The Small Hand - A Ghost Story is by English author Susan Hill (Dame Susan Elizabeth Hill, Lady Wells DBE), whose novels never disappoint. Her ghost stories include The Man In The Picture, The Mist In The Mirror, and The Woman In Black (made into the second longest-running play in the West End and filmed with Daniel Radcliffe in 2012).
Adam Snow is a London antiquarian book dealer, who turns down a wrong road returning from a client on the coast. The fingerpost markings faded, the road narrows and ends at a derelict Edwardian property. The greened sign states: The White House. Garden Closed. Within the gate lies an overgrown house and garden. "It was a place left to the air and the weather, the wind, the sun, the rabbits and the birds, left to fall gently, sadly into decay, for stones to crack and paths to be obscured and then to disappear, for windowpanes to let in the rain and birds to nest in the roof". Wandering into the wild green-lit garden, at the edge of the dry pond with not the slightest stirring of air, he felt a small hand creep into his own.
Sir Edgar and Lady Merriman request he find a Shakespeare First Folio, and when he visits their home in the same area, he asks them about The White House. Many years ago it was the dream of Denisa Parsons to create one of the great gardens of our time, featuring a statue dedicated to her drowned grandson.
As Adam travels to France to pick up the Folio from the library of the Saint Mathieu des Etoiles monestary, high up in the mountains of Vercors, he still feels the child's haunting presence. He confides to the monks his vivid dreams, and to his brother Hugo, and is encouraged to persue the connection to the child. He will soon find it was no accident that he discovered The White House.
It was waiting for him all along.
Hill's supernatural ghost stories are well constructed and memorable, but quite light in the thrills department. It is eerie and unsettling in the classic 'Turn Of The Screw' style, and there is a palpable sense of the paranormal. Fans of gothic suspense will find a lot to like.
It was filmed in 2019 starring Douglas Henshall.
My other reviews of Susan Hill:
2010 / Tradeback / 208 pages
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