After the death of Inis St. Erme, Dr. Henry Riddle retraces the man's
final moments, searching for the moment of his fatal mis-step. Was it
when he and his bride-to-be first set out to elope in Vermont? Or did
his deadly error occur later--perhaps when they picked up the terrifying
sharp-toothed hitch-hiker, or when the three stopped at "Dead
Bridegroom's Pond" for a picnic?
As he searches for answers, Riddle discovers a series of bizarre
coincidences that leave him questioning his sanity and his innocence.
After all, he too walked those wild, deserted roads the night of the
murder, stranded and struggling to get home to New York City. The more
he reflects, his own memories become increasingly uncertain, arresting
him with nightmarish intensity and veering into the irrational territory
of pure terror--that is until an utterly satisfying solution emerges
from the depths, logical enough to send the reader back through the
narrative to see the clues they missed.
An extraordinary whodunnit that is as puzzling as it is terrifying, Joel
Townsley Rogers's The Red Right Hand is a surreal masterpiece that
defies classification. It was identified by crime fiction scholar Jack
Adrian as "one of the dozen or so finest mystery novels of the 20th
century."
