Sat 2 Aug 2025
A correspondent known to me as Gunnar asks the following question. Perhaps those of you who have read more early detection fiction than I can tell us more:
“Tony Baer’s recent review of A. A. Milne’s Red House Mystery (1922) got me thinking of the origins and early history of the country house mystery. I suppose you can trace its early prototypes back to Wilkie Collins, but later Sherlock is mainly metropolitan – and while Baskervilles, Valley of Fear and some of the short stories do feature country houses or castles, they’re not really country house mysteries in the true sense (with a closed circle of suspects and all that).
“The first proper instance I can think of is The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1907) followed perhaps by Trent’s Last Case (1913) and then of course Styles (1920). Are there other early examples that predate Christie’s debut?”
August 2nd, 2025 at 8:00 pm
More candidates, from distant memories, so I may misremember:
Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone, pretty obviously – I haven’t read it for years, but I remember is as a country-house mystery.
Sheridan Le Fanu’s Uncle Silas – not much mystery but dominated by a country house – and The Wyvern Mystery, and Guy Deverell, where the house’s architecture is key to the mystery.
A.E.W. Mason’s early Inspector Hanaud stories – At the Villa Rose, The House of the Arrow and The Prisoner in the Opal – influenced Christie and are country-house stories, albeit French country houses.
August 2nd, 2025 at 8:59 pm
All good choices. Thanks, Roger!
August 3rd, 2025 at 10:58 am
Your correspondent might want to track down a copy of Martin Edwards’ excellent anthology, MURDER AT THE MANOR: COUNTRY HOUSE MYSTERIES. Plenty of great stories from classic mystery writers!
August 3rd, 2025 at 11:01 am
My review of MURDER AT THE MANOR–including a Table of Contents–can be found here: http://georgekelley.org/wednesdays-short-stories-220-murder-at-the-manor-country-house-mysteries-edited-by-martin-edwards/
August 3rd, 2025 at 1:27 pm
Thanks, George. I think I’ll copy the table of contents from your review, if I may. These are all short stories, which I’m not sure my inquirer was looking for, nor are dates given here, but speaking for myself, this is a book I really ought to have:
The Copper Beeches Arthur Conan Doyle — 5
The Problem of Dead Wood Hall Dick Donovan — 36
Gentlemen and Players E. W. Hornung — 76
The Well W. W. Jacobs — 98
The White Pillars Murder G. K. Chesterton — 114
The Secret of Dunstan’s Tower Ernest Bramah — 131
The Manor House Mystery J. S. Fletcher — 161
The Message on the Sun-Dial J. J. Bell — 187
The Horror at Staveley Grange Sapper — 204
The Mystery of Horne’s Copse Anthony Berkeley — 238
The Perfect Plan James Hilton — 285
The Same to Us Margery Allingham, — 306
The Murder at the Towers E. V. Knox — 314
An Unlocked Window Ethel Lina White — 324
The Long Shot Nicholas Blake — 345
Weekend at Wapentake Michael Gilbert — 362
August 3rd, 2025 at 11:29 am
Kate Jackson in her article “Doyle’s The Valley of Fear and the Country House Mystery” (CADS 75, May 2017) mentions several early detective novels set in country houses, including E.C. Bentley’s Trent’s Last Case (1913), which is considered by many to be the first “Golden Age” novel. She also quotes extensively from “Country House Milieu”, an article by Catherine Aird that appeared in The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing (though unfortunately the title appeared wrongly in CADS as The Cambridge Companion).
August 3rd, 2025 at 1:32 pm
Thanks, Geoff. I was sure that CADS must have covered the subject here and there over the years. It’s good to know that Kate did so in one article. Her work in researching and writing about mystery fiction is solid. Impeccable.
August 3rd, 2025 at 1:42 pm
Thanks for all the suggestions!
My recollection may be faulty, but I thought the Inspector Hanaud stories mentioned primarily take place in French (or Swiss) townhouses and hotels, not country houses? I have not read Le Fanu – I always thought he was more of a gothic/horror/sensation writer.
‘Murder at the Manor House’ appears to take a somewhat broader view of what a “country house mystery” is than I would. The stories that pre-date 1920 by Conan Doyle, E.W. Hornung and W.W. Jacobs (though perhaps excellent in their own right) are not to my mind instances of the form. “The Problem of Dead Wood Hall” by Dick Donovan (originally collected in ‘Riddles Read’, 1896) comes closest, but I still feel it is not quite the thing, because the investigation hardly involves the country house set at all, but focuses on villagers and game keepers.
August 4th, 2025 at 8:26 pm
I don’t have anything to add, except to provide a link to this article claiming a bunch of 19th century novels as part of the genre: https://crimereads.com/the-english-country-house-mystery/
August 4th, 2025 at 10:04 pm
Thanks, Tony. I don’t think they all apply, but it sure was fun reading about them!
August 5th, 2025 at 11:20 am
Yes, thanks Tony! I agree with Steve.