The Mystery of the Clasped Hands
Unabridged Large Print Edition
by Guy Newell Boothby
From the first moment he laid eyes on her, Godfrey Henderson, promising young artist, knew that he would, he must, paint the portrait of beautiful young Teresina:
“She was tall, graceful, and so beautiful, in a statuesque way, that Henderson felt his heart thrill with pleasure at the sight of her. Here was the very woman he had been so anxious to discover. If he had hunted the Continent of Europe through, he could not have found any one better suited to the requirements of the work he had in hand…’What a perfect face!’ exclaimed Godfrey, more to himself than to his companion. ‘At any hazard, I must induce her to sit to me.’
But even as the exquisite portrait took form, trouble was brewing. Oblivious to the coming storm until it was pointed out to him, Henderson still could not have imagined that he would become enmeshed in a web of unrequited love, jealousy, anger and deceit, ending in murder of which he stood accused, and horrified by the grisly clue which would give the papers a name for the sensational story.
This quality large print edition is not a machine-scan or reproduction. Prepared by human editors it contains the complete and unabridged original version of The Mystery of the Clasped Hands, printed on heavyweight bright white paper with a fully laminated cover.
Guy Newell Boothby
Guy Newell Boothby (1867–1905) was a prolific Australian novelist and writer, noted for sensationalist fiction and best known today for the Dr. Nikola series. Born in Adelaide, Boothby was the son of a member of the South Australian Legislative Assembly and the grandson of a judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia. When Boothby was six he and his mother traveled to England and he was educated at Warminster School in Salisbury and Christ’s Hospital, London.
He returned to Australia at the age of 16 in 1883, and his family’s political ties led to his appointment as private secretary to the mayor of Adelaide. Boothby found the work uninteresting and, becoming bored, he quit. He subsequently traveled across Australia with his brother, and this journey became the basis for his first published work, “On the Wallaby: or, Through the East and Across Australia” (1894). Boothby’s early works dealt mainly with Australian life, but he soon turned to genre fiction, often primarily with an occult theme.
One of the most widely read and financially successful writers of his era, Boothby amassed a personal fortune while publishing over 50 novels in a career that spanned just over ten years before he died at 38 from influenza.
Although largely forgotten today, Boothby’s work was influential in the growing mystery genre, as a pioneer of the “murder-in-the-manor” format that became a staple of the “Golden Age” of mysteries and the creator of the “gentleman thief”, with his “Simon Carne” character anticipating “Raffles” and his progeny by a matter of a few years.
Product details
Publisher: Apex Publications, Independently published (July 27, 2024)
Language: English
Paperback: 233 pages
ISBN: 979-8333736017
Item Weight: 1.19 pounds
Dimensions: 7.44 x 0.53 x 9.69 inches
List Price: $12.97
