The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne

The Red House Mystery is a locked-room cozy mystery written by A.A. Milne, most famous for creating the lovable character Winnie-the-Pooh. It is the only mystery Milne ever wrote, and he explains why he wrote it in the dedication to his father, John Vine Milne:

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.

And a very fine detective story it is. Written during the Golden Age of crime fiction, it is very much in the same vein as an Agatha Christie mystery, and anyone who likes classic whodunnits will enjoy this light read. Like most cozies, there is not much character development, but the mystery is interesting and the story moves along quickly. Here’s a summary from the publisher:

Milne takes readers to the Red House, a comfortable residence in the placid English countryside that is the bachelor home of Mr. Mark Ablett. While visiting this cozy retreat, amateur detective Anthony Gillingham and his chum, Bill Beverley, investigate their genial host’s disappearance and its connection with a mysterious shooting. Was the victim, whose body was found after a heated exchange with the host, shot in an act of self-defense? If so, why did the host flee, and if not, what drove him to murder?

I have been wanting to read The Red House Mystery since about 1995, when an eighth grade student named Christine first told me about it. At that time I was teaching eighth grade language arts and students were required to read books on their own and write brief recommendations on 3×5 recipe cards for other students to use when choosing a new book. Christine wrote a brief but glowing recommendation of the book, but she also made it a point to personally tell me how much she loved it.

After trying to find it in used book stores over the years, I was happy to see that Mysterious Press published it in an inexpensive Kindle edition. One of the great things about Mysterious Press is that they work with Open Road Media to publish their digital editions. As the Mysterious Press website puts it,

Working in conjunction with Open Road Integrated Media, this 21st-century publishing house will take books from some of the most distinguished crime, mystery and suspense writers in the world, and offer them in digital reading formats. And we’re maintaining our commitment to quality – our books will be carefully formatted, expertly proofread, and will be accompanied by professionally-designed covers.

I have always found the formatting of books published by Open Road to be far superior to other inexpensive Kindle editions of public domain titles. So when I saw that The Red House Mystery was available I eagerly picked it up. And Christine was right, it is a great mystery novel. But don’t just take our words for it. The Red House Mystery is listed in the Haycraft-Queen Definitive Library of Detective-Crime-Mystery Fiction, Julian Symons’ 100 Best Crime Stories, and Barzun and Taylor’s Classics of Crime.

The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne
First edition London: Methuen, 1922
Kindle edition Mysterious Press, 2014
Print length: 229 pages