I had to give 4½ stars to The Chuckling Fingers by Mabel Seeley, which is a book I borrowed thanks to the NY Times 'Read Like the Wind' newsletter. She wrote this in 1941. I have to say that once again* the lack of technology made this one very enjoyable. I think the characters in this book have less depth than Du Maurier's books do, but the pacing of the action was awesome.

*I said the same thing about The Scapegoat. ( )

Howard Haycraft was enthusiastic about Mabel Seeley, so I borrowed this book from the Open Library. I was surprised to find that it was a Had-I-But-Known, because Haycraft commented scathingly on this sub-genre of detective fiction, but I don't mind a good HIBK, and this was a good one.

The setting is a huge old house called The Fingers after the geological feature where it is sited, a rock formation on the shores of Lake Superior where the moving water makes an eerie, chuckling noise. The house is occupied by two branches of the Heaton family: the two daughters, Myra and Octavia, and son, Phillips, of Charles Heaton, and Bill, the son of Charles' brother, Dan Heaton. Charles' branch is declining, while Dan's branch is flourishing.

Bill has recently married Jacqueline, the widow of Myra's son, who has a little daughter, Toby, the loved grand-daughter of Myra. Things aren't going well at Fingers. Ann Gay, Jacqueline's cousin, as close as a sister, receives a letter telling her that Jacqueline needs her help. Jacqueline certainly does! There are some very nasty things going on at Fingers, and Jacqueline is the scapegoat.

I enjoyed this atmospheric, forties mystery, and will read more by Mabel Seeley. Many, many typos, however, in this epub. Not enough recognition in the OCR. ( )