Fingers of Fear

by J.U. Nicolson

Utterly ruined by the stock market crash of 1929, Selden Seaforth has lost his money, his job, and his wife. When an old school friend, Ormond Ormes, offers Seaforth a job cataloguing the library at the mansion of Ormesby in the Berkshires, it seems as though things may finally be turning around. But almost as soon as he arrives at Ormesby, it is clear that something is terribly wrong. Ghosts stalk the corridors, and Seaforth awakens to find a mark made by a human mouth on his neck. Is there a vampire, a werewolf, or something even worse, at Ormesby? Seaforth must try to piece together the secrets of the strange Ormes family, but things take a still more sinister turn when the first brutally murdered corpse is found . . .

The only novel by J. U. Nicolson (1885-1944), Fingers of Fear (1937) was hailed by Karl Edward Wagner as one of the finest supernatural horror novels ever written, and it is perhaps unrivaled in its ability to evoke a weird and uncanny atmosphere of eerie dread. This edition features a reproduction of the original dust jacket art.

REVIEWS

“Piles horror upon horror until there is not a shiver left in the reader’s spine.” – New York Times

“A blood curdler, with ghosts and werewolves disporting themselves in a house in the Berkshires. Insanity, murder, as bloody as they come.” – Kirkus Reviews

“A most impressive offering of the vampire school … an unusual combination of perilous material, real excitement, and good English. What more can you ask?” – Books

Genres: Horror, Gothic, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1937

Reviews

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 rounded up.

This 1937 title has been brought back recently into print and out of obscurity by Valancourt, whose books are sending me to the poorhouse because I can't resist picking up their latest titles. I'm smiling all the way there though, because so far I've had incredible luck with the books I've bought -- some I probably would never have even known existed without the Valancourt guys making it possible. Fingers of Fear continues my run of good luck with this publisher -- here you have an old family home filled to the brim with family secrets, quite possibly an outbreak of lycanthropy, ghosts that stalk secret passages and (this is so cool) a portrait whose evil eyes watch anyone coming within its purview. While the plot and the action may be a bit convoluted at times and a bit hard to follow in moments, it's a really fun mix of gothic and the supernatural all rolled into one.

Fingers of Fear is set in depression-era America, and young Selden Seaforth is down to his last coins. With no money and no job, life is tough for him; he's also divorced from his wife. As he's despairing of what to do, bemoaning the fact that he's so poor that even his so-called friends from better days tend to ignore him, fortune smiles out of the blue in the form of Ormond Ormes. Ormes had been at school with Seaforth -- they meet and Ormes offers Seaforth a job which seems tailor made for him. It seems that because of some conditions in a relative's will, Ormes must have his rather extensive book collection catalogued and summarized (it's a bit more complicated, but that description will suffice for now). Seaforth will have room, board, and desperately-needed money. It all sounds so perfect, but as is usually the case in these sorts of things, it turns out to be a case of "if it sounds too good to be true, it generally is." Ormes takes him to the family home in the Berkshires, Ormesby, drops him off and returns him to the city; and virtually no time passes before Seaforth has his first supernatural encounter which shakes him to his rational, logical core. While trying to figure out what's going on at Ormesby and dealing with the inhabitants who keep family secrets tucked away for their own reasons, the supernatural encounters increase and then the first body is found...

As I noted above, the action in this book can be a little convoluted but reading patiently pays off in spades. There are secrets within secrets to be found here, creepy secret passages that lead to an unexpected discovery, and the story is actually quite good. Above all though, Nicolson had a major talent for atmosphere -- and the minute the reader arrives with Seaforth at Ormesby, he/she will be plunged directly into a veritable den of Gothic terrors served up with a side of the supernatural. Aside from his wandering plot, the author writes very well. Considering he wasn't a regular author of supernatural/weird tales, he pulls it off quite nicely. It is also a book of its time -- Depression-era America is well portrayed in this story in terms of an embedded commentary on underlying social issues of the 1930s.

