The Small Hand

Synopsis: This is the chilling tale of a man in the grip of a small, invisible hand...A ghost story by the author of "The Woman in Black" and "The Man in the Picture", to be read by the fire on a cold winter's night. Returning home from a visit to a client late one summer's evening, antiquarian bookseller Adam Snow takes a wrong turning and stumbles across the derelict old White House. Compelled by curiosity, he approaches the door, and, standing before the entrance feels the unmistakeable sensation of a small hand creeping into his own, 'as if a child had taken hold of it'. Intrigued by the encounter, he determines to learn more, and discovers that the owner's grandson had drowned tragically many years before. At first unperturbed by the odd experience, Snow begins to be plagued by haunting dreams, panic attacks, and more frequent visits from the small hand which become increasingly threatening and sinister.

Review: Well as the synopsis suggests, I did read it on a cold winter's night .. and it was occasionally by the fire too. It was another of the books that hubby and I read together (annoyingly because again he worked out one of the main plot revelations which probably would have passed me by and it denied me my final shiver .. really I should put a gagging order on him :-) Susan has such a way with ghost stories, she knows just when to increase the tension and when to let it thrum quietly in the background.

So, Adam Snow finds himself stumbling across an old derelict house whilst looking for directions. Like all good storybook characters (for instance those that insist on exploring forbidden west wings etc) he is impelled not only to approach the garden gate but to give it a good nudge in order to gain entry (and good on him really because it would have been a terribly short not to say uninteresting book if he'd just driven on until he reached a petrol station and asked for directions .. however that would be my advice if anyone finds themselves in a similar situation) But still, curious people always make the best literary characters .. especially in the horror/thriller genre. The garden is completely overgrown and nature is busy reclaiming it, it's a bit of a mystery because it looks as if it might have been quite grand once and Adam comes across what seems to be the remains of an old ticket booth as if it were once open to the public. It's whilst he is standing there in the dusk, surveying this mystery, that he feels a small hand creep into his. It's definitely the hand of a small child but whose and why?

Afterwards Adam doesn't really think overly much about it (which is because he's a storybook character, anyone else would be looking in the yellow pages for an exorcist pronto), however he soon begins to experience some rather frightening anxiety attacks and it's not long before he feels the small hand once more in his. At first he's comforted by it, see's it almost as a friend, look's for it even, but soon it's beginning to behave in a much more sinister fashion.

It's probably not for hardcore horror fans - there won't be anything here to truly terrify and there's no vampires or gore, it's far more like the old fashioned ghost stories which is just how I like it. I liked the way that Susan rather cleverly made Adam a dealer in antiquarian books which meant that in between the chills and the frights she could chat away about stuff like Shakepeare's First Folio (write about what you know and love .. it always sounds convincing.)

The attempts at jokes here are because I'm writing this at night, with the wind whistling outside .. I'm just trying to convince myself that I'm not frightened by the tale which is rubbish because I am .. my flesh definitely does creep when I think about it. I must just add that the cover is beautiful, if you have to buy hardbacks (and I seldom do) then let them be small and beautiful like this one.