A.A. Milne, The Red House Mystery, 1922
I have a special love for forgotten books by authors who are super-famous for a different book. Everyone remembers Sherlock Holmes, for example, no one remembers Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's) other heroes like Professor Challenger. Fun fact: in 1926, a film adaptation of a Professor Challenger novel, The Lost World became the first film to be shown on an airplane:
Similarly, if anyone remembers A.A. Milne at all it is for this bear:
Yes, the author of Winnie the Pooh wrote this clever locked-room mystery. To forestall the obvious question: there are no talking animals in The Red House Mystery. Sad face. There is an impossible murder wherein a man apparently shoots his long-enstranged brother and then disappears completely from a locked room. It is left to Tony Gillingham, a young dilettante who, surprise!, has a knack for solving mysteries.
The mystery genre was beginning to take off when this was published in 1922. Many conventions were set in place and Milne obviously has great delight in having his detective, Tony, point out when the story was indulging or violating those conventions. For example, since all detective fiction of the time was derivative of Sherlock Holmes, Milne pokes fun of his own use of "Sherlocky" tropes in this snippet of dialogue between amateur detective Tony, and his best pal, Bill:
“Are you prepared to be the complete Watson?” he asked.
“Watson?”
“Do-you-follow-me-Watson; that one. Are you prepared to have quite obvious things explained to you, to ask futile questions, to give me chances of scoring off you, to make brilliant discoveries of your own two or three days after I have made them myself—all that kind of thing? Because it all helps.”
The mystery itself is explained, rather laboriously, over the last two chapters. Those interested in wrapping up every little detail and clue will appreciate that, but I found it a bit tedious. Nonetheless, the book is a delightful read.
Free E-book:https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1872
Free audiobook: https://librivox.org/the-red-house-mystery-by-a-a-milne/