For me, Fingers of Fear was a fine, fun read in an old-school horror/gothic sort of way. It may not capture the minds and hearts of modern readers who must have something incredibly gross, violent or downright demeaning in some cases to get their horror jollies, but if like me you are finding your way back to a time before all of those elements were somehow necessary for a good chill, this might just be a good one to pick up. This book is a very welcome addition to my ever-growing dark fiction/horror/weird/supernatural library where the Valancourt editions are slowly taking over the shelves.

[Orrin Grey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can a book be both a lot of fun and a bit of a slog? If so, Fingers of Fear is that book. When the good folks at Valancourt reissued it, I knew I had to pick it up from the back cover copy, specifically, "Ghosts stalk the corridors, and Seaforth awakens to find a mark made by a human mouth on his neck. Is there a vampire, a werewolf, or something even worse, at Ormesby?" Seriously, how could I not read that book?

And there are lots of moments when it hits notes exactly as high as that bit of back cover copy would imply. Unfortunately, the book is also about twice as long as it needs to be, the extra supplied by long digressions on the part of our very verbose narrator about what other people are thinking and feeling, and the various virtues and vices of women in general. (Perhaps not too surprising for a narrator who starts the novel penniless and only recently have gone through a divorce.) While these somewhat rambling accounts occasionally yield moments of uncanny frisson, they also tend to slow the action down a great deal.

Still, there's plenty to like here. Besides the whole ghost/vampire/werewolf angle, there are all the other staples of the old dark house genre, including secret passages, hidden murders, and portraits with eyes that follow you. What's more, some of the ultimate secrets behind the Ormesby household are a little more lurid than you might imagine in a novel from 1937, and the backdrop of the Great Depression provides a surprisingly solid foundation for a Gothic tale.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

You have: 1.murder 2.madness 3.old dark house 4.lycanthropy 5.secret passageways 6.moving portrait eyes 7.stormy night...and several other horror cliches all piled together into one novel from 1937. As a friend said, 'It's NOT great literature,' but it's definitely a fun, vintage romp through depression-era horror fiction. Sort of a lost-cheese-classic.

[Justin Howe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Your great-grandma's weird sexy goth slasher novel! A feckless narrator takes a job in a mysterious old house where strange doings are getting done and there are ghosts and vampires and werewolves and vampire ghosts and incest and murder and etc. I ended up rage reading bits of this because the prose can get pretty dull.

It's fun at times but The Werewolf of Paris does a better job at being my great-grandma's weird sexy goth slasher novel.

[Timothy Mayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fingers of Fear was #10 on KEW's 13 Best Supernatural Horror Novels list. As I open the pages of my old copy of Twilight Zone Magazine, this is what he said:

"This one has it all: lycanthropy, vampirism, family curse, patricide, incest, infanticide, hauntings, the works. Supposedly it was marketed as straight detective fiction. Must have freaked out the Agatha Christie fans."

