The Light Benders

by John Newton Chance, Jonathan Chance

Can incoming metals from outer space bring in contamination that can kill mankind? Are rockets safe from picking up invading germs? The V2 rocket has been lost in the midst of its own desolation for nearly thirty years when a piece of its metal comes into the hands of the only occupier of the bomb site. Then suddenly the metal starts to come alive, to write, to scream, to terrify the holder and the man who had come to find out why this whole deserted place had somehow gathered to itself the mark of Cain...

librarian note: This book was originally released under the name "Johnathan Chance". That and John Lymington are both pseudonyms of John Newton Chance.

159 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

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.