This premium quality edition contains the complete and unabridged original version of The Mystery of the Clasped Hands, printed on heavy, bright white paper in a large 6"x9" format, with page headers and a fully laminated full-color cover featuring an original design.

The Mystery of the Clasped Hands...

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 a murder of which he stood accused, and horrified by the grisly clue which would give the papers a name for the sensational story:

"In his own mind he had no doubt that it emanated from Teresina, who, as he was aware, had been informed as to his approaching marriage. Having untied the cord, he prized the lid, which was nailed down, with a dagger paper-knife, which he took from a table close at hand. An unpleasant odour immediately permeated the room. A folded sheet of newspaper covered the contents, whatever they were, and this Godfrey removed, only to spring back with a cry of horror. In the box, the fingers tightly interlaced, were two tiny hands, which had been severed from the body, to which they had once belonged, at the wrist."

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 Thomas Wilde Boothby, a member of the South Australian Legislative Assembly, and the grandson of Benjamin Boothby, 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 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.

Boothby died at age 38 after contracting influenza.