What he should've added is that the most of the action in the book takes place during one night.
As always, the back story on these books is a thrill in and of itself. Fingers of Fear was first published in 1937,when the Great Depression was in full throttle and while the Nazis and communists were squaring off over Europe. In other words, it was not a fun time to be an educated man. From what I have been able to find out about the author John Nicolson, he was a scholar of medieval literature. His translation of The Canterbury Tales into modern English is one of the most popular versions available. How he came to write a book which ranks with the best of the shudder pulps is a story yet to be told.
Another story yet to be told would involve how this book was reprinted as a paperback gothic (July, 1966), complete with the obligatory cover painting of a woman fleeing from a dark mansion. And you just have to love the blurb on said cover:
"Beautiful Gray Ormesby must save her love and her life in the cursed house!".
For a 60's paperback, it didn't come cheap. But it was still less expensive than the more recent Midnight House reprint. As always, I go with the cheaper reading copy since I'm not a collector of first editions, even if the newer reprint did have an essay on Nicolson. I'm sure the intro in the newer edition would've shed more light on Fingers of Fear, but I really wasn't very impressed with the intro to their reprint of Echo of a Curse, considering the recent revelation about it's author. At least not impressed enough to shell out extra $$$.
Enough background! To the story!
It's June of 1933. Foncy lad Seaverns finds himself jobless, down to his last few cents, divorced from his aspiring Broadway actress wife, and standing outside his old members-only club in New York City. Who should come by? Why his old college chum Ormond Ormsbey. Hearing that Seaverns is desperate, Ormsbey offers him a job at his family home in upstate New York writing a scholarly book on the Elizabethan influence of colonial literature. He is to use a vast inherited library at the family estate. Seaverns can even stay there while he's working on the book and draw a stipend. Why? It seems Ormsbey has inherited a truck load of colonial books and manuscripts from an antiquarian aunt and has to produce this text with 18 months or everything, including a substantial cash sum, will be donated to a historical society. With no other options, Seaverns quickly takes the job and travels to the Ormsbey compound.
At the manor house, Seaverns meets: Ormsbey's wife Agatha, his beautiful sister Gray, the manserveant Hobbs, and Hobb's wife. Ormsbey's invalid aunt Barbara is supposed to live there too, but is sequestered in a private room. Seaverns, who is also the book's narrator, assesses the job and tries to beg it off once he sees the size of the vast collection of books Ormseby's inherited. Ormsbey, however assures Seaverns that he's the man for the job and leaves the estate for his business in New York City.
As soon as Ormond leaves, Seaverns meets a mysterious spectral lady in the library who promptly vanishes. And then, in the course of a 24-hour period he encounters:

*A revelation about Ormsbey's father killing his mother in an insane rage.
*Both the bodies of Ormsbey's mother and father being stashed in secret somewhere on the estate.
*A vision of Gray naked, with blood on her mouth, howling at the moon.
*A secret passage between the various rooms of the mansion.
*An evil twin.
*A dead body in the garage.
*A blackmail attempt.
*Insanity in the Ormsbey family.
*Ormond showing up at the estate with Seaverns recently divorced wife.
*Buried treasure.
But wait, there's more!

To give away the remainder of the plot would be to spoil it for a potential reader. Suffice it to be said this book crams more plot bends in the first 100 pages than you will find in a vintage house sewer system.
Nicolson did know how to write a sentence. Wittiness this description of Gray Ormsbey's fainting spell:

"Her mother would not have been ashamed of such a failing, and her grandmother would have flopped to earth upon far less provocation than Gray had been given. I think, however, that her grandmother's mother would have been even more ashamed than Gray."

The only real problem I had with Fingers of Fear was the narrator's inability to let the reader know just where the hell he was while in the house. In a complicated space such as the the Ormsbey manor, it is important to know where all the principal characters are in relation to everyone else. I don't know if Nicolson based the manor house on an actual dwelling, but a diagram would have been helpful. Perhaps this would be an excellent task for a future illustrator: a complete lay-out of Ormseby manor.
This is still an excellent and well-crafted novel. I surmise KEW read one of 1966 reprints. Since he was trained as a psychiatrist, I can easily see how a complex story of aristocratic families going crazy would've appealed to him.

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is another of Karl E Wagner's famous "13 Best Horror Novels," a list that encompasses many rather obscure titles. Having thorougly enjoyed R. R. Ryan's Echo of a Curse (which also made the list), I gave this a go.

There's quite a few well-worn "old dark house" tropes here -- discovering dead bodies, vampires/werewolves, family curses, hidden money, evil twins, secret passages and portraits with eyes that "follow you." I admit -- this novel does generate some eerie mood and creepy moments in the first quarter, but then it turns into more of a crime thriller/whodunit. There's far too many long conversations, both inward and outward which drag the action to a standstill.

I had to laugh as the narrator continually debates with himself about how attracted he is to the various women of the household, despite ruminating on how they are lunatics, possible murderers...it's beyond ridiculous. He is the irresistible, clean-shaven, quick-witted, Anglo-Saxon, come to the rescue. Every female is "hysterical" or a calculating murderess -- either way they're not to be trusted. Frankly I despised the narrator by the end of the book more than anyone else, not for "social justice" reasons but because it's all so one-dimensional.

