The Touch of a Vanished Hand

Susan Patrick is a librarian at the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.

This intriguing and cleverly constructed mystery by Anthony Quogan (a
pseudonym for Anthony Stephenson, an associate professor of drama at
York University) has its origins in a mysterious death at a Cambridge
May Ball in 1967, which leads to a second death in a small theatrical
town in Ontario 20 years later. The author provides much local color
involving the British pop music industry in the ’60s and ’70s, and
the London and Ontario theatre scenes of recent years (with some
humorous inventions), and there is much attention to detail in the
descriptions, particularly of theatrical-writer-turned-amateur-sleuth
Matthew Prior’s major failing—sweets. We look forward to seeing
Prior’s return to the scene of future crimes.