5 Stars
Almost "everybody" knows A. A. [Alan Alexander] Milne as the author of the beloved Winnie the Pooh books. But Milne was also a prolific writer of suspense during the "Golden Age of Mystery." Like Mary Roberts Rinehart, his mysteries are "mysteries of manners," set among the landed gentry of England in the early twentieth century, a time when society, culture, and worldview were in a state of imminent collapse [witness the Great War], yet landed nobility persevered as it had for centuries. Adherence to the cult of self, classism, manners and etiquette, and the rest of the world be consigned to oblivion [except of course for the necessary, but essentially "invisible," servants and tradesmen]. THE RED HOUSE MYSTERY is intriguing both for its "locked room mystery" (literally), for its endearing and thoughtful characterizations, and for the amateur sleuth pair who endeavour to puzzle it all out.
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