The prose itself isn't terribly interesting either, and that's the worst thing of all. There's some sparkling phrases such as, "with a brittle little laugh, dry and crackling as twigs on winter ground, she slipped away into the darkness," but these are rare and stand as a stark reminder to how dull the rest reads. The plot toward the middle meanders and doesn't seem to know where it wants to go. And yet there was enough cliff-hanger bloodletting and nods to possible supernaturalisms to keep me reading.

If you're looking for a creepy Gothic novel about an old dark house, read "Malpertuis" by Jean Ray instead, it's a masterpiece of atmosphere.

[Redrighthand · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anyone looking to buy this out-of-print book should know that it is full of editing errors. It's really bad.
Story was OK. I liked the Old Dark House setting, ghosts, cursed bloodlines, and lycanthropy (real or imagined), but the plot kept thickening to the point of becoming a little ridiculous.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so over the top that at times I thought it might be a parody---a house with secret passages, people who might or might not be ghosts, secret insane relatives, possible werewolves/vampires, soap-opera-ish family trees---and definitely racier than I would have expected for a book published in 1937. A wild read for sure.

[Daniel Stainback · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a wonderful example of a story ruined by a first person narrative. I gave up at about halfway through. I mean, really, just get to the point and stop voicing EVERY thought and action of the narrator.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

This Old Dark House tale was originally published back in the 1930's and clocks in at only 213 pages, but it was still a chore for me to get through. It starts out promisingly, with all the right ingredients in place for a good old fashioned scare-fest, but its frantic but somehow plodding pace and mystery upon mystery upon mystery plotting got just plain tiresome midway through, plus the characters were strictly from stock and uninspired. This is the first re-release from the wonderful folks at Valancourt Books that genuinely disappointed me. The fabulous cover art (from the original edition) is honestly the best thing about it.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This will hardly be the first time that I have mentioned editor/author Karl Edward Wagner, and his so-called KEW 39 list, in one of my reviews here. But ever since 1983, when the list first appeared in the pages of "Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine," it has been used as a guide of sorts by horror readers in search of something different. Those 39 novels were divided amongst three categories: The 13 Best Supernatural Horror Novels, The 13 Best Science-Fiction Horror Novels, and The 13 Best Non-Supernatural Horror Novels. In that first category, I have already discussed five of the 13 here--Walter S. Masterman's "The Yellow Mistletoe" (1930), Abraham Merritt's "Burn, Witch, Burn" (1932), R. R. Ryan's "Echo of a Curse" (1939), H. B. Gregory's "Dark Sanctuary" (1940), and William Hjortsberg's "Falling Angel" (1978)--and would now like to tell you of my latest reading experience from this list; namely, J.U. Nicolson's "Fingers of Fear."

Unlike some of those other titles, "Fingers of Fear" has not been quite so difficult to acquire over the decades. The book was originally released in 1937 by the NY-based publisher Covici-Friede; a $2 hardcover with memorable cover art by one Arthur Hawkins. After going OOPs (out of prints) for almost 30 years, it was revived in 1966 for the Paperback Library Gothic series, sporting one of those woman-fleeing-from-spooky-looking-house covers (perhaps you're familiar with the kind I mean?), this one by George Ziel. The novel would then go OOPs for another 35 years, till Midnight House opted to resurrect it in 2001, this time featuring a cover sporting a woman standing in front of another creepy abode, one with the shadow of a devil on it, done by Allen Koszowski. Valancourt Books would reissue the novel again in 2015 (the edition that I was fortunate enough to lay my hands on), this edition boasting the novel's original Hawkins artwork, and I believe that the publisher called Nodens Books has since come out with its own edition, in 2018. And so today, the book should not pose any problem for prospective readers to acquire. And that is a happy state of affairs, because my recent perusal of "Fingers of Fear" has revealed it to be quite the doozy of an experience.

