The Hand in the Dark

From Miss Heredith's point of view, a girl who smoked and talked slang lacked any sense of the dignity of the high position to which she had been called. She was in every way unfitted to become mother of the next male Heredith -- if, indeed, she consented to bear an heir at all. It was Miss Heredith's constant regret that Phil had not married some nice girl of the county, in his own station of life, instead of a London girl. And now she was unwilling to wear the ancestral pearls, and was leaving them in her jewel box there in her room . . . Such thoughts were immediately dashed from her mind, however -- and she nearly tumbled, descending the staircase in her hurry. Vincent, at the table with the other guests, had risen at the sound of her hurrying feet. "Oh, Vincent, I was just coming for you -- something terrible must have happened!" Miss Meredith began, in a broken, sobbing voice. "I was going upstairs to my room -- when I heard the scream, and then the shot. They must have come from Violet's room!"

About the Author

Arthur J. Rees (Arthur John 1872-1942) was born in Australia and worked as a newspaperman before moving to England in his twenties. He wrote numerous mystery novels starting with the Merry Marauders in 1913. He collaborated with John R. Watson on two books, The Hampstead Mystery (1916) and The Mystery of the Downs (1928). Other works include The Shrieking Pit (1919), The Hand in the Dark (1920) and The Moon Rock (1922). His last book, The Single Clue was published shortly before his death in 1940. At least one advertisement for The Hampstead Mystery makes a claim that he worked for Scotland Yard at one point, but we have been unable to confirm this fact.

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