The Red Right Hand

Written in 1945, The Red Right Hand has come to be considered one of the few genuine classics of the mystery genre to have been produced in America. While the novel contains all the requisite clues and false leads of its sometimes more elegant British counterpart, it also provides a quality rarely available in those more genteel entertainments. That quality is terror, sheer unmitigated terror, the kind that has readers checking to see if all the doors are securely locked. After all, it takes a strong constitution not to be frightened when a sympathetic, young New York doctor calmly starts to tell you the chilling story of a young couple on their way to be married who pick up an onminous hitchhiker (who may or may not have previously known the husband-to-be). They are involved in a mysterious accident which results in the disappearance of both men without leaving a trace — except somebody's severed right hand.