Before getting into the details of the book, however (or at least, as many as I may discuss without spoiling things for others), a brief word on the author himself; very brief, I'm afraid, as just about all the information I could find on J. U. Nicolson was the one-paragraph biography in this Valancourt edition. John Urban Nicolson was born in 1885 in Alma, Kansas, and released three volumes of poetry from 1924 - ’25, as well as translations of "The Canterbury Tales" and the poetry of the 15th century French poet Francois Villon. "Fingers of Fear" is his only novel, sadly enough. Nicolson passed away in 1944, at age 59, at which time, according to Valancourt, he was the manager of a storage warehouse in New Hampshire.

Now, as to "Fingers of Fear" itself, the book is narrated to us by a New Yorker in his early 30s named Selden Seaverns (not Seaforth, as this Valancourt edition tells us on its back cover). By June of 1933, when his story begins, Selden was in pretty desperate straits, having lost his job, all of his money (except for 68 cents), and his wife Muriel as the Depression Era only got worse. But out of the blue had come potential salvation: An old college acquaintance, Ormond Ormes, had offered him the job of organizing the library at Ormesby--his family estate in the Berkshires region of Massachusetts--and writing a book concerning the Elizabethan Influence on Colonial Literature, the writing of which would fulfill the requirements of a will and net Ormond $100,000. Though wholly unsuited for the job, Seaverns had happily accepted the offer, driving up with Ormes to the lonely estate that very night. There, he had met the oddball occupants of the house: Ormes' sister Gray, who never wandered far from the property and who was mistress over a pack of vicious police dogs; Barbara, the 30-year-old invalid aunt of the 30-year-old Ormond; Ormes' wife Agnes; the servants, Hobbs and his wife Alice; and another few whom perhaps I should not mention.

Strange events had begun to occur on the very evening of Selden's arrival. Invisible claws had seemed to touch at his throat, and he'd awoken on his first morning at Ormesby with a sucking wound on his neck. In the house's library, he'd seen what he took to be a ghost--the so-called Lady in Mauve--and had discovered a secret passage hidden behind a panel in his bedroom closet. Gray had told him some truly horrible stories concerning the Ormes family history, immediately before the woman had gone berserk, attacked Selden, and later ran naked, screaming and frothing into the night. But then matters had grown even more serious, when Selden had come upon the body of Agnes in the estate's garage, her head practically severed from her body! And this had only been the beginning of Selden's experiences at Ormesby, in a tale that conflates, vampirism, lycanthropy, family curses, madness, incest, vicious canines, secret passages, ghosts, a hidden fortune in government bonds, multiple-multiple murders, suicide, braining, a family portrait with living eyes, and skeletons. (While it is true that many families have a few skeletons in their closet, not many, I have a feeling, have them in their basement...and wall safe!) Is it any wonder, then, that Selden tells us early on "But my God! What a nest of murderers, maniacs and villains I had stumbled into!"

Writing in his excellent overview volume "Crime & Mystery: The 100 Best Books," author H. R. F. Keating mentions the formula for successful crime fiction that the British novelist Margery Allingham had once given him: "a surprise every 10 pages and a shock every 20." Well, it seems to me that not only was J. U. Nicolson instinctively aware of this secret, but managed to up the ante considerably...by quadrupling it! Thus, in this book, practically every page, remarkably enough, contains some kind of surprising revelation or shocking incident, be it a bit of the Ormes family history, the appearance of an unexpected character, a homicide, a supernatural visitation, or a plot twist; no wonder, then, that "The New York Times" hyperbolically wrote of the novel "Piles horror upon horror until there is not a shiver left in the reader's spine"! And, I may add, this novel really does fall into the supernatural category, so those readers who hate being gypped with a rationalized explanation for macabre doings will not be disappointed here. This is not one of those "weird-menace" stories that were so popular in the 1930s, in which outre events are ultimately revealed to be faked, but rather, a genuinely bizarre story combining some dreadful family secrets with the aforementioned ghosts, vampires and werewolves. It really is quite a family abode that poor Selden has landed himself in! And oh, what a bunch all the characters are here! Each of them, we see in retrospect, has his or her fair share of concealed secrets; each has a remarkable backstory, as well as a private agenda for the present. I should also mention that the body count in "Fingers of Fear" is a high one--practically total, in fact--and that the book is pleasingly violent, even at times gruesome, what with its torn-out throats, that beheading, German shepherds consuming people, and on and on.

