Red House Mystery

I first read this English country house mystery as a teenager. I knew Milne's name from his children's books and when a school teacher mentioned that he also wrote plays that sent me scurrying to the library. This was the first "adult" mystery novel I read having recently graduated from the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I loved it then and returned to it twice more at twenty year intervals. Each new visit increased my appreciation of the dry British humor and the construction of the plot. It was still a fun read even though I knew the ending, and I always think how clever Milne was in some of his observations and how he first developed some of the devices that later became standard. It has everything from a secret passage to a witty satire on Sherlock and Watson. If you read carefully you can solve the mystery, but I'm willing to bet even the most experienced among you will miss it.

NOT REALLY A REVIEW JUST A VOTE FOR THIS DELIGHTFUL BOOK. THOSE WHO LOVE ENGLISH MYSTERIES WILL LIKE THIS.

This was the most fun I've had reading a mystery since I read the Hardy Boys as a kid. It seems you should be reading it under the covers with a flashlight. In The Red House Mystery, A.A. Milne (of Pooh fame) lets us pal around with Tony Gillingham, a jack-of-all-trades who is trying his hand a being a detective. The setting is an English country house loaded with guests, including the British major, the willful actress, and the dim-but-lovable young athlete. These are stock characters; Tony and his friend Bill even gleefully refer to each other as "Holmes" and "Watson". It's all very playful, despite the corpse. So much so that Tony and Bill are guilty about how much fun they are having. There are tons of mentions of amateur theatricals and acting. Tony is playing at being a detective and so is the reader, which draws you into the story alongside him. In a way you are competing with Tony and Bill to solve the crime. It's a fair contest: only amateurs allowed. Milne gives you all the clues, even to the point of saying things like "This would be important later." In the reader's head a siren goes off and a sign lights up saying "CLUE". Tony and Bill bounce theories off each other and the theories change as the clues mount up. Still, Tony is always ahead of Bill (and probably the reader). He knows the real question in a mystery is not "How?" but "Why?"The best parts are the gasps of surprise and moments of anticipation while we wait in darkness for the sounds of approaching footsteps. Milne has a great way of setting the mood, whether it's nervous tension or eager curiosity. A fun mystery is like opening up a big present: You can't wait to know what it is. Milne conveys this sense of "I need to know" in this his one-and-only mystery novel. If you're like me, you'll need to know and keep saying to yourself, "One more chapter and I'll put out the light."

This is Milne's only foray into writing an adult-level book (unfortunately), having written it for the sake of his father (a consummate lover of mysteries). A country side mansion is a common gathering point for several of the upper crust of British society. One of the guests invites a friend of his over to meet the host. As the friend arrives the host suddenly dies behind a locked door. Foul play is immediately suspected, but the police are stumped. Somewhat formulaic, this mystery had a couple of unexpected twists and turns which kept me guessing, until near the end, what had happened to the host (yes, even the manner of his death is mysterious). I was pleasantly suprised when I realized that all of the data to solve the mystery had been there all along, but I had missed it! This smacked a little of Christie and Holmes wrapped together (perhaps an unfair comparison, but I did enjoy this book). Well worth the purchase price. 156pp. I wish there had been more books like this from the author. A shame.