The Old Man in the Corner by Baroness Orczy

The Old Man in the Corner: The Teahouse Detective, Volume 1 by Baroness Orczy ISBN-13: 9781782275237 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Pushkin Press Released: Nov. 15, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Mysteries! There is no such thing as a mystery in connection with any crime, provided intelligence is brought to bear upon its investigation.

So says a rather down-at-heel elderly gentleman to young Polly Burton of the Evening Observer, in the corner of the ABC teashop on Norfolk Street one afternoon. Once she has forgiven him for distracting her from her newspaper and luncheon, Miss Burton discovers that her interlocutor is as brilliantly gifted as he is eccentric - able to solve mysteries that have made headlines and baffled the finest minds of the police. As the weeks go by, she listens to him unravelling the trickiest of puzzles and solving the most notorious of crimes, but still one final mystery remains: the mystery of the old man in the corner himself.

The Old Man in the Corner is a classic collection of mysteries, featuring the Teahouse Detective.


My Review:
The Old Man in the Corner is a collection of short story mysteries that was originally published in 1901. Those short stories are framed around the amateur detective telling a reporter about his solution to various mysteries (not only murders) which baffle the police. He investigates the details and attends the trials, but he doesn't give the solutions to the police because he admires the cleverness of these criminals. He wants to brag to someone, though, so he tells the reporter in the teashop the details of the case, the clues, and his solution. She never passes on the information.

These were clue-based puzzle mysteries. There were enough clues that the reader can guess his solution, especially since the clues were more obvious due to the shorter format. I correctly guessed the whodunit and how for all but one mystery. That one story was somewhat confusing, so I'm not sure that my solution didn't work as well as his. Anyway, it was fun to read and guess the solutions. There was no sex or bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this collection to fans of puzzle mysteries.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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