The Red House Mystery

The Red House Mystery (1922) is a detective novel by A.A. Milne. Known more for his series of Winnie-the-Pooh stories and poems for children, Milne also wrote novels and plays for adults, including this successful whodunnit. The Red House Mystery, Milne's only detective novel, was highly successful upon publication and is noted for its use of an amateur sleuth as well as its intricate, puzzle-like plot. Despite earning the ire of Raymond Chandler, Milne's novel was reprinted in the U.S. and in Britain numerous times.At his house in the English countryside, Mark Ablett hosts a small party of diverse guests including a widow and her young daughter, a retired military officer, an actress, and a young socialite named Bill Beverley. During this party, Mark's brother Robert unexpectedly returns home from Australia, where he has been for some time. Shortly after this long-awaited homecoming, Robert is found dead of a gunshot wound to the head, and, amidst the chaos, Mark suddenly disappears. Having arrived late to the party, Tony Gillingham, with the help of his friend Bill Beverley, endeavors to investigate the mysterious events of the evening. Aided, or at least tolerated, by an uninterested police force, Gillingham does his best as an amateur detective to gather evidence leading not only to the identity of Robert's murderer, but to the discovery of Mark's whereabouts. The Red House Mystery is an innovative whodunnit filled with humorous quips, twists and turns, and a puzzle with which even the most seasoned reader of mysteries will struggle.Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Alan Alexander Milne was an English author best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for children's poetry. Milne was primarily a dramatist before the enormous popularity of Winnie-the-Pooh eclipsed all of his earlier work. Milne fought in both World Wars, as a lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in WWI and a captain in the Home Guard in WWII. Alan Alexander Milne was born in Kilburn, London, on January 18, 1882, to Jamaican-born John Vine Milne and Sarah Marie Milne. He was raised at Henley House School, 6/7 Mortimer Road (now Crescent), Kilburn, a small independent school owned by his father. H. G. Wells was one of his teachers from 1889 to 1890. Milne attended Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received a mathematics scholarship and graduated with a B.A. in Mathematics in 1903. He edited and wrote for Granta, a student publication. He cooperated with his brother Kenneth on articles that appeared under the letters AKM.