebite" who runs a downtown Nashville sleaze bar, he's forced into action for the first time in years. There is also a parallel police investigation going on which crisply offsets Carr's anguished dark-night-of-the soul ramblings. Soon it's clear that prostitution and a slavery ring are just the tip of what proves to be a very gruesome iceburg. The story reminded initially of classic Film Noir, with Carr as Bogart, but it is relentlessly-21st Century-amoral, filled with images of the banality of the sort of Evil which now hides out in our plastic-faced suburbs. Few nice characters here, especially the hero, whose will to self-destruction is epic. "Time & Chance" is not a mystery, because we learn who the bad guys are early on, but it is a nail-biter as you wonder what the hell is going to happen next and as the depth of criminality is revealed. It's powerfully written, and despite the occasional editorial desire I had to shut off Carr's insane monologues, the story works on many levels. Think "Mystic River" in Nashville, and you're there. (BTW the Nashville stuff felt like the real deal.)" ~ 5 Stars, Juliet Waldron, Amazon Verified Purchase and Historical Romance Author
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