The Hand in the Dark

An old English moat-house, heavy with centuries of violent history, becomes the scene of a fresh killing in this 1920 mystery by Arthur J. Rees. A young woman is shot dead in a locked upper room during a house party, and the puzzle of how the murderer reached and left her draws in a country detective and a sharper investigator from London who read the same clues very differently. Rees builds his story on atmosphere as much as deduction, letting the brooding house and its unhappy past press on everyone inside it. Readers who love the classic detective puzzle, with its false trails and quiet final reversal, will feel at home. A free PDF and EPUB edition is available here.