I don’t think I would have ever read The Red House Mystery if it hadn’t been for seeing other bloggers reading and reviewing it. I had always thought of A.A. Milne solely as the author of the Winnie the Pooh stories and it had never occurred to me to wonder what else he had written. It turns out that The Red House Mystery, originally published in 1922, was his first and only detective novel – which is a shame, because it’s excellent.
The novel opens on a beautiful summer’s day with Mark Ablett entertaining guests from London at his home, the Red House. Earlier that morning, Mark had announced to his friends that his brother, Robert, was on his way home from Australia, having been absent for fifteen years. The guests are surprised to hear this, as Mark had never mentioned a brother before, and unfortunately – or perhaps fortunately, given the descriptions of Robert’s character – they don’t get a chance to meet him, because almost as soon as Robert arrives at the Red House he is shot dead.
Antony Gillingham, a latecomer to the party at the Red House, is one of the first on the scene, along with Mr Cayley, the Abletts’ cousin. Seeing Robert’s dead body on the office floor and no sign of Mark, who appears to have run away, it seems quite obvious what has happened…but Antony is not so sure. Joining forces with his friend and fellow house guest, Bill Beverley, he begins to search for clues in an attempt to solve the mystery.
I loved this book; being such an early example of a detective novel, it contains many of the elements of a classic ‘locked room mystery’ which would still have felt fresh and new in the 1920s: a country house, secret passages, ghostly figures, midnight adventures, red herrings etc. I also think Milne is very fair to the reader, providing enough hints for us to at least guess at the solution, while not making it too easy to work out.
Antony and Bill make a great detecting team, falling perfectly into the roles of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson (they even refer to themselves as Holmes and Watson several times throughout the novel). They are both very likeable characters and I would have been happy to read a whole series of Gillingham/Beverley mysteries.
Most of all, though, I loved the writing style, which is light and lively, with plenty of humour and witty dialogue. Here, for example, is a conversation between two of the Red House servants:
“I was never the one to pretend to be what I wasn’t. If I’m fifty-five, I’m fifty-five – that’s what I say.”
“Fifty-eight, isn’t it, auntie?”
“I was just giving that as an example,” said Mrs. Stevens with great dignity.
And here we learn what Antony’s father thinks of his son:
Old Gillingham returned to his paper. Antony was a younger son, and, on the whole, not so interesting to his father as the cadets of certain other families; Champion Birket’s, for instance. But, then, Champion Birket was the best Hereford bull he had ever bred.
The Red House Mystery was great fun to read. Having enjoyed it so much, I’m disappointed that there aren’t more mysteries to read by A.A. Milne, but if you think I might like any of his other books I would love to hear your recommendations.
It’s great fun, isn’t it? Such a shame he never wrote any more crime novels!
Yes, it’s disappointing. I would have loved to have read more A.A. Milne mysteries!
Sounds brill – love the “auntie” quote. Onto the list it goes – thank you! 🙂
I loved that quote too. The whole book is written in that sort of style – it’s great!
Never knew about this one. I was not a fan of Winnie the Pooh and cozy mysteries make me feel claustrophobic but I enjoyed your review:)
That’s a shame, but we can’t always like the same books. I’m glad you enjoyed my review. 🙂
I enjoyed this one a while ago, I loved Winnie the Pooh too and have some more of his books but haven’t got around to them yet. I think some of his short stories are available on Project Gutenberg.
I would like to read more of his books – I’ll see which ones are on Project Gutenberg.
This is a surprise. I also didn’t know that A.A. Milne had written other books than Winnie the Pooh! Sounds like a great read.
Yes, it is great. I only associated A.A. Milne with Winnie the Pooh too until I came across this book on some of my favourite blogs.
I never realised A.A. Milne wrote anything other than Winnie the Pooh either. Sounds good – I am pleased you enjoyed it 🙂
I think the success of Winnie the Pooh completely overshadowed all his other books, which is a shame as this one is really good!
You’re the second blogger I read to recommend this book within a short time. I guess I’ll have to look for it.
I hadn’t even heard of this book until I noticed other bloggers reading it. I really enjoyed it. 🙂
Yes, like you, I thought Milne just wrote children’s books.
I learned a lot more about A A Milne from the Alan Titchmarch documentary that was shown over Christmas (C4 I think). It might still be available on demand. This book does sound fun!
I didn’t see that documentary but it sounds interesting. I know very little about AA Milne – I didn’t even know about this book until relatively recently. It is a lot of fun, though, and I would definitely recommend reading it!