Customer Reviews

Red Right Hand

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the truly great ones, a crime novel that you will remember ten years after you read it . I know -- it's been ten years since I last read it, and it just floored me again.

The writing is a bit affected and takes some getting used to, but it's worth it. When you get to the climax and the secret is revealed, you'll sit slackjawed and start paging back through the book, desperate to see how you missed it. A brilliant puzzle, brilliantly constructed and brilliantly unfolded.

If you like mysteries, do not -- I repeat, do not -- leave this screen without buying this book.

I found this book by chance at a second hand book sale while on summer holiday about three years ago. The edition was printed in 1975 and by now (after reading over and over) looks rather shabby.

I had never heard of the author before and was merely looking for something to pass the time. It didn't pass much time, because once I started reading I couldn't put it down, and only took me one day to finish.

Joel Townsley Rogers puts you, neé, throws you right in the middle of a first-person account of this murder mystery that unfolds in one day. The story and subsequent mystery slowly unravels as he takes you back in time, revealing the characters and the events leading up to the day in which the story is told.

You start guessing and wondering, painting your own mental images of the characters and surroundings desribed with meticulous attention detail.

There are clues throughout the book, and careful reading is required. Read it again and again, and more clues are revealed.

As far as endings to any book are concerned, they're pretty imprtant, so I won't divulge any details. I will say this though...be prepared!

This is whodunnit to the very end, and even though the ending has never changed in the 7 times that I've read it...I'm reading it again for the 8th time right now.

Enjoy and share

I can only agree with the other reviewers. I bought this book new in a local bookstore after picking it up and reading the introduction and a few paragraphs. I've never read another book quite like it. This book really stands on its own and unlike many others I believe that the sobriquet 'classic' truly applies to this novel. Buy it!!!

A corpse with a missing hand, sightings of a twisted gnome driving a sleek convertible, the lone hitchhiker on a deserted highway comes straight from a nightmare's central casting. "The Red Right Hand", written in 1945, fresh and jolting in the 21st century, must have absolutely rocked the literary world of its day with this strangely creepy tale of young love gone impossibly wrong. Dr. Harry Riddle finds himself implicated in the murder of Innis St. Erme, a young New York businessman who had set off to New England to elope with his bride-to-be when a roadside picnic takes a terrible turn. Author Joel Townsley Rogers spins this bizarre and eerie tale tightly around a non-linear plot, leading the reader down a hallucinogenic trail of murder and mind games that is sure to confuse and delight - like you're kicking back on a lazy Saturday afternoon a pick up an early "Twilight Zone" episode mid-flight. But by the time its over, you're on the edge of your seat, yet still completely unprepared for the final twists and turns that would leave Hitchcock stuttering. Classic stuff - the best - don't miss this one.

A classic, in medias res mystery, in which no one is innocent until the end; scene after terrific scene leads you to an end that will knock your socks off. If you've ever lived in CT (as I have) you will recognize and respond to this book. The smell of roses and fresh earth -- !!!!!

The mystery genre is not one that I am fond of. I bought this book from the now defunct (sadly) Common Reader catalog because of the name and description. I'm so glad I ordered it because this is one of the very few mysteries I have ever liked. Joel Townsley Rogers was one talented writer! Some of his gooseflesh-raising descriptions have stayed in my mind for years. This book is not only mysterious and suspenseful but downright scary.

Rogers was a much better writer than some of today's authors who think that gore and perversion are the only way to scare readers, and that we can only handle one and a half page chapters or our puny little attention spans will collapse.

They should all have to read this book--so subtle, so creepy. I promise you will never forget the crazed little sawtooth killer--the hair on my arms is standing up as I type--if you buy this book you will not regret it!!!

I read this years ago after one of my favorite authors (Donald E. Westlake) cited it as his favorite mystery novel. I loved it. The book is a constantly-shifting and mysterious narrative that repays a close read. Mystery fans: Find it and read it-- the designation of this book as a "classic" is completely justified!

Other reviewers say that this book has nightmarish qualities unlike any other. So very true. I'm a reading addict. I was a business traveler for years and found every neat used book store in every major Midwestern city. I picked up "The Red Right Hand" on a whim and was positively blown away. I read everything from Elmore Leanard to George Eliot, and Mr. Roger's book was without question one of the most unusual, frighening, and FUN books I've ever read. GO FOR IT

I first encountered this fabulous book sitting on a "free" shelf in an inn located on Monhegan Island Maine 50 years ago. I have read it 5 or 6 times since, though the pages on my copy printed in 1945 are progressively yellowed and brittle. If you have any taste at all for creepy mysteries, if you like puzzles, if you want to be fooled, if you think you can figure it out, you will love, just absolutely love this little book. Clues are everywhere, yet it is only in the end that they all fit into place and the truth becomes revealed. Buy this book, I can't imagine going wrong. I keep looking for another like it, but haven't found one yet.

I forget how I was introduced to this book, but I eventually bought it from Amazon. All I can say about The Red Right Hand is it is one of the best thrillers I have ever read.

I will admit I had picked it up then put it down again because I wasn't in the right mood to read it; but once I picked it back up and finished it, I realized the ending alone was worth reading the somewhat slow beginning.

I won't even talk about the plot. To give any details to this book would be unjust to any person who will have the great pleasure of picking it up one day.

Just know you will be knocked over the head by Rogers' denouement.