THE RED HOUSE MYSTERY

The Red House is a country residence far removed from the world of the Hundred Acre Wood, but its story has much of the same charm and wit. There is, of course, a murder, and when the local police fail to solve the crime, an amateur sleuth readily steps in. What follows is a delightful whodunnit with humour, excitement and a suitably surprising twist at the end.

Strange how I’ve recently read Raffles and Lady Audley’s Secret, and this is a bit of a mashup of the two. There’s the suave, confident, and easygoing protagonist in the form of lone adventurer Antony Gillingham, and his very Watson/Bunny-like sidekick in the young, cheerful and keen to please Bill Beverley. Then we have the visitor from Australia who hasn’t been seen in years, and a man who goes missing, à la LAS.

Antony Gillingham is on holiday and travelling with no real destination in mind, when he stops off at the town of Woodham because he likes the look of the station. As luck would have it, it’s only a mile from The Red House where his good friend Bill Beverly happens to be staying (what are the chances!) Unfortunately, upon his arrival, he finds a crime has been committed. The owner of The Red House is missing, and his estranged brother has been shot dead in the study! But something’s not quite adding up…fortunately, Antony has been after a new profession, and puts himself forward as the private sleuth to work the case. Much to Bill’s delight, who finds the idea of playing detective great fun, and is more than happy to play along.

“Are you prepared to be the complete Watson?” he asked.

“Watson?”

“Do-you-follow-me-Watson; that one. Are you prepared to have quite obvious things explained to you, to ask futile questions, to give me chances of scoring off you, to make brilliant discoveries of your own two or three days after I have made them myself – all that kind of thing? Because it all helps.”

“My dear Tony,” said Bill delightedly, “need you ask?”

In keeping with Sherlockian tradition, there’s the almost immediate analytical approach and  tedious attention to detail (such as an obsession with keys and views from windows, where I couldn’t have lost interest any faster) but when it moved past that and the plot got underway, I was more interested in the story. The Red House Mystery is very much a three man act, despite a promising introduction of other characters at the beginning who we never hear from again (I wanted more of Mrs. Stevens and the grouchy Major Rumbold!) But a smaller cast of characters does invite more tension and suspense (will Antony get

The Red House Mystery is a locked room mystery with all the elements of a classic crime novel. I found it a bit tedious at the beginning, but I warmed to the characters and their good-humoured friendship. The suspect list was admittedly a little on the short side…but if you think of it less as a whodunit and more of a howcatchem, you’ll be invested.

MURDER IN A HEATWAVE

Phew, it’s a scorcher. But whole some are dragging out the sunbeds or heading for the beach, others have very different plans. As the Mercury rises, tempers begin to fray, and opportunities present themselves … for murder.

At a summer fete’s vegetable competition, a violent death becomes best in show. On a boiling night in London, an impossible murder is committed. At the Edinburgh Festival, a suicide forces a theatre troupe to reveal their darkest secrets. And a Fourth of July picnic is the setting for a mysterious poisoning.

These ten classic mysteries by giants of the crime genre will puzzle, surprise and entertain you – so, grab a cold drink and step into the shade … if you dare.

Just look at that glorious cover. If there were two book covers that went together perfectly, It’s Uncle Paul and Murder in a Heatwave. They’re like a couple of Summer postcards from the 1950s. Saying that, much like another summer crime collection edited by Cecily Gayford, the stories themselves had little to do with the theme or cover art. As I said in my review for Murder by the Seaside, “they’re not even near the beach! Why are they in this collection!?”

We’re given ten stories, beginning with Dorothy L. Sayers and Arthur Conan Doyle (because they always have to stick a Sherlock story in these collections for some reason, and yeah I skipped it (but went back to it just before starting the last story in the book) and compared to the Sherlock Holmes story from Murder by the Seaside, I was pleasantly surprised! It was a bit slow at the start (but it circles back to a theme at the end, tying the story together). It was an interesting read. The best part was the guilty admission at the end, and it was the one story where I felt sympathy for the criminal.

And from a writer of the nineteenth century to an author of the relatively youthful age of sixty-three (in a collection for ‘classic mystery writers’??) A Good Hanging by Ian Rankin is based at the Ediburgh Festival, busy with crowds and a lively atmosphere of youthful actors in the middle of Summer. One of the longer stories in the collection, there are more developed characters (unlike the barrage of names that get thrown at you in Michael Innes’ The Mouse Trap), but I did have some misgivings over the resolution when we find out the hanged victim had been in a fight beforehand, but there’s no mention of any bruising or injury that doesn’t line up with the supposed cause of death.

Summer Show is the shortest story at about six pages, it’s fast-paced, with little introduction to characters and their weird names, (Quarles? Comstock? Tarn? What even are these names?) It starts off talking about vegetables and just spirals. (I bet Julian Symons had a great time writing that splash of crazy.) I liked the inventive (if not unrealistic) murder committed in Carter Dickson’s The Silver Curtain (in an otherwise quite dry story), and the main character of Ethel Lina White’s White Cap, Tess Leigh.

Attractive, athletic and possessed of a sweet yet strong character. Fearlessly outspoken, she had a deep sympathy with the underdog and always rushed in to champion any victim of injustice.

A modern day woman, first written in 1942.

But I have to admit, I related to Rex Stout’s protagonist Nero Wolfe (at first I was like (‘not another stupid name’ lol) but this guy has to be the only detective I’ve read about who wants nothing to do with the crime. He discovers the body and he’s ready to bounce.

He was grim. “That man on the cot is dead. I lifted the blanket to adjust it. One of those knives is in his back, clear to the handle. He is dead. If we are still here when the discovery is made you know what will happen. We will be here all day, all all night, a week, indefinitely. That is intolerable. We can answer questions at home as well as here.”

He just wants to go home and be fat and comfy with his plants (such a Taurus) not to mention his sidekick Archie Goodwin; confident, witty, and with a thing for the ladies, he’s a refreshing change of pace from the usual type that tag along to help the detective lead.

Short story collections are always a good way to discover unknown writers. For me, in Murder by the Seaside it was Gladys Mitchell, and from Murder in a Heatwave the standouts have to be Ethel Line White, Julian Symons and Rex Stout. Am I disappointed that none of the stories took place on a lido by the sea as depicted on the cover? Sure, but at least they were set in the summer. And at least Watson mentioned the shingle of Southsea.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.