John Newton Chance

• Born: 1911
• Birthplace: London, England
• Died: August 3, 1983
• Place of death: Cornwall, England

Types of Plot: Private investigator; thriller

Principal Series: Sexton Blake, 1944-1955

Contribution

A prolific author of popular fiction, John Newton Chance wrote in several genres—including science fiction and juvenile fiction. Writing under his own name, he produced close to one hundred thrillers, among the best being The Screaming Fog (1944), The Eye in Darkness (1946), and The Killing Experiment (1969). Recurring characters in these novels are Superintendent “Smutty” Black, Jonathan Blake, David Chance, Mr. DeHavilland, and John Marsh. Working in the same literary tradition, that of the crime thriller, Chance wrote the Sexton Blake series under the name of John Drummond. This series consists of some two dozen mysteries that were to constitute Chance’s most sustained literary effort. Using the pseudonym of John Lymington, Chance became an outstanding writer of science fiction with such works as The Night Spiders (1964), Froomb! (1964), and Ten Million Years to Friday (1967). His international reputation seems to rest primarily on these works.

Throughout his narratives, Chance evidences fine talent in handling setting, especially the creation of atmosphere. He populates his settings with some vivid and memorable characters; they are usually purposely overdrawn, frequently grotesque, and always entertaining. His characters have been compared to those of Charles Dickens and even Geoffrey Chaucer. Further, Chance had a highly developed sense of timing—so crucial to both thrillers and detective fiction—and a deft touch in the handling of individual scenes in his novels.

Biography

John Newton Chance was born in London in 1911, the son of Robert Newton Chance, a comic-strip editor. In addition to his private educational training, he attended secondary school in London and Streatham Hill College. He was married to Shirley Savill, with whom he later collaborated on at least one book, and they had three sons.

Chance began his literary career in 1931 with a story written for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Later, writing for the Sunday Graphic, he produced “Murder Mosaics,” a series of mystery dramas that, taken together, constituted a serial murder novel. After the publication of Murder in Oils in 1935, he became well known as an author of popular fiction and remained so throughout much of the twentieth century. His best works were produced from the 1930’s to the 1950’s; the later books, often categorized as potboilers, did not maintain the same high standards. Even for his fine early works, Chance did not receive the critical recognition he deserved, and his fame remains largely restricted to England.

During World War II, Chance flew with the Royal Air Force; he was invalided out of the service in 1944. His wartime experiences, as well as his literary ones, are chronicled in his autobiographical work Yellow Belly (1959). Chance died in Cornwall, England, on August 3, 1983.

Analysis

Unlike most writers of thrillers and detective fiction, John Newton Chance does not demonstrate strength in the plotting of his works. Yet he largely offsets this weakness by creating a memorable atmosphere and by drawing vivid characters. Chance consistently makes use of a gothic setting—usually a mansion, castle, or palace that is deteriorating. Typically, these structures have many rooms and are filled with strange chambers, secret passages, and underground labyrinths. Trapdoors, sliding panels, shadowy hallways, and heavy gothic furnishings are the rule.

The Screaming Fog offers an excellent example of Chance’s gothic setting. From a distance, the village where the action takes place looks like some dream castle. It sits on a hill and is enveloped in mist, the roofs of the houses shining with a golden transparency. A closer look reveals the small English town to be shrouded in the “devilish breath of the smuggler’s marsh.” It was once a haven for smugglers, and all inns and barns are connected by passages and wells to a system of catacombs beneath the town. Also, the town is spiritually isolated, and the citizenry has consciously tried to maintain this isolation. Bordering the old walled town is the mud of the marshes that sucks victims down into its heaving bosom. The local inn, called the Leather Pot, a focal point in the story, is filled with menacing shadows and is backed up against the city wall; beyond that wall is a sheer drop to the marshes below. In The Screaming Fog, Chance rejects the sleepy country village and manor house settings so common to British mystery novels. Instead, he uses strange settings pregnant with evil, hostility, and fear.

Using such settings to encourage his reader to suspend disbelief, Chance proceeds to offer fittingly bizarre and grotesque scenes: a skeleton wears a wristwatch, a lifelike dummy’s head falls off and rolls across the floor, and a skeleton wearing a suit, shirt, and tie is found in a cupboard.

Chance’s skill in characterization is on the same advanced level as his handling of setting. With the exception of Sexton Blake, he avoids centering his novels on one series character; instead, he repeatedly brings several performers back on his literary stage, gaining continuity but not limiting himself to one personality. As one would expect, those recurring characters are the protagonists of the works: Superintendent “Smutty” Black, the chief of police who looks like a deformed dwarf, and Mr. DeHavilland, a Rabelaisian character who upstages all others. Both first appear in Chance’s second novel, Wheels in the Forest (1935), and they reappear each time the author returns to the setting of the little forest village of Wey. David Chance, who is not given a first name until his third role, in The Eye in Darkness, is a former actor and a former thief now turned champion of justice and law. Chance, along with his fiancée, Sally Wilding, a beautiful journalist, first appears in The Screaming Fog. Also prominent in the novels is Jonathan Blake, who enters in The Affair at Dead End (1966). The blind menace named Rolf and his Circe-like wife, Evelyn, who also first appear in The Screaming Fog, are so delightfully villainous that they are brought back for repeat performances.

