Time and Chance

G. L. Rockey
Zumaya Publications (2007)
ISBN 1934135429
Reviewed by Joe Graham for Reader Views (3/07)

G.L. Rockey’s book, “Time and Chance,” is an intriguing mix of murder, television executives, mobsters, organ donation scams and country western singers in Nashville, Tennessee. TV-12 News Director Jack Carr is dealing with the death of his wife and a seemingly clueless station owner, Berry Frazer by becoming too acquainted with Jack Daniels.   Berry inherited the station from his father and seems to be intent into running the business into the ground. Berry has gotten himself in trouble with Mike “Snakebite” Walker, the albino owner of the Felix the Cat nightclub.  To take care of his debt to Walker, he has agreed to let Walker’s “girlfriend” Peggy Moore, a blonde country western singer take over the weather duties at the station.  Of course, this only adds to the problems of the station for Carr and the other station employees.  Berry thinks that Moore is just great and he can’t understand why the ratings are disappearing through the floor. To further complicate things, Moore has developed a crush on Carr which he has to deal with without Walker or Frazer finding out.

Carr seems to want to complicate his life and shorten it as he likes to hang out at the Felix the Cat, even though an encounter with Snakebite and his goons might not be the best thing for Carr’s health. And while he is hanging out the “Cat,” he develops an attraction for a new kitten, named Gillian.  But Gillian is not who she seems to be. She is actually an undercover agent for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.  She is investigating an organ donor ring that Snakebite seems to be involved in. Carr and his investigative reporter, Sago Yu are working on the same case. All of the twists and turns of the plot are satisfactorily resolved with the required surprises along the way.

As Jack Carr would say - “Time and chance are mixed up with a fickle free will thing, and the exclusive consequences are stuck on the smell of humanity forever.”
           
“Time and Chance” is an enjoyable read for any mystery fan and the setting in a floundering television station makes for a different setting from the usual mystery.  My only criticism of the book would be that the author took a little too long getting to the organ donor ring part of the plot.  The character development of Carr, Berry, Snakebite, Moore and Gillian was very good and they are memorable characters, but I was eager to get to the meat of the plot.

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