Its not a book that scares you like a sudden 'BOO' would, its one that initially chills and then builds and builds on that. In the main I think it's all down to Susan Hill's writing and the atmosphere she subtly builds as the story goes on.

I think it's in part the fact the story is in first person and so you read on as if it is happening to you. I can report that it had the desired effect too as the random house noises I don't normally notice started to make me jump.

I curled up with it on a Saturday evening when it had gone dark and I had the house all to myself. You might have guessed but I did really enjoy this book. I shall leave it there because if I give any more away I would say too much and part of the joy of this book, and the chilling factors too, is the fact that things happen when you aren't expecting them too and there is an interesting back story and good few twists that all add to the experience it wouldn't do to ruin. Initially thinking this must be some kind of series of panic attacks he becomes more concerned when on a trip abroad he starts to see things and a presence seems to be dragging him closer and closer to danger when ever it can find opportunity. THE SMALL HAND is a Channel 5 television movie adaptation of a Susan Hill novel, the author of course being most famous for writing THE WOMAN IN BLACK. The house he discovers however is in a mild state of dereliction yet it seems he is not alone for as he turns back to the car a small hand takes hold of his only no one is with him.Īfter his first bemusement to what takes place and dismissal as his imagination due to the atmosphere things start to take a turn for the more sinister when Adam starts to become gripped by fear for no apparent reason. Eventually he happens upon a drive way and a sign saying `garden closed' and knowing there must be some kind of large house he decides this would be the best place to find directions. ' I stood in the dim green-lit clearing and above my head a silver paring of mooon cradled the evening star.Īdam Snow, an antiquarian book dealer, narrates the tales of his dealings in `The Small Hand' after one night journeying back from a client he decides to take the back quieter routes `through the Downs' on his commute back to London only to discover himself completely lost.

A ghost story the small hand