Dorothy Salisbury Davis entertained us with her debut novel The Judas Cat, so we decided to jump ahead to see how she fared after a few years of literary seasoning. The Clay Hand, which Bantam published in paperback in 1952 with uncredited cover art, is set in a coal mining town where a famous journalist is found dead. His pal Phil, who writes for the Columbus Dispatch, shows up for the inquest and starts to dig into the circumstances of the death, as well as his own complicated feelings for his friend’s beautiful widow Margaret.
Davis was good with characterizations in her first novel. Here, instead of the usual mutual affection between the male and female leads, she opts for a love/hate relationship. Owing to the tension they feel toward each other, both characters can sometimes be unpleasant. It makes for a few jarring moments, but certainly presents interesting backstory as the two try to unravel the mystery. Eventually they figure out both the journalistic angle, the reasons for the death, and their own feelings. All in all, another good result from Davis.
