The Red House Mystery - AA Milne

Published by Librivox 2007-01-03. Narrated by Kristin Hughes.
Originally published 1922.

One of the unexpected outcomes of doing the Alphabet Soup challenge was finding out, in the fairly underwhelming Goodbye, Christopher Robin, that AA Milne (best known as the author of Winnie-the-Pooh) had also written a mystery novel! This is that novel!

The brother of Mark Ablett, an English country gentleman, comes to visit him at the titular Red House. Robert Ablett, the black sheep of the family, is believed to have arrived in order to get money from his elder brother, but shortly after arriving, a shot is heard and Robert is found dead! Not only this, but Mark has gone missing and is seen to be the prime suspect in the murder.

Although the police are investigating the murder and disappearance, our main 'sleuths' are actually Antony Gillingham and Bill Beverley, the latter of whom was a guest at the Red House and the former of whom was coming to visit Bill and just happened to arrive moments after the shooting. Neither man is a professional sleuth, and both take the case rather light-heartedly, believing that the police will probably solve the case on their own but hoping to find out something for their own amusement. As the case progresses, what Gillingham and Beverley uncover begins to diverge quite a bit from the case the police are putting together, and a new series of events begins to come to light. 

The book itself is also fairly lighthearted, for a murder mystery, and we never really fear for Gillingham or Beverley. Instead, we just enjoy following along as the two play Holmes and Watson (their own comparison). Moments of the plot may stretch belief just a little, but of course that is usual for this genre.

I'm not sure I've ever fully read the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, but if this is to be my only exposure of Milne for a while, I can see why he is liked. It is a well written, light-hearted, 'fun' story. And one that I figured out some of the twists for.

Kirstin Hughes is a good narrator for the book. She doesn't have a wide selection of character voices (some begin to overlap a little), but she puts a good level of expression in and keeps the audience engaged.

Completed 31 May 2022.

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