I wish I could tell you about some of those amazing plot twists and shocking events that transpire herein, but at the same time wouldn't want to ruin any of the fun for the prospective reader. But I don't think I'd be spoiling your experience too much by mentioning just a few of the book's remarkable scenes, among them Selden seeing one of the keys on the Ormes library's typewriter (the letter "O") depress itself, immediately before the Lady in Mauve appears; Gray's attack upon Selden in that same library, before she runs frothing and naked into the night; the discovery of Agnes' body in that blood-drenched automobile; the thrilling dukeout that Seaverns has with the much bulkier Ormond Ormes; the loosing of the canine pack to dispose of some inconvenient corpses; and Selden's exploration of the hidden crypt beneath the Ormes abode. All these scenes carry a shocking charge even for the modern reader; how they must have stunned Nicolson's readers back in 1937! And how those same readers must have reacted to the icky and distasteful tales of incest and other taboo matters in the Ormes family history is anybody's guess!

"Fingers of Fear" is a remarkably well-written book for a first-time novelist, and it is to be regretted that Nicolson could not have given the world another book in this same, uh, vein. The book, indeed, is well-nigh unputdownable, especially since the first 80 percent of it transpires nonstop over the course of three very long days and nights. Many of the story's mysteries, I might add, go unexplained by the final page, but isn't that the very nature of supernatural happenings? The fact that many of the events depicted cannot be analyzed rationally only adds to the macabre nature of the story; in the case of this particular book, I was still left highly satisfied even without that full disclosure...and closure. This novel was the perfect accompaniment for me over the course of several October evenings, and did provide some undeniably chilling moments.

Having said all that, I am also compelled to add that the book does come with some minor problems. For one thing, the plot is so very recomplicated that it is at moments a tad hard to follow, with explanations superseding other explanations, multiple theories competing with each other, and characters whose motivations are continuously suspect. Making matters for the reader even more problematic is the fact that one of the characters (no, I won't reveal which one) is apparently able to mentally control the others from a distance! Thus, you will surely need to pay attention here as you proceed. Some of Nicolson's descriptions, despite the generally fine prose, are a bit hard to visualize, too; I am thinking specifically of that underground crypt, and the cistern within it. Your inner eye might be sorely taxed during this passage..."not that there's anything wrong with that." Nicolson also seems to have made a few booboos during the course of his writing here; not surprising, considering the novel's complexity. For one thing, he mentions a character who had died with the forefinger of his left hand extended; 140 pages later, that forefinger is said to be on the right hand. Too, one of the characters (I am trying to be coy here) is said to have attacked her aunt, when in actuality, it was her sister-in-law who had been set upon. But these are all minor matters. The bottom line is that "Fingers of Fear" does indeed live up to its reputation as a supernatural classic, now 86 years after its debut. Karl Edward Wagner is to be thanked for shining a spotlight on it, as is Valancourt Books for making it readily accessible in a handsome edition. All fans of beautifully written supernatural fiction with a Gothic cast should certainly emulate one of the Ormes here, and pounce....

(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of vintage supernatural fare....)

