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The Hand of Death
Ronald Trimm is an apparently model citizen who is abruptly enmeshed in a nightmarish world of rape and murder
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1981
3 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Yorke
95 books52 followersMargaret Yorke was an English crime fiction writer, real name Margaret Beda Nicholson (née Larminie).
Margaret Yorke was awarded the 1999 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger.
Born in Surrey, England, to John and Alison Larminie in 1924, Margaret Yorke (Margaret Beda Nicholson) grew up in Dublin before moving back to England in 1937, where the family settled in Hampshire, although she later lived in a small village in Buckinghamshire.
During World War II she saw service in the Women’s Royal Naval Service as a driver. In 1945, she married, but it was only to last some ten years, although there were two children; a son and daughter. Her childhood interest in literature was re-enforced by five years living close to Stratford-upon-Avon and she also worked variously as a bookseller and as a librarian in two Oxford Colleges, being the first woman ever to work in that of Christ Church.
She was widely travelled and has a particular interest in both Greece and Russia.
Her first novel was published in 1957, but it was not until 1970 that she turned her hand to crime writing. There followed a series of five novels featuring Dr. Patrick Grant, an Oxford Don and amateur sleuth, who shares her own love of Shakespeare. More crime and mystery was to follow, and she wrote some forty three books in all, but the Grant novels were limited to five as, in her own words, ‘authors using a series detective are trapped by their series. It stops some of them from expanding as writers’.
She was proud of the fact that many of her novels were essentially about ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary situations which may threatening, or simply horrific. It is this facet of her writing that ensures a loyal following amongst readers, who inevitably identify with some of the characters and recognise conflicts that may occur in everyday life. Indeed, Yorke stated that characters were far more important to her than intricate plots and that when writing ‘I don’t manipulate the characters, they manipulate me’.
Critics have noted that she has a ‘marvellous use of language’ and she has frequently been cited as an equal to P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. She was a past chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and in 1999 was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger, having already been honoured with the Martin Beck Award from the Swedish Academy of Detection.
Margaret Yorke died in 2012.
Margaret Yorke was awarded the 1999 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger.
Born in Surrey, England, to John and Alison Larminie in 1924, Margaret Yorke (Margaret Beda Nicholson) grew up in Dublin before moving back to England in 1937, where the family settled in Hampshire, although she later lived in a small village in Buckinghamshire.
During World War II she saw service in the Women’s Royal Naval Service as a driver. In 1945, she married, but it was only to last some ten years, although there were two children; a son and daughter. Her childhood interest in literature was re-enforced by five years living close to Stratford-upon-Avon and she also worked variously as a bookseller and as a librarian in two Oxford Colleges, being the first woman ever to work in that of Christ Church.
She was widely travelled and has a particular interest in both Greece and Russia.
Her first novel was published in 1957, but it was not until 1970 that she turned her hand to crime writing. There followed a series of five novels featuring Dr. Patrick Grant, an Oxford Don and amateur sleuth, who shares her own love of Shakespeare. More crime and mystery was to follow, and she wrote some forty three books in all, but the Grant novels were limited to five as, in her own words, ‘authors using a series detective are trapped by their series. It stops some of them from expanding as writers’.
She was proud of the fact that many of her novels were essentially about ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary situations which may threatening, or simply horrific. It is this facet of her writing that ensures a loyal following amongst readers, who inevitably identify with some of the characters and recognise conflicts that may occur in everyday life. Indeed, Yorke stated that characters were far more important to her than intricate plots and that when writing ‘I don’t manipulate the characters, they manipulate me’.
Critics have noted that she has a ‘marvellous use of language’ and she has frequently been cited as an equal to P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. She was a past chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and in 1999 was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger, having already been honoured with the Martin Beck Award from the Swedish Academy of Detection.
Margaret Yorke died in 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 5, 2021
A whydunnit rather than a whodunnit. I enjoyed this, but our understanding of what motivates rape and what doesn't and how to talk about the crime of rape, its perpetrators and its victims, has changed a lot since 1981. Not enough, but a LOT.
January 10, 2020
This is a good and fast read from a reliable English writer, but I suspect that she won't play to modern tastes (this book was published in 1981).
Yorke can do a very good job with characterization, and she does so here with her women characters, including a single mom, a frowsy widow, and a too-perfect housewife (some observations about the too-perfect housewife are hilariously understated and subtle). She does a less creditable job with the men, presenting them as one-dimensional.
The biggest problem for me was what I felt to be the highly inaccurate psychology. I can't say more without spoilers, but I felt that the motivations were completely off. Still, I think Yorke does an excellent job of portraying a gossipy English village. I've liked some of her other books better (such as FALSE PRETENSES), but I do give this book high marks for suspense.
Yorke can do a very good job with characterization, and she does so here with her women characters, including a single mom, a frowsy widow, and a too-perfect housewife (some observations about the too-perfect housewife are hilariously understated and subtle). She does a less creditable job with the men, presenting them as one-dimensional.
The biggest problem for me was what I felt to be the highly inaccurate psychology. I can't say more without spoilers, but I felt that the motivations were completely off. Still, I think Yorke does an excellent job of portraying a gossipy English village. I've liked some of her other books better (such as FALSE PRETENSES), but I do give this book high marks for suspense.
December 4, 2011
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Only 218 pages long but so well written that you knew the characters early on. Published in 1981 you may feel it was slightly dated, but that only adds to its charm.
A crime / thriller novel it was written from both the victims' and killer's perspective.
A cross between Midsomer Murders and Michael Connelly. Quaint, but a good story.
A crime / thriller novel it was written from both the victims' and killer's perspective.
A cross between Midsomer Murders and Michael Connelly. Quaint, but a good story.
August 19, 2019
This was a pretty quick read and was really quite enjoyable.
September 9, 2025
Love Margaret Yorke
Not her best, but character driven and suspenseful. I read it years ago and kept it on my shelf to be reread before donation. Glad I did!
Not her best, but character driven and suspenseful. I read it years ago and kept it on my shelf to be reread before donation. Glad I did!
December 10, 2016
A sex starved antique dealer, a single mother, a middle aged lonely widow, a middle aged man struggling to cope with his wife leaving him are all sucked into this excellent crime thriller as a rapist strikes the village where they all live. Yorke creates likeable, believable characters and writes deceptively simple prose. She manages to whip up a fair amount of suspense especially towards the end and writes compellingly about why innocent people may do and say things which make them appear extremely guilty. Sometimes being innocent of a crime is not enough. A gripping read which I would recommend.
September 17, 2013
A nice quick little read. Nothing to love or hate. It is just a short story. However the interesting thing is that its written from the criminal's point of view.
March 9, 2015
Not a bad read, in fact, I didn't want to put it down. Ends quite suddenly, though.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews