The Monstrous Regiment

Jonathan Blake

by John Newton Chance

It is understandable that a multi-millionaire should wish to be out of sight, but to buy a large old manor and put armed guards at the lodges seemed a little extreme. When Jonathan Blake went to visit somebody on the estate, he found a lot of the millionaire's old friends were turning up there, ladies who, in the past, had either tried to murder him or get him murdered. It gradually became clear that they had all been invited to the house in order to be blown up!

183 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

John Newton Chance was born in London in 1911 and educated at a private school there. He went to a Technical College with the intention of becoming a Civil Engineer, but left that to become a Quantity Surveyor. While surveying, he began to write for the BBC, and on his twenty-first birthday gave up all honest work to become a writer. The first novel was published in 1935, was hailed as a masterpiece and, like so many such, grossed more glory than gain. But it established the writer's career, which he has followed ever since with the exception of the four war years. When his war ended, he and his wife came to live in Hampshire where their first son was horn. Seventeen books later a second son arrived, and six books further on, the third came along. Among the books of the time there were a number for children, and the adult stories were published here, in America and on the Continent; some were filmed and a number broadcast.

source: his autobiography Yellow Belly

He would eventually write over 160 books under several names. Pseudonyms used by Chance throughout his career included:
John Lymington, David C. Newton, and Jonathan Chance.

He was also one of the many writers responsible for the 'Sexton Blake' series that spanned decades. Those were written by slates of authors using the same personas to include Desmond Reid and John Drummond among others.