[G · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reads like it was written like a 13-year-old boy back in '37. There's no discernible arc (or even plot, really); just scenes piled on implausible scenes, like a 214-page ride on an especially noisy, rickety, un-fun fairground ghost train. Good luck finding a relatable character in this mess. That one's insane! This one's a vampire! (I think.) The one over there's a werewolf! (Kind of.) There are ghosts (I guess), incestuous relationships, cut throats, secret passages, murderous hounds, hidden treasure, and some weird chute thing inside one of the bedrooms that comes in very handy when disposing of bodies (add a bit of quicklime and you're all set), or even just when you need to nip down to the basement fast. It's all a bit WTF?!, just without the fun. That whole vampire/werewolf/ghost business never gets explained, there's no rationale behind the "weird" goings-on -- like I said, it's like this was thought up over an afternoon by an especially bored teen with questionable reading habits and no grasp of irony.
Also, I found the narrator's compulsive urge to mansplain just about anything to death especially grating -- plus, of COURSE every female within reach falls in love with him, whereas he, well, sees the whole romantic issue more as a caveat emptor thing. Then again, with at least five of the six female characters of the book ranging from borderline maniacal to weird & wanton and given to bursts of sudden insanity that make them run around the countryside naked looking for throats to tear out, I guess you can't really blame him.
The book only made (a tad more) sense to me when I started reading, or rather visualizing, it as if it were a 1930s movie; seen within that context, the characters' melodramatics and the stilted dialogue fit a certain narrative stereotype instead of just feeling "off". Think "The Old Dark House" (the 1932 Boris Karloff version) and you basically have it. Still, even as a b&w movie with dramatic shadows and sketchy acoustics, this would have been utter nonsense. I quite enjoy vintage trash, but this one was a slog I had to force myself through. I'm still surprised I made it.

[Lewis Szymanski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, but it almost becomes a parody of itself with its overuse of Old Dark House tropes.

The list includes but is not limited to, secret passages, secret insane relatives, discovering dead bodies, a family curse, patricide, incest, possible hauntings, hidden money, portraits with eyes that follow you, possible werewolves/vampires, the works.

The plot manages to be both frantic and ploding. The characters are stock, and bland. The eerie atmosphere and many plot twists make this worth reading.

[Latasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

did not finish this one..

[Nick Colen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fingers of Fear (a terrible title imo) is a fantastic novel that deploys all of the old dark house tropes to incredible effect and is full of twists and turns that keep the reader guessing as to the reality of what kinds of evil stalk the darkened halls and secret corridors of an old New England mansion. As an avid reader of horror fiction i was shocked by how genuinely unsettling this book was considering how many times i have encountered similar elements in other novels. I imagine the style of writing may be off putting to some modern readers but i found myself deeply absorbed by the first person narration particularly the sort of sad honesty of said narrator. The most surprising aspect of the novel (at least for me) was the little glimmers of incredible insight into period the book was written in, with very little mention outside the opening chapter you are given a real sense of the desperation of a certain type of previously well to do person who found themselves destitute during the Great Depression as well as a few striking glimpses at the desperate attempt some who maintained status during that bleak period to appear relatable and intelligent (one moment in particular of a woman claiming that her favorite author is booth Tarkington only to have the narrator believe she claimed this because that is who all the taste makers told people they should like.) as though that excuses their unearned success and comfort. I am left shocked that this was never adapted into a film as it feels perfect for a hammer horror production but alas the book seems to be mostly forgotten by time. If you enjoy classic dark house mysteries or ghost stories or you just want to read something that popularized a lot of what would later become genre tropes i can not recommend this enough but be warned, it may leave you shivering at et all that goes bump in the night.

[Ken Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

  Imagine a version of the movie "Clue" that keeps the antic pace and madcap, kitchen-sink sensibility - but throws into the mix a lot more horror, blood and gore. That should provide some sense of what to expect from this offbeat 1937 thriller in which a down-and-out loser in the Great Depression gets a dream job working at the estate of his old college pal- only to find out the place is haunted by ghosts and worse.

And just like that movie famously had three different endings, this one doesn't know when to stop. As much fun as it is, it does sort of drag on as it seems the author sought to tie up every loose end, noted in revision, by adding yet another relay for the bunch of characters to chase around the house and resolve.

