Chance

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.

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 the basis of the film Point Break. Tijuana Straits won the Los Angeles Times Book Award. His latest novel, Chance, was recently made into a major TV series starring Hugh Laurie and Gretchen Mol. He lives in Southern California, where he also writes screenplays for television and film including John from Cincinnati, Deadwood and Sons of Anarchy.