Chance’s many outstanding creations bear resemblance to those of Charles Dickens; they would not seem out of place on a Chaucerian pilgrimage and could grace the pages of François Rabelais. Chance draws his characters with a few broad strokes. His villains are especially grotesque; they include freaks, recluses, madmen, tyrants, and Satan figures. Although these supervillains consistently lose the battle between good and evil, they usually steal the attention and often the hearts of the readers.

Chance’s handling of his characters often reflects the influence of drama and the stage. His characters are overdrawn, often deformed, and their actions are bold and exaggerated. Chance likes a filled stage and constantly rushes his characters on and off the boards; he shifts scenes skillfully, engrossing the reader. (Illustrating these dramatic touches is the delightful series of comic encounters at the inn in The Red Knight, 1945.) Chance typically populates his fiction with a supporting cast of stock characters: scheming maids, suspicious family retainers, absentminded divines, shrewish wives, aspiring lovers beset by obstacles, and bumbling, good-natured gentry. One of the continuing characters in the novels, the former actor David Chance, is periodically forced into the role of private investigator. Also, the narratives often include dramatic performances; for example, in both The Screaming Fog and The Red Knight the action moves to its climax in a public performance scene.

Chance often falters in the plotting of his novels—although the basic conception behind the plot frequently displays a fine imagination. The problem usually arises in his efforts to sustain the action and development and to resolve the problems and conflicts in the narratives. Although his earlier works are considered far superior to his later ones, even Chance’s novels of the 1930’s and 1940’s suffered from weak plots. For example, the plot in The Screaming Fog is exaggerated to the point of self-parody. Two young journalists have stumbled on an odd village where the leading townspeople, including the mayor and the chief of police, are plotting to take over the whole of England. This coterie of human freaks have stationed key men in every important town in England, and they have planted time bombs in strategic locations all over the country. The explosions are to occur at one o’clock in the morning; chaos will reign, and the leading townspeople will take control. The character Chance and Sally Wilding must uncover the plot and thwart it, thereby saving England. It is not surprising when Chance solves the problem, saves the country—and finds love. The archvillains, Rolf and Evelyn, survive to oppose Chance again in The Red Knight (the sequel, which suffers from an even more mundane plot). In Chance’s novels the motivation is often unclear, the crime is frequently only incidental, and the lines of development are vague.

The Eye in Darkness

Although his thrillers are flawed, Chance proved quite skillful at writing detective fiction. Bridging the gap between the two forms, the character Chance moves from a supporting role in The Screaming Fog and The Red Knight to the lead role in The Eye in Darkness, a somewhat standard whodunit—but a very good one. Lacking the grotesque elements, the humor, and many of the gothic gimmicks of the earlier works, The Eye in Darkness concentrates on a most worthy criminal, a cleverly conceived crime, and brilliant sleuthing. Paul Marlowe, an aging magician and delightful villain who arouses fear and hate while still eliciting the reader’s sympathy, is the evil patriarch of Deadwater Park, where the tale is set. Devilish in appearance, action, and speech, he engineers an intricate and engaging plot that rivals those of the best of literary criminals. Having gathered his relatives together, he explains to them one evening that he is a dying man and is leaving a large sum of money to each. Yet all will be disinherited if he, Marlowe, is still alive the next morning. It would seem he has arranged for his own murder that night; he calls the situation an “experiment with human nature.” Murder in The Eye in Darkness is to be a family affair.

The first victim is Mr. Raymond, the family solicitor, who is strangled in the library. The suspects are Laura Mallison, who is compared to a bejeweled Persian cat, and her husband, Joe, who has the appearance of a small lizard; Ann Marlowe, a golden-haired beauty, and her young lover, Tony Marston, a somewhat sullen but handsome knight; Betty Mears, the maid, who may be Marlowe’s illegitimate daughter; and Barribal, the enigmatic family retainer. When the first two of these suspects also fall victim to the murderer, the solution should be made much more simple, but instead the situation becomes even more confused.

David Chance is forced to assume the role of detective. Trying to reach his wife, who is giving birth, he is thwarted by a snowstorm and seeks shelter at Deadwater Park. There he learns of the three murders, and an attack is made on his own life. For self-preservation, if nothing else, he must discover the murderer. Assisting him is Dr. Hay, an unflappable old physician. Chance’s investigation uncovers insidious hate and madness within the family. In addition, this detective novel offers a cast of characters isolated by the storm, a locked-room murder, blackmail, and many red herrings.

