A chance encounter sees old friends reunite, old flames rekindled and old passions explored anew. Rem Bruxvoort is at a liminal place in his life. Middle aged, separating from his fiancé and still feeling the fallout of the pandemic one year on he is a character that is somewhat adrift until a chance reunion with a former bandmate that leads to a search for a lost master tape and opens more doors. Rem’s Chance offers us a snippet of these character’s lives, reflections on the past and how things have changed and rediscovering the passions of their youth. Simmering underneath however is a mystery of a threat, “the man” driven to take retribution against one of the other characters. The storyline flows well, and the perspective changes allow the significant characters to develop more depth. The mystery running parallel to Rem’s story and his reunion with Gene adds an interesting twist but I felt that the main themes of the book focus on nostalgia, a reclaiming of the past and rediscovering the things we loved when we were younger that got lost amongst the mundanities of adulthood. I liked the comparison between Rem and Gene’s characters, how one becomes quite bland but successful in society’s view, and one who is perhaps not where society expects him to be at the start of the book but has a more solid foundation of personality. Rem seems to always stay true to who he is and I believe in the end may be the most happy of the characters. Almost like a coming of age but with middle-aged characters, I felt that was the key takeaway message. Overall, I found Rem’s Chance to be an interesting read and I think that it would appeal to readers of both contemporary and mystery fiction.
Rem Bruxvoort is forty-six and not getting any younger. The former guitarist of The Bubbling Samovars—an obscure nineties punk band—is still feeling fallout from the pandemic. It’s October of 2021 in southwest Florida and he’s stuck living under the same roof as his ex-fiancée, who hates his guts. As they sell off the bungalow they bought together before everything between them went up in smoke, Rem seeks a way forward to better days. A chance encounter reunites Rem with his former bandmate Gene, who’s traded in playing the bass for a cushier life as a soon-to-be-married entrepreneur in the tech sector. As the two old friends catch up, the subject of the lost master tapes of The Bubbling Samovars’ unreleased album arises. Soon Rem’s quest to locate the master tapes, which might yield a reissue that will set everything straight, is put in motion. Gene’s sister Julie is a thoughtful closet poet with musical ambitions of her own. When she grows tired of working overtime in a drab corner of the Upper Midwest, she puts her life there on hold and heads down to Florida. Rem and Julie soon rekindle their long-dormant friendship, growing closer and closer, while waxing philosophical about a host of subjects. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to everyone, an ominous figure in a white van has been stalking them in the periphery, seething with resentment. Known simply as “the man,” he has bad intentions and seeks revenge on Gene for reasons that are unclear. But “the man” has issues of his own and is plagued with an ineptitude that undermines his malevolent aspirations. Will he cause the carnage he wants so badly to enact? Multiple plotlines are fleshed out as individual character arcs overlap and eventually convene. In his second novel, Dave J. Andrae employs his characteristic wry wit to explore an aging Gen Xer’s mindset against the backdrop of gritty crime and mystery elements. Rem’s Chance is a blended-genre effort that touches on romance, philosophy, intrigue, what it’s like to play in a band, and so much more. With ample humor and cultural references to keep things colorful, the book is a well-structured page turner.
