::AMAZON REVIEWS::

"He had forgotten golf and all the other things which had made up his world lately. This was the real thing. This was life."
(3.5 stars) It's great fun reading a murder mystery by the author of the Winnie the Pooh. Set at Red House, the country home of Mark Ablett, the novel opens on a party weekend, with most of the houseguests away from the house playing golf or tennis. Ablett has just received a letter from his brother Robert, who has been living in Australia for the past fifteen years, and "when a gentleman goes to Australia, of course, he has his reasons..." Robert, the family embarrassment, intends to visit Mark that afternoon. Shortly after Robert's arrival, shots are heard inside Mark's locked office.

By coincidence, Antony Gillingham has just arrived at the house to visit with his friend Bill Beverley, who is a guest at Red House. When Antony hears the shots and learns that the office is locked, he and Matthew Cayley, Mark's distant cousin who acts as his secretary, rush around to the back of the house to peer in the window, where they see the prone body of Mark Ablett. Antony, always looking for exciting new activities to occupy the times that he is not traveling, teams up with Bill Beverley, who has been away from the house at the time of the murder, to try to catch the killer.

A typical "locked room mystery," the novel features characters who may not be all they seem to be, acting for mysterious motives, which range from love to revenge. Servants overhear bits of conversation which offer clues. The discovery of a secret passage, the appearance of a ghost, and a convenient lake to hide evidence all become part of the plot, which is more cerebral than action-packed. Antony's photographic memory aids him in getting at the truth about the murder, well before the local constabulary.

Written in 1922, before Winnie the Pooh was even "born," the book was a gift for Milne's father, a retired headmaster who loved mysteries. Milne had written twelve plays, at this point in his life, and that background serves him in good stead here, as the book has the feel of a long play, depending more on dialogue than on action, and featuring many of the clichés of locked room mysteries. Avoiding the need for difficult transitions between scenes, Milne often addresses the reader directly to offer information, an awkward conceit which keeps the reader at a distance. At one point, Bill Beverley affectionately teases Antony Gillingham. "Silly old ass," he chides, reminding the reader instantly of the "silly old bear" who will make his debut in just four years. n Mary Whipple

Winnie the Pooh 80th Anniversary Edition
Now We Are Six Deluxe Edition
The Sunny Side: Short Stories and Poems for Proper Grown-Ups
First Plays of A A Milne (Dodo Press)
Second Plays of A A Milne (Dodo Press)

A Great classic who-dunit that still surprises
I first read this English country house mystery as a teenager. I knew Milne's name from his children's books and when a school teacher mentioned that he also wrote plays that sent me scurrying to the library. This was the first "adult" mystery novel I read having recently graduated from the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I loved it then and returned to it
twice more at twenty year intervals. Each new visit increased my appreciation of the dry British humor and the construction of the plot. It was still a fun read even though I knew the ending, and I always think how clever Milne was in some of his observations and how he first developed some of the devices that later became standard. It has everything from a secret passage to a witty satire on Sherlock and Watson. If you read carefully you can solve the mystery, but I'm willing to bet even the most experienced among you will miss it.