Summary:

In 1961, a quiet young Philadelphia lawyer takes the challenge of solving a thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon riddle, and preserving its secrecy, and in his pursuit of this becomes enmeshed in the worlds of fashion design and rock and roll in early swinging London.

Harold Clarke, a young lawyer in Philadelphia, receives a mysterious bequest upon his father’s death: an Anglo Saxon riddle, passed down secretly in his family since the 11^th century, which he is challenged to solve. When news of this ancient, and valuable, manuscript is leaked to a London academic, a battle ensues over preserving its secrecy.

Harold’s life is changed at a deeper level when he meets Amanda Culpepper, a young dress designer making a splash in the London fashion scene. When Amanda reveals that she is pregnant, he is forced to choose between Amanda and his blue-stocking book-seller girlfriend in Philadelphia, Emily Wister.

Harold gains another mission when a fledgling British rock and roll band, the Bo-Times, sets him on a search for the origins of an obscure R&B song, leading him to the Taildragger, a Philadelphia disc jockey, and Melnick, the unscrupulous producer who stole the song’s publishing rights.

Harold also is pulled into an investigation of a smuggling operation run by his firm’s London partner, Jensen and his titled financial backer, Pears, who pressures Harold to join forces with him. When Harold refuses, Pears threatens to implicate him in Jensen’s troubles, takes a discomforting interest in Amanda’s design business and conspires with Harold’s bad-apple cousin, Peter, to sell the Clarke’s secret riddle manuscript.

WHAT IS THE CHANCE is a journey of discovery, as Harold travels from the staid confines of a suburban commuter existence, into the world of London as it begins to swing, with the aroma of spilt beer, hashish and the dust of Harold’s ancestral village flowering the atmosphere.

The book combines the personal narrative of a Brian Moore with the obscure comic quests of Thomas Pynchon and the romantic mystery of Daphne Du Maurier, with a dusting of the spirit of Pirate Radio. It is a book for lovers of the early sixties era of Mad-Men, Mary Quant, the Rolling Stones, Teddy-Boys and Doo Wop. It is a book for lovers of the past that remains with us.

Note: What is the Chance is an unpublished novel. For information, contact Joel E. Turner at joeleturner@comcast.net