The Creeping Hand Murder by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper
Publication Date: September 16, 2025
Summary from NetGalley:
November 1933. London. Seven people receive mysterious letters. Someone knows their terrible secrets. They are summoned to a posh townhouse where one is stabbed right in front of the others, but somehow no one saw a thing. Can you help Scotland Yard solve the mystery?
Dear Detective,
Surely you have seen the papers and read about the dreadful murder of the American novelist—stabbed while in a room with six other people, and yet no one went near him or saw the murder occur. The crime is so devious, so logistically impossible, that it seems to have been committed not by a person but by a disembodied hand.
I must confess that we are at a loss. Who wrote the poison pen letters that lured these seven people to this deadly gathering? A poet, an earl, an actress, a cook, a telephone operator, and a lothario . . . What do they have in common? And how could a man be stabbed in a room full of suspects, even though no one went near him or saw a thing?
We have had our best people on the case, Detective, and we still can’t make heads or tails of it. We are giving this case file to you. Can you decipher the clues, decode the witness statements, and identify the murderer? You are our last hope. Can you help us crack the Creeping Hand Murder?
Yours truly,
Detective Chief Inspector of the Metropolitan Police
ARC provided by Ten Speed Press for an honest review.
Confession:
This was a very fun read. I really enjoyed being the detective and trying to figure out who commited the murder. I will confess that I had to read it twice to do so, but I got there in the end. This was very much like being handed all of the evidence and interviews that the police gather during an investigation, and from all of this information figuring out who committed the crime.
You don’t really get to know the characters, that sort of is the whole point, but I must say that most of them were not very likable. They all had been involved in some things that were not exactly nice. A couple of them I dismissed pretty quickly, as the least likely to have a motive to commit the crime, but was still left with quite a few suspects. I really liked that there were portraits of each of the suspects as that made it a bit easier to keep who was who in my head.
The pictures really added to the whole process. There are a couple of clues in these pictures so pay close attention to them. They all really add a nice touch to the story and help you solve the crime. They are a little on the cartoony side, but I kind of liked that and it added to the fun. I especially liked the little newspaper articles that were included in the story, both about the people involved and the victim. They also provided the motive if you pay close attention to them.
I was very glad that I requested a hard copy of this book, it would be very hard to flip back and forth between the interviews and the pictures in an electronic form. Being able to read certain sections multiple times certainly made it easier to solve the murder. The final solution was quite complex and a bit twisty which was great.
If you enjoy mysteries mostly because you like to try and solve them yourself, this is a book that I recommend you give a go. It is a very quick read, but it is not an easy one to solve. Both adult and young adult amateur sleuths will enjoy this one.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 
This does sound fun. I can definitely see that you would need a hard copy to get the most out of it. It would be a nightmare trying to flip back and forth with an ebook.
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I so agree!
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waiting for this one
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