The haunting hand

The Haunting Hand by Walter Adolphe Roberts is a mystery novel written in the early 20th century. It follows Margot Anstruther, a rising film actress in New York, whose lively studio life collides with an unnerving, seemingly supernatural threat: a disembodied hand that appears in her room. Caught between an ardent cameraman ally and a domineering director, she is drawn into a puzzle that blends show-business intrigue with creeping suspense. Expect a sharp, modern heroine using cool reason to probe a chilling mystery. The opening of the novel introduces Margot’s world: a roof-garden party with movie colleagues, a flirtatious yet menacing director (Stoner), and loyal cameraman Gene, amid gossip about a vanished lodger and hints of a stolen cache of radium. After midnight, alone in her brownstone room, Margot sees a thin hand slide from beneath her bed to snuff a burning match. Terrified but resourceful, she telephones Gene using a French-coded plea; he arrives with a revolver, finds nothing, but a smudged mark proves something touched the rug. The police are summoned, and in darkness one officer himself witnesses the eerie hand extinguish a flame, sending shock through the house. At dawn, Margot rejects ghostly explanations, convinced a human plot is at work. Back at the studio, she relates the incident to friends; Stoner warns her off publicity and control-freakishly urges her to drop it, while she resolves to investigate the mystery herself.