
The day Clay Shelton is set to be hanged, he requests to speak with the inspector who arrested him, Arnold Betcher Long. He tells Long that the Gallows Hand will have its revenge. Assuming he is a dead man trying to delay the inevitable, Long ignores him. But when the judge who sentenced Shelton is murdered, he finally starts to take notice. Soon more people involved with the Shelton case begin to die, all killed by a shadowy organization known as the Terrible People, and Long knows it's only a matter of time before he's next.
Author

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was a prolific British crime writer, journalist and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and countless articles in newspapers and journals. Over 160 films have been made of his novels, more than any other author. In the 1920s, one of Wallace's publishers claimed that a quarter of all books read in England were written by him. He is most famous today as the co-creator of "King Kong", writing the early screenplay and story for the movie, as well as a short story "King Kong" (1933) credited to him and Draycott Dell. He was known for the J. G. Reeder detective stories, The Four Just Men, the Ringer, and for creating the Green Archer character during his lifetime.