The Small Hand

Description

Late one summers evening, antiquarian bookseller Adam Snow is returning from a client visit when he takes a wrong turn. He stumbles across a derelict Edwardian house, and compelled by curiosity, approaches the door. Standing before the entrance, he feels the unmistakable sensation of a small cold hand creeping into his own, 'as if a child had taken hold of it'. At first he is merely puzzled by the odd incident but then begins to suffer attacks of fear and panic, and is visited by nightmares. He is determined to learn more about the house and its once-magnificent, now overgrown garden but when he does so, he receives further, increasingly sinister, visits from the small hand.

Susan Hill is the winner of numerous literary prizes including the Somerset Maugham award. Her literary memoir, Howards End Is On The Landing and the ghost story The Man In The Picture are both published by Profile. Her bestselling novel The Woman in Black is currently being filmed for theatrical release.

Masterfully done ... subtle, elegant * The Times * On chilling form * Vogue * Short and crisply told ... The tension is built up gradually until it is taut and physical * Independent * Beautifully evoked ... what's most impressive is what hangs between the spare lines of Hill's precise prose ... this is a wonderful piece of storytelling that does what a good story ought to do: it keeps you guessing, pulls you in -- Jeremy Dyson * Guardian * Superior chills from the author of The Woman in Black * Woman & Home * A distinguished modern exponent of the genre ... The entire narrative unrolls like a carpet ... This beautifully written novel may be short, but not one word is wasted ... The sinister child, the rotting mansion, the monastery and the old books are of course familiar gothic props; but Susan Hill uses them to lend depth, as an expert cook uses familiar ingredients to enrich a new recipe, and draws out new flavours from them in the process ... highly recommended for a chilly autumn evening by the fire. And, as a bonus, the book has an exceptionally attractive cover * Spectator * She builds suspense through easy, elegant prose ... If the proof of a good ghost story is a bad dream, this one worked for me * Intelligent Life * On top form * Good Housekeeping * Every bit the treat one would expect ... as ever, not a word is wasted. As seductive as it is disquieting, atmospheric and brilliantly suspenseful * The Lady * Part of the fear she conjures up, then, is a sense that this could happen to anyone ... Hill's superbly crafted tale doesn't belong to a confessional age, but it does belong to an age where we are all striving for our own identity. Where we all, secretly, long for a ghost to reach out and grip us, make us real -- Lesley MacDowell * Scotsman * Precise and stylish * Big Issue * Classic * Mail on Sunday * It's hugely enjoyable and a perfect read for a couple of hours by the fireside on a dark winter's evening, and would make an ideal Christmas stocking filler * Daily Mail * Great ghostly reading leading up to Halloween * Woman's Day Australia * A beautiful volume housing a chilling take on the good old-fashioned ghost story * Red * Restrained, spare, elegant prose with all the necessary accoutrements ... most definitely suited to reading beside a roaring fire while fingering the thick cream pages of this well-produced hardback -- Sophia Martelli * Observer * Susan Hill is the grande dame of English supernatural fiction ... The Small Hand is another brilliant exercise in the uncanny ... Hill is a mistress of economy and timing, and although The Small Hand is only the length of a novella, it has the heft of a novel. Each phrase comes balanced on a raft of implication ... an elegant entertainment for a winter's night -- Suzi Feay * Financial Times * Hill writes with an understated style that gives the story plenty of conviction and although it is set in the present day, a dusty, timeless pall lies over it -- Charlotte Heathcote * Sunday Express * Gripping from the first page * Waterstone's Books Quarterly * Wonderfully old fashioned ... Hill is a master of the art of suspense, subtly increasing the creepiness until it is at fever pitch. Eerie and compelling from start to finish * Attitude * No one chills the heart like Susan Hill * Daily Telegraph * Hill knows how to give readers a good fright * Instyle Magazine, Australia * A chilling and beguiling small treasure of a story * Herald on Sunday, NZ * This supernatural chiller is gripping and unnerving, the sort of book you devour in one sitting * The Age, Australia * A chilling meditation on how long-buried secrets can rise to haunt us, this story won't leave you in a hurry * Who Weekly Magazine, Australia * There is a thrilling building terror in this elegant but restrained ghost story * Herald Sun, Australia * A twisting psychological drama where disaster looms at every turn * Daily Telegraph, Sydney * Splendidly unsettling * Daily Express * As one might expect from an author with such a fine track record in the art of chilling the spine, Hill is adept at conjuring a feeling of unease from the smallest details of place and circumstance ... For Hill, as for her great predecessors, M. R. James and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the uncanny is never very far beneath the surface and the darkest place of all is the human mind. Giving a troubling, contemporary resonance to the traditional ghost story form, The Small Hand is as good as anything the author has written * The Times * A classic ghost story with the same combination of charm and chill which characterised The Woman in Black * Independent on Sunday *