  Aside from the entertaining story, I enjoyed this book's aspect of class resentment. The skillfully - evoked spectre of ongoing fallout from the Great Depression is always present, hanging over everyone's heads. The narrator resentfully finds himself calling his old college chum "Sir" and "Mister". The wealthy upper-crust family is harboring enough shocking and deadly secrets to make Vida Pierce head home to Mildred. And the help constantly wishes they had some other job where they could turn for escape.

(P148)"How wild a thing it is to undertake the concealment of a violent death! Not one of the four who had been slain at Ormesby had been killed maliciously by anyone sane enough to suffer for the deed. (...) Yet here we all were, two of us outsiders with no apparently vital interest in fostering the pride of this family, bound by such secrets as filled that silent house with ghosts, and intent upon the burial in hugger-mugger of yet more corpses! All for the sake of this family's crumbling pride! When I look back upon it, I think that we must, all of us, have been more than a little mad."

[Horror DNA · Rating 3 out of 5]

J. U. Nicolson’s novel Fingers of Fear comes from that classic time of the original Weird Tales magazine that first published H.P. Lovecraft and other distinguished alumni. Great supernatural fiction, or what would become that, came from that magazine passed in the legend along with those little malevolent volumes The Pan Book of Horror StoriesThe Pan Book of Horror Stories, edited by Herbert van Thal, and The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories series, which ran twenty volumes. All of these now hard-to-get analogies are what should be considered essential reading for supernatural fiction.

Fingers of Fear melds themes of lycanthropy, vampirism, a family curse, patricide, incest, infanticide, and ghostly hauntings all within one night in a remote old house.

You can read Terry's complete review at Horror DNA by clicking here.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book based on the Valancourt cover and the synopsis on the back. I avoided looking at reviews so I didn't know anything else about it. This book is so much more than what's in the synopsis. It's got a little bit of everything you'd expect from a book from the 1930s- family curses, secret passages, creepy paintings, mysterious screams, melodrama. It also has surprisingly high body count. The book is short, but you have to read it kind of carefully because there are so many different layers of revelations. It gets complicated, I tried to summarize it to my husband and it was hard to explain. But if you enjoy vintage horror books or movies, you should enjoy this book!

[Andrew Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really captivating page turning horror thriller which has a good plot and as the editor of the new edition from Nodens Books http://www.nodensbooks.com Douglas A Anderson says ‘J(ohn) U(rban) Nicolson (1885-1944) was a Chicago warehouse manager with literary interests. Fingers of Fear (1937) was his only novel, a precursor to the melodramatic horror of the 1960s like the television show Dark Shadows.’ I agree - Ormesby is not far from Collinwood. Recommend to read with the lights on! Thanks Doug Anderson as always for the brilliant recommendation!

[JenMaria · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really detest the narrator, more than I've detested any to date. I get this was written in the 30s, but this character (author) is insufferable. The plot rambles and makes no sense. One second, a female character is in love with him (from a mere batting of her lashes), and the next, she's a lusty creature out to pervert him. Is she a wear wolf, is she a ghost; a mad woman, or a sane demure woman in need of a man, who knows. Also, I've never read a book that used the word SUCKING this much. The ick is real with this one. Avoid at all costs.

[Kylie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has so much in it I theoretically like, and yet managed to bore the pants off me once the plot actually got going. Also I found the narrator completely insufferable, even for the time period it was set in. Blarg.

[C.C. Bruno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite what people want to say, I loved this book. So many twists and turns happened with so much going on! It was a blast. A love story, a ghost story, vampires, werewolves, lost treasure, and a haunted library. And most of it takes place over a single, insane day! Great read.

[David Way · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have been better with more fleshing out of the characters but overall good book. Short book but somehow felt long

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh... Not a bad book and a description of the horror tropes involved sounds pretty cool, but all in all, it was a bit difficult to get through (even as a short book)--it was slow, without great descriptions of atmosphere, or very relatable or likable protagonists. Great to see these old books back in print from Valancourt, but despite the old dark house setting, this one wasn't my favorite.

[John Eastridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grade: B++ “Great”