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The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne
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The Red House Mystery (1922)

by A. A. Milne

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1,5938011,045 (3.46)148
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.

.… (more)
Member:Enyonam
Title:The Red House Mystery
Authors:A. A. Milne
Info:E. P. Dutton & Co.
Collections:Your library, Mystery, To read
Rating:***1/2
Tags:None

Work Information

The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne (1922)

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» See also 148 mentions

English (78)  French (1)  Finnish (1)  All languages (80)
Showing 1-5 of 78 (next | show all)
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.
  ritaer | Mar 4, 2024 |
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. ( )
  rmarcin | Feb 23, 2024 |
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. ( )
  HenrySt123 | Jan 19, 2024 |
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 ( )
  laytonwoman3rd | Jan 7, 2024 |
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. ( )
  fred_mouse | Jan 2, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 78 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (49 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Milne, A. A.primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Crælius, AnnaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Greene, DouglasIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hannula, RistoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Simon, ElisabethTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Taylor, Wendell HertigPrefacesecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Wallis, BillNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Dedication
TO JOHN VINE MILNE

My dear father,

Like all really nice people, you have a weakness for detective stories, and feel that there are not enough of them. So, after all that you have done for me, the least that I can do for you is write you one. Here it is: with more gratitude and affection than I can well put down here.

A.A.M.
First words
When I told my agent a few years ago that I was going to write a detective story, he recovered as quickly as could be expected, but made it clear to me (as a succession of editors and publisher made it clear, later, to him) that what the country wanted from "a well-known 'Punch' humorist" was a "humorous story".
(Introduction)
In the drowsy heat of the summer afternoon the Red House was taking its siesta.
Quotations
Information from the Norwegian Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
To Antony, who was older and who realized into what deep waters they were getting, it did not seem fun. But it was amazingly interesting. He saw so much, and yet somehow it was all out of focus. It was like looking at an opal, and discovering with every movement of it some new colour, some new gleam of light reflected, and yet never really seeing the opal as a whole. He was too near it, or too far away; he strained his eyes and he relaxed his eyes; it was no good. His brain could not get hold of it. But there were moments when he almost had it ... and then turned away from it. (Vintage Books 2008, p. 121)
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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.

.

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Book description
Haiku summary
A "locked-room" murder

solved by pair of witty Brits

just in time for tea.

(legallypuzzled)

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