The Red House Mystery

By: A. A. Milne

Narrated by: William Sutherland

Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

"Like all really nice people, you have a weakness for detective stories.... After all that you have done for me, the least that I can do is write one." So wrote A. A. Milne, beloved creator of Winnie the Pooh, to his father, to whom he dedicated this delectable mystery.

Mark Ablett's stately mansion, the Red House, is filled with very proper guests when his most improper brother returns from Australia. The prodigal brother enters Mark's study, the parlor maid hears arguing and the brother dies...rather suddenly, with a bullet between the eyes. The study is locked from the inside and Mark is missing!

Investigating the crime is wealthy Antony Gillingham, who rivals Sherlock Holmes in his remarkable powers of observation. He is aided by the perfect Watson, his friend Bill Beverley, a cheerful young man in white flannels. Echoes of Christopher Robin and his friends chime nostalgically throughout this charming classic of detection!

Public Domain (P)1999 Blackstone Audiobooks

What fun

The writing and cadence is very much A. A. Milne, but the story is a gem. I guessed a bit of it early, but the unfolding was delicious and I didn’t guess the ending. The characters were just full enough to be interesting. The narrator was gifted but did little to change voices. The story did that. Too bad it is a one and done.

Great overall. Narrator difficult to understand

This was very good overall and the narration was engaging, if difficult to understand due to lack of annunciation. Famous voice though, slso one knows what they are getting into.

Good story terrible narrator

I could not fully enjoy this book because of the narrator. He was unable to change his voice for any character so most of the time I couldn't tell who was speaking because they all sound the same. His voice sounds like he was mumbling throughout the whole book, sluring his words together so sometimes it was difficult to understand what he was saying. If you can get over his voice the story is pretty good and enjoyable. But I would honestly skip this version and get another with an different narrator.

The Red House Mystery

I struggled to finish this one. finished it tho with a dislike of the characters and the story. I listened to the audio book.

No Sherlock Holmes, But Clever in its Own Way

I can imagine that the author must have grown up reading Sherlock Holmes mysteries and thinking that he could write them better. While I agree with him that Sherlock was way too stuck on himself and mean, I think Mr. Milne missed the secret ingredient that actually made Sherlock novels so good, at least for me. I think the friendship between Watson and Holmes was more believable. This book did keep you guessing quite well though and made some interesting twists and turns. The reader was not very talented though.

An unlikely mystery

I was able to manage with the mumbly narrator once I dressed him in period clothes and gave him a pipe. I did have to resort to making a list of the many characters in the beginning but that sorted itself out quickly for the most part. The ending comes all at once, a la Poirot, but quite satisfying.

Great reading of a wonderful mystery

A.A. Milne wrote a charming, funny, and puzzling mystery, and it was read very well by William Sutherland. I enjoyed it hugely! But be aware that the sound quality is iffy sometimes.

You should still get it.

The audio quality is not the greatest. It’s understandable but that’s about the best part. However the story is well written and is definitely worth the listen. Hopefully Audible will redo this book with a better recording in the future.

A clever adventure

I enjoyed the cheek of this detective story. Definitely worth a listen even if the narrator doesn't do a fantastic job of differentiating characters.

A quaintly enjoyable time

A. A. Milne is of course best known for Winnie the Pooh. But detective stories were big then as they are now and so he decided to write one. He dedicated the book to his father, writing " 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 to write you one. Here it is: with more gratitude and affection than I can well put down here. A.A.M."

This is a mildly intriguing read/listen. Yes, it is a locked-room mystery - but the way the "sleuths" go about solving it is just sort of on the side. The protagonist is described as a highly intelligent young man who's interested in everything. For that reason, he's taken on profession after profession, simply to learn. Whenever he takes on a job, he tells them to not pay him the first month - but that if he proves to be a quick learner and do a good job, then pay him double the second month. ... it's a nice notion and this in itself could make for an interesting novel. But this is just the preamble because he just happens to be at the Red House as a murder happens.

He finds himself a 'Watson' and actually calls him that. They very much play on the Holmes/Watson dynamic - but neither those characters, nor the case, are particularly interesting. It really appears to have been simply a personal gift to his dad - and for that, it is surely nice. But if you compare it with just about any other sleuthing novel, this one really doesn't rank. For far better sleuths and stories, give me Lew Archer (Ross Mcdonald), Philip Marlowe (Raymond Chandler), Sam Spade (Dashiell Hammet) or, of course, Sherlock Holmes (A. C. Doyle) and Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie) any time.

Oh by the way - for a truly curious locked-room mystery, read the Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo. While there, too, the sleuth isn't particularly interesting, the locked-room mystery really is one special.