Chance follows a pattern of some of Robert B. Parker's recent Spenser novels (Stardust, 1990, Paper Doll, 1993) by taking the Boston detective on an investigation into the past of a character victimized not only by criminals in the present but by family background and social environment. In Chance Spenser's ostensible job is to search for the missing husband of Shirley Ventura, the daughter of a Boston mobster named Julius Ventura; but the real quest becomes understanding the past of the disappearing Bibi Anaheim, the captive wife of the brutal mobster Marty Anaheim, and rescuing her from her bondage to her abusive and tyrannical husband.

Spenser's search for the truth about Bibi Anaheim becomes the study of how a spirited and rebellious young woman of limited education can be victimized by marriage at seventeen to an egotistical and dominating husband. As Spenser digs into Bibi's past, he visits...