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Loading... The Red House Mystery (1922)by A. A. Milne
Work InformationThe Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne (1922)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. A free-spirited gentleman serendipitously stops to visit a friend who is guest at the Red House. He enters just as a classic locked-room murder has been committed and the assumed killer has disappeared. He remains to testify at the inquest but decides to investigate with the aid of his friend. He draws some true and some false conclusions before solving the case. A fair example of the elaborate puzzle style of the 1920s mystery. The Red House Mystery is a classic English mystery. When a stranger enters the Red House, he unwittingly involves himself in a murder mystery. Mark Ablett's brother, Robert, has arrived from Australia, but stranger Antony Gillingham, an amateur detective, arrives just after Robert has been murdered. Along with his friend, Bill Beverley, they investigate the murder. There are secret passages, a disappearance of Mark, and amateur sleuthing. The mystery is fun and a very different tale than what is expected from A.A. Milne, beloved writer of the Winnie the Pooh stories. Enjoyable, quick read. A whimsical tale in which two idle gentlemen consciously model themselves on Holmes and Watson, then talk to each other like Pooh and Piglet. As a depiction of that very English social institution, the house in the country, it was a pleasant way to spend a few hours when my brain was too tired for much of a challenge. There is the obligatory secret passage and a long-lost brother whom none of the guests have ever seen. I stayed to the end for the reveal, but that was too lengthy, repeating things that had been established, and far-fetched. On balance, it's not a good book. Only two stars from me. Before Winnie the Pooh, Milne wrote this detective story for his father. It features an amateur detective who, in character, owes much to Sherlock Holmes, and who recruits his own Dr. Watson when he drops in on a mysterious murder at The Red House. It was fun to read, as the interplay between "Holmes" and "Watson" was witty, but it offered almost no challenge to the reader's detecting skills, and suffered from the "culprit tells all and fills in the blanks" syndrome. A good enough way to read away a lazy afternoon. Read and reviewed in 2008 For a 'cosy' murder mystery that is 100 plus years old, this holds up relatively well. There is classism, and there are only a handful of characters with any development. The women get shunted off out of the story in the first few chapters, as do the vast majority of the servants. The writing is a little wooden at times, but there are some delightful meta-textual moments. Somewhat snarky references to the workings of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, such that our viewpoint character--the amateur detective--declares themself a Holmes in need of a Watson, by which what they are after is someone who professes to have no understanding of what is going on. Their sidekick (with whom there are very very many interplays that these days would be homoerotic text, but here I suspect are not) does a very good job of this, mostly by being completely baffled throughout. There is a twist, there are some nicely telegraphed bits and bobs, but it doesn't come together in a very satisfying manner. It might be that this is because it was Milne's only novel in this genre, or it might be that Milne did not have the flair for it. Worth reading if you are an afficionado of early 20th Century English country house mysteries, and would like the historical context; not really worth reading in and of itself. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesPenguin Books (156) — 6 more
Fiction.
Mystery.
HTML: The Red House Mystery is a classic "whodunit" set in an English country house. An eclectic cast of characters are gathered in the house when the owner's brother, recently arrived from Australia, is found murdered in a locked room. Two of the house guests take the investigation upon themselves and they wade almost playfully through the abundance of evidence and theories. .No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.912Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1901-1945LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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