Ghost of a Chance by Simon R. Green – review

Invariably, reviewers of Simon R. Green’s Ghost of a Chance have compared it to the movie Ghostbusters. However, it is nothing like Ghostbusters–er, other than it involves a team of three unlikely psychically gifted individuals who try to–ummm–bust ghosts. But although there are mildly humorous moments in the novel, it is not a comedy; Bill Murray is not in it; and it’s set in England.

 The three work in the service of the Queen, specifically for an organization known as the Carnacki Institute, which has secretly existed for centuries and whose job is to “Do Something About Ghosts.” The Institute’s operatives are the best of the best, and even though JC Chance, Melody Chambers, and Happy Jack Palmer are a part of the B team, they still are definitely capable of getting the job done and making the world safe (relatively speaking) for the living.  JC Chance is the team’s leader, and he is intelligent, brave, and charming, but also very arrogant. Melody Chambers is an attractive science geek and a techno-wizard, and she keeps all of the group’s ghost-detecting computers and other equipment up and running. Then, there’s Happy Jack Palmer, a self-medicated telepath with a generally gloomy disposition. That’s because he’s “seen things,” and he knows that what most of us call reality is but a thin veil. The rest of us aren’t gloomy or terrified all of the time because we can’t detect the ghosts, ghouls, demonic entities, and Other Worldly gods/beings that he can, and even he has a difficult time dealing with what he sees unless he pops a handful or more of the brightly-colored pills he has with him so he can cope with his visions.

In Ghost of a Chance, the first book in Green’s “Ghost Finders,” series, the trio’s main mission is to investigate and put a stop to a strange and deadly haunting occurring in the London Underground, at the Oxford Circus Tube Station. Posters on the walls have a nasty habit of changing, and sometimes commuters are taken away on trains bound for the actual Hell (instead of the metaphorical one of work or home, depending on who you ask). They have to discover who, or what, is behind the supernatural activities there, but they find that is easier said than done. Happy’s been ordered by Chance to forego his pills so that he’ll have a clear head, but he detects strange presences and forces that seem to be not in one central place, but all over. Melody’s computers have no better luck pinning down the source of the haunting, and JC is also clueless. On top of this, they have to locate and defeat a duo from competing agency the Crowley Project, ruthless Natasha Change and demented sadist Erik Grossman, sent to assassinate them.

The plot and the action really start to heat up and get interesting when Natasha and Erik try to attack the ghost finders, both with conventional weapons and with supernatural ones. Natasha and Happy get locked into a battle of the minds, and whatever they think happens, does happen. This is one of the coolest parts of the novel, at least, IMHO, because they seemed to be fairly evenly matched, and for a while countered each others’ moves. If JC had participated, I think that Natasha and Erik would have been easily defeated–though they both thought that Chance was the one who would give them the most trouble, Happy and Melody hold their own very well against them by themselves. Chance doesn’t help them because he gets smitten by a woman ghost he sees, and runs off after her as she’s being dragged off by the evil entity. He supposedly is in love at first sight, and even though it’s with a ghost and not a live human being, he doesn’t want to let her be carried away to some fate worse than death. He doesn’t want to risk losing the ghost of the novel’s title, and perhaps his only chance at experiencing true love.

This is, to me, the most unbelievable part of a novel that has a lot of unbelievable characters and creatures in it. Ghosts, demons, monsters, and Other Worldly Entities are perhaps difficult to believe in, but that’s the stuff and fodder of Fantasies, Urban Fantasies, and the Horror genre, so I can accept these as being part and parcel of the genre. And, like the Beatles song, I can (if barely) imagine love at first sight, because, as they sing, “it happens all the time.” But love at first sight with a ghost, to the extent that you would rather follow it than help your own teammates, was difficult for me to believe.

I will say that many critics/reviewers didn’t like this novel very much, even if they mentioned they loved Green’s other novels. I would say in its defense that, while it may not be as good as his “Novels of the Nightside” or his “Secret Historie,” or “Deathstalker” series, with the “Ghost Finders” he seems to be going in a different direction. I accepted this, and as I was reading, just considered it to be a fun read, and didn’t try to compare it to books that it wasn’t anything (or much) like.  I just tried to see if I liked or disliked it on its own merits, or lack of same. I cut the author some slack.

I liked Ghost of a Chance, and I think it’s a pretty good start to the series, despite my perhaps jaded perspective on human/ghost relationships. The vampire sharks, and JC’s battling single-handedly demon hordes aboard the Hell Train, fighting car by car against them to reach the ghost he’s fallen in love with, are both parts of the novel I liked quite a bit. They helped make the novel more exciting and interesting, and thus one I’d recommend to anyone who loves the Urban Fantasy genre.