I first read this 30 years ago when it was recommended on some book list as "one of the 10 best psycho novels ever written". Yes, it is!
I know this is supposed to be an American classic, but I found it to be very contrived. The book is all plot--as if a clever, twisting and turning plot is all that is required of a "classic.
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.
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.
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.
I read this years ago after one of my favorite authors (Donald E. Westlake) cited it as his favorite mystery novel.
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 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.
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.
Gripping suspence from start to finish! Lots of gore!.