Unlike most of Chance’s novels, The Eye in Darkness is well plotted. Telescoping the action into one night, the author creates and maintains fine suspense. The solution is a surprise, and the revelation scene is skillfully handled. The explanation is interspersed with action, creating an excitement often missing in other detective fiction. Whereas other Chance plots, especially in the thrillers, falter as the novel progresses, here the action is effectively sustained.

In Chance’s fiction, individual scenes often display flashes of outstanding narrative skill. For example, the opening scene of each novel is usually one of well-calculated action meant to ensnare the reader: These include the garroting of a man in The Red Knight, the frenzied attempt to reach a pregnant woman in The Eye in Darkness, and the mysterious meeting of the cast at the Grindell house in Spy on a Spider (1987). Other noteworthy scenes include one at the inn in The Red Knight where there is great movement, turmoil, and confusion, and, in the same novel, the description of the epic battle and the resulting pandemonium.

The Screaming Fog and The Red Knight

Proving to be Chance’s most effective narrative device, the flight-and-pursuit motif creates much drama in his fiction, and chase scenes are carefully inserted to heighten the action at key stages. Many of them are found in the early thrillers—for example, the flight of Sally and Chance through the underground passages and later over the rooftops as they are pursued by a bevy of freakish killers. Other chases involve an automobile; these include Colonel Handy’s reckless drive across the marshes in The Screaming Fog, and, in The Red Knight, Chance’s hectic ride through countryside and villages in an effort to beat Sally’s taxi to the train station. In these scenes, a fine sense of recklessness is evident. Chance seems to have relished such overstated dramatic scenes.

Contributing to the sense of action in the novels is Chance’s very effective use of counterpointing. He is able to sustain several exciting scenes until they merge. An example from The Screaming Fog is the segment balancing corresponding scenes by shifting from the villains who are planning Chance’s downfall to Sally as she is attacked by Carne in the cellar to Chance sleeping in his chair at the inn. A similar example from The Red Knight features skillful movement back and forth from the scene where two of Rolf’s men try to kidnap Sally to a parallel scene where three other of Rolf’s men encounter Chance and DeHavilland on the lawn and face a strong counterattack. Finally, an even more effective use of this counterpointing is found in the inferior Spy on a Spider, where the scene shifts back and forth among the three settings for the novel: the house in the Lake District, the castle on Spider Island (three scenes on three floors there), and the old steamer lying off the coast. These separate scenes are handled simultaneously and are clearly shown to affect one another.

Complementing the setting as well as the action in the novels are vivid imagery, melodrama, and comic devices and situations. The latter are especially effective; throughout Chance’s thrillers, one finds humor and comic relief. As Chance the character undergoes a series of hair-raising experiences, he is clearly having a good time despite the ever-present danger. Accompanied by his golden spaniel, he can laugh at horrible situations. The humor invested in both the characters and the actions is primarily Rabelaisian. For example, Bushy Bruin’s lecture on the belly as the inspiration for and foundation of the arts is a prize comic minidissertation. Humor especially abounds in the several novels featuring Mr. DeHavilland.

Romance

A secondary but significant element in Chance’s narratives is romance, an area in which he lacked assurance. Often noted in various novels is the love between Chance and Sally Wilding, for example, but this is never effectively demonstrated. In The Eye in Darkness, the narrator even states that he is “no good” at sentimental scenes and then proceeds to demonstrate this fact in his handling of both romantic and familial love. Much later, in Spy on a Spider, Chance made an effort to convey the emotion of love in his fiction; yet the depiction of romance and passion did not come easily to him. Instead, he excelled at depicting the harsher emotions—primarily hate, envy, greed, and fear.

Chance’s novels are clearly not intellectual; at their best, they offer an escape from the ordinary and a playful sense of humor. Although his plots tend to be imitative (they borrow from sources ranging from William Shakespeare’s plays to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland), his skill in writing individual scenes, his creation of a distinctive atmosphere, and his development of memorable characters guarantee a place for Chance in the history of the mystery and detective genre.

Principal Series Character:

• Sexton Blake is the hero of numerous dime novels. With a residence on Baker Street, a faithful assistant, and a motherly landlady, he would seem to be a clone of Sherlock Holmes. Yet Blake is less intellectual and more spontaneous. His cases offer the reader action and adventure in the style of the Nick Carter novels.

Bibliography

Anderson, Patrick. The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks, and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction. New York: Random House, 2007. Comprehensive history of the American thriller provides the tool to understand Chance’s accomplishments and contributions to the genre’s English version.

Horsley, Lee. Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Very useful overview of the history and parameters of the crime-fiction genre; helps place Chance’s work within that genre.

The Times Literary Supplement. Review of The Red Knight, by John Newton Chance. June 16, 1945, p. 296. Review of the book featuring the characters Chance and Sally reveals what his contemporaries thought of Chance.

The Times Literary Supplement. Review of The Screaming Fog, by John Newton Chance. September 9, 1944, p. 437. Review of another Chance and Sally adventure provides an idea of Chance’s reception in his native England.