"The Red House Mystery" is a classic novel by Alan Milne, who is actually better known for writing "Winnie the Pooh." Set in a country home known as the "Red House," the novel opens on a party weekend, with most of the houseguests away from the house playing golf or tennis. A typical "locked room mystery," the novel features characters who may not be all they seem to be, acting for mysterious motives ranging from love to revenge. Servants overhear bits of conversation which offer clues. The discovery of a secret passage, the appearance of a ghost, and a convenient lake to hide evidence all become part of the plot. Written in 1922, before Winnie the Pooh was even born, "The Red House Mystery" was a gift for Milne's father, a retired headmaster who loved mysteries. The book was immediately popular; Alexander Woollcott called it "one of the three best mystery stories of all time", and Raymond Chandler, in his 1944 essay The Simple Art of Murder called it "an agreeable book, light, amusing in the Punch style, written with a deceptive smoothness that is not as easy as it looks."