The Chuckling Fingers
Author: Mabel Seeley (née Hodnefield) (1903-1991)
Year: 1941
Publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc
Place: Garden City
Description:
294 pages. Octavo (8" x 6") bound in original publisher's blue cloth with red lettering to spine and cover in original pictorial jacket. First edition.
An urgent note from a friend spurs Ann Gay to visit her recently married cousin, Jacqueline Heaton. Upon her arrival at Fiddler's Fingers, a remote, pine-grown estate on Lake Superior, Ann immediately senses her cousin's fear—someone has been playing increasingly malicious tricks on the Heatons, a proud family of Minnesota lumber tycoons, and worse yet, they seem determined to frame Jacqueline.
Ann quickly resolves to take Jacqueline and her young daughter, Toby, away from the danger. But what began as seemingly trivial pranks—ruined clothes, a burnt bed, a smashed boat—escalates to direct attacks and ultimately murder. Dangerous waters crash against the finger-like rocks on the lakeshore, making a sound like a guttural chuckle, one that seems to mock the murder that took place there—but no one is laughing when everyone on the estate becomes a suspect. Potential motives are revealed as Ann learns more about the Heaton family, and with no chance of anyone leaving Fiddler's Fingers until the killer is caught, Ann realizes that the only way to prove her cousin's innocence is by snaring the murderer herself.
The trap is set; with herself as bait, Ann's door creaks open in the night as a cloaked figure moves silently toward her bed.
Condition:
Corners bumped, small split at spine heal, light rubbing to extremities, previous owner's name on front paste down. Jacket with 1/2" loss to spine head, spine heal chipped, edge wear with closed tears and chips else very good in like jacket.
