The Red House Mystery

About the Book: Albert Stricklin's house party goes well until his brother Bunny returns from Australia and joins the festivities. Shortly after his arrival, Bunny is found dead, and Albert disappears. Albert's daughter Mary Eliska Girl Detective and her nephew Liam McAdams ace reporter for the Piedmont Star decide to investigate, and what follows is a witty locked room whodunit, the only murder mystery A. A. Milne wrote. The original setting of The Red House Mystery was an English country house, where Mark Ablett is entertaining a house party consisting of a widow and her marriageable daughter, a retired major, a willful actress, and Bill Beverley, a young man about town. Mark's long-lost brother Robert, who was the black sheep of the family, arrives from Australia and shortly thereafter is found dead, shot through the head. Mark Ablett has disappeared, so Tony Gillingham, a stranger who has just arrived to call on his friend Bill, decides to investigate. Gillingham plays Sherlock Holmes to his young counterpart's Doctor Watson; they progress almost playfully through the novel while the clues mount up and the theories abound. As re-written, Mary Eliska Girl Detective investigates the locked room crime, with the help of her young nephew Liam McAdams.

The setting is a Clatsop County, Oregon, country house, at 90605 Sunset Highway, Carnahan Station, across from the Astoria Golf and Country Club, where Albert Stricklin has been entertaining a house party consisting of a widow and her marriageable daughter, a retired major, a willful actress, and Liam McAdams, a young man about town. Albert's long-lost brother Bunny, a stutterer in childhood, now a feral cat drover, jealous of Albert's ownership of The Red House, repeatedly married routinely divorced, United States Military Academy dropout, draft dodger, a people-dividing litigious man, the black sheep of the family, arrives from his most recently failed business efforts overseas and shortly thereafter is found dead, shot through the head. His wealthy older brother Albert has disappeared; and Mary Eliska, Albert's youngest daughter, who arrived to call on her nephew Liam McAdams, her younger brother John's son, decides to investigate. Mary Eliska plays Sherlock Holmes to her younger counterpart, her nephew Liam's Doctor Watson, unassisted in this case by Liam's twin sister Jacqueline Gray (Jax) and Liam's older sister Marlow Ray who are most often involved all together in Mary Eliska's episodes; they progress almost playfully through the novel while the clues mount up and the theories abound. /s/ William A Stricklin

Original author Alan Alexander A. A. Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh. He was a playwright, before a huge success of Pooh overshadowed previous work. His words were encouraging to children: • Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. • Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day. • You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes. Alexander Woollcott called The Red House Mystery "one of the three best mystery stories of all time." The Red House Mystery, 1922, now in the public domain, has been re-written by William A. Stricklin as Mary Eliska Girl Detective Book 567 in a series of detective mysteries solved by his daughter in fiction. The author, William A. Stricklin's Honors Philanthropic Affiliations and Awards include: • Order of Golden Bear to promote statewide unity of University of California campuses • Chair, University of California Alumni Association, Washington DC 1960-61 • Listed in National Trust for Historic Preservation Directory of Historic Preservation Lawyers • Chair, Hawai'i Advisory Committee, American Arbitration Assn 1975 to 1985 • Master Mason 3° Berkeley 363 Blue Lodge 1959 • Scottish Rite 32° Mason Oakland Temple 1959 • Hawai'i Shriners Temple 1968 • Hawai'i Shriners Hospital Clown Corps • Hawai'i Opera Theater Board of Trustees • Hawai'i Ballet Board of Trustees • National Board of Trustees, American Arbitration Assn, New York, 1990-1994 • Santa Barbara Board Trustees, Planned Giving Chair, American Red Cross 1998-2000 • Member Santa Barbara Board of Trustees, Catholic Charities, 1998-2000 • Member Santa Barbara Board of Trustees, Cottage Hospitals, 1998-2000 • Elected Member of Montecito Santa Barbara All Saints by the Sea Episcopal Church Board, 2000-2002 • Hawai'i's "Mediator of the Year" 1989 American Arbitration Association • Robinson Cox Visiting Fellow, Law School, University of WA (Perth) 1989 to 1990, teaching dispute resolution to the Law Society and students • Facilitated the Australian Minister of Land's return of land the size of Rhode Island called Silver Plains Station Queensland to the traditional owners, Lama Lama Peoples • Charter Member Founding Secretary, Hawai'i Lambda Alpha (Land Economics Honor Society) • Confrere Order of Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to help serve medical needs of children of all faiths caught up in the wars of the Middle East