Chances (novel) blackout, a real event that Collins describes in some detail affects all the major characters either directly or indirectly. Gino's story begins in 1921 but backtracks to narrate details of when Gino's parent's, Paulo and Mira Santangelo emigrated to New York City from Italy in 1909 when Gino was three. From an early age, Gino takes to a life of crime, stealing a car at the age of fifteen and ending up in a juvenile home. Chances (novel) Chances is a 1981 novel by Jackie Collins and the first in her "Santangelo" novels series. The novel has three focal points,
The Law and the Lady Though Collins is sometimes credited with inventing the detective story, others give that honour to Edgar Allan Poe, whose "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) was 27 years earlier than Collins' "The Moonstone". However, Collins almost certainly began the tradition of female sleuths continued by Agatha Christie with Miss Marple and, in more modern times, V. I. Warshawski, Sara Paretsky's private detective. The Law and the Lady The Law and the Lady is a detective story, published in 1875 by Wilkie Collins. It is not quite as sensational in style as "The Moonstone" and "The Woman in White". Valeria Brinton