Mon 7 Nov 2016
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: W. ADOLPHE ROBERTS – The Haunting Hand.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Reviews[7] Comments
William F. Deeck
W. ADOLPHE ROBERTS – The Haunting Hand. Macaulay, hardcover, 1926.
Somewhat to her surprise, Margaret Anstruther has gotten a role in A Toreador’s Love, a silent picture produced by Superfilm Company. Her luck may be the result of the director’s lust for her physically, although he seems even more concerned about where she lives. And where she lives is interesting, since one night when she drops a match on the floor, a hand, with arm attached, comes out from under her bed and extinguishes the match.
Later investigation proves that there could have been no one under the bed, but there is physical evidence that someone or something put out the flame. A policeman also sees the hand, but he’s Irish and you know about them.
Our heroine investigates — she’s a science major, in addition to being a budding actress — and solves the problem with the help of another movie, The Masque of Life, directed by the same man who is in charge of A Toreador’s Love. Movies usually put Anstruther to sleep, but this one contains the clue that explains not all but a lot.
W. Adolphe Roberts may have been the first black mystery writer. That I would contend, would be the only reason for reading this novel. The explanation for the hand doesn’t satisfy, and the writing is, to be kindly, second rate.
Bio-Bibliographical Notes: For more on the author, who had quite an interesting life, check out this website, where he is said to have been a Jamaican journalist, novelist and travel writer. As the editor of Ainslee’s magazine, he published many of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s early poetry and not only that, fell in love with her. He wrote two other detective novels under his own name, plus two as Stephen Endicott, one listed as marginally criminous in Al Hubin’s Crime Fiction IV.
November 7th, 2016 at 4:24 pm
Fairly uninteresting book to me with the exception of the detail about the bustling silent movie studios in Astoria. That’s where the Marx Brothers made their movies. The plot is very similar to THE RADIUM TERRORS (1912) by Albert Dorrington which is much more entertaining. The explanation for the “impossibility” of the “haunted hand” of the title is absurd, IMO.
November 7th, 2016 at 4:33 pm
Since very few of us are ever going to read this book, John, if you’d care to, tell us all about the “haunted hand.”
November 7th, 2016 at 6:17 pm
Whatever else, it’s a damn attractive cover.
November 7th, 2016 at 6:39 pm
I agree, but here’s the problem. That particular copy of the book in jacket will cost you a mere $2,250 from a seller on abebooks. One with a slightly better jacket would set you back $3750.
I assume that would be problem for just about everybody who’s reading this. It sure is for me.
Without the jacket, though, one could scoop up a copy in good condition for $50. Almost reasonable.
November 7th, 2016 at 11:28 pm
The artist who did the art for the dust jacket was a fellow named George W. Gage. You can Google his name to see some of the other work he did.
November 8th, 2016 at 9:39 am
At the suggestion of Steve, here is a massive spoiler for THE HAUNTED HAND. This is taken verbatim from the reading journal I kept years before I started my online blog:
“A weird menace story that promises great things but delivers little. Similar in style to a poor juvenile mystery complete with spunky heroine and tag-along boyfriend. Only really interesting thing is the background you get on the silent film industry in Astoria, Queens (all of the characters are in the movie biz and are making a movie called “Toreador of Loveâ€). Plot hinges on an incident – a spectral hand that appears from beneath the heroine’s bed and just as strangely vanishes. An entire novel that hinges on a brief incident? Later, a mummified arm is found beneath the floorboards of the room and a maid with one arm surfaces – the arm presumably was hers. Why was it buried there? Ugh.” A few other things I remember — The maid handled a radioactive substance (why and how and where escapes me) and she sought medical attention. It was decided that the radiation burns were so severe she needed to have the arm amputated. Why that scarred and burned arm was hidden under the floor I also cannot remember. The whole book is really forgettable.
Another instance of a book being priced exorbitantly simply because it is scarce. It has no distinction whatsoever, IMO, not even for the author’s background. No one should ever bother with it. My copy was purchased for about $30 (it had no DJ) long before internet “booksellers” pretty much ruined the used book market. I sold the book as soon as I finished reading it.
November 8th, 2016 at 11:10 am
Thanks, John. Between your comments and Bill Deeck’s review, I have absolutely no desire to go hunting for this book. But if I happened across a copy in jacket for less than maybe 30 dollars, I’d do the same as you. Read it and pass it on.