The Red House Mystery.

A very scarce detective fiction first edition by A.A. Milne, more famous of course as the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh and Christopher Robin. It is one of three such works by Milne, being followed by the murder mystery The Fourth Wall (1928) and the detective drama The Perfect Alibi (1928). The book is a Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone, and drew considerable favourable comment by specialist bibliographer & collector Eric Quayle

'And an excellent story it is Anthony Gillingham light-heartedly unravels the mystery, standing at the head of a long, and soon extending queue of humorous sleuths who gave a new and refreshing slant to the business of fictional crime. 'What fun Here's a body ' sums up the style; yet this fantasy, with its brilliant dialogue, finely-drawn scenes from the night-life of the 'twenties and credible characters, hold the reader until the final page is turned.' (The Collector's Book of Detective Fiction, pp.107-108).

Raymond was less appreciative of the work, famously dissecting it with a forensic brutality in his essay The Simple Art of Murder (1944), finishing with

'The detective in the case is an insouciant amateur named Anthony Gillingham... The English police endure him with their customary stoicism, but I shudder to think what the boys down at the Homicide Bureau in my city would do to him.'