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Title: The Red House Mystery (Dover Mystery Classics) by A. A. Milne ISBN: 0-486-40129-4 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 October, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.17 (6 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: The Red Mystery
Comment: The Red House Mystery by A.A Milne was a mystery set in the late 1900's. The story was about a lady named Miss Stevens in the red house. There is a man or a woman that is killing people, so the public has to try and figure out who did it, when and how. This is probably one of the best mystery stories I have ever read. This book really had a lot of suspense and surprising points. I think you'll be very shocked about what happens at the end. I recommend this book to whoever likes mysteries or who is at a high school level.
Rating: 4
Summary: Murderously Fun
Comment: 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."
Rating: 3
Summary: A tad overrated
Comment: "I envy those readers who are coming to this lighthearted masterpiece for the first time," writes Douglas G. Greene in the introduction of A. A. Milne's "The Red House Mystery." Since Greene is considered the leading expert on John Dickson Carr--one of the greatest Golden Age detective novelists--I was tremendously excited by his recommendation and plunged into the book straightaway.
It took me a little under two weeks to finish. Yes, for a book that isn't even two hundred pages. The story features Antony Gillingham and Bill Beverley as a rather unlikely Holmes and Watson who set out to unravel a bizarre murder at the Red House. Although Gillingham and Beverley make an interesting pair, the way they tackle the problem is a bit too languid and leisurely for my taste (and I usually thrive on cozy mysteries), and since there is virtually no action and almost no other major characters to focus on--well, it's not exactly a page-turner. There are a few nifty plot tricks--one twist involving a door key is particularly clever--but the resolution (which falls back on that most irritating of cliches, the letter of confession) doesn't carry much in the way of suspense or surprise.
Still, it's all very witty and well-written, and the droll humor that spawned "Winnie-the-Pooh" is very much in evidence. Anglophiles will treasure it for its delineation of mid-1920s England alone. But I was expecting a masterpiece, and as a detective novel, "The Red House Mystery" is no masterpiece--but then again, Mr. Milne is no John Dickson Carr.
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Title: Trent's Last Case (Dover Mystery Classics) by E. C. Bentley ISBN: 0486296873 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $2.00 |
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Title: The Circular Staircase (Dover Mystery Classics) by Mary Roberts Rinehart ISBN: 0486297136 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $2.00 |
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Title: In Search of Honor (Light Line Series) by Donna L. Hess, Donna Hess ISBN: 0890845956 Publisher: Bob Jones University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.49 |
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Title: The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff ISBN: 0374466483 Publisher: Sunburst Pub. Date: 01 September, 1993 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo ISBN: 0064410021 Publisher: Amistad Pub. Date: 24 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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