Description
Published in 1903, A Master Hand is an entertaining murder mystery considered by numerous literary critics to be one of the best novels in the genre.The style of this entertaining and exciting book is as unexpected as the solution at the end of the story. Based on the title, the reader will expect a fictitious murder story and it is what the book offers indeed, but the crime and the investigation following it is presented in a style that boarders on documentary style. The story is quite unusual in itself as well it starts on an ordinary evening in 1883 when a man is murdered in a fashion that is more than strange.The man accused with the murder is one of the usual suspects. The prosecutor knows both the victim and the suspect and he decides to recuse himself because he believes the suspect is innocent. He not only recuses himself he also changes sides and starts to work for the suspects defense lawyer. As the plot advances, one weird situation follows the other as the former prosecutor tries to dig up the past of victim, trying to find something that might help him find the real murderer. Weirdness continues until the end that is not less unusual and less upsetting than the rest of the story.Richard Dallas is not the authors real name it is the pseudonym of Nathan Winslow Williams, a successful New York lawyer. As a writer, he was a natural talent and what gives the novel its special and unique favor is the professional knowledge, the real-life experience and expertise behind the story, especially when it comes to the investigation. Though, at the turn of the 20th century, forensic science still had a long way to go until it became what it is today, this novel uses as much of that scientific knowledge available at the time as possible an aspect that makes the book an excellent period piece as well.