This book 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.

I received a free ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
This is a collection of 12 short stories whereby the police have gone after the wrong person but the shabby crumpled man in the corner of the ABC shop has deduced the real culprit and shares his knowledge with a young lady at another table. Some of the stories are very easy to work out others a bit more interesting. The very last twist is quiet clever but obvious to me. However, I will be reading the next volume as i enjoyed the writing style.

In 1887 Arthur Conan Doyle <strike> stole </strike> borrowed Edgar Allan Poe’s eccentric detective C. Auguste Dupin, and transformed him into the wildly popular Sherlock Holmes. While Holmes is arguably more entertaining than Dupin, the host of imitations created by other authors trying to cash in on the “genius detective” craze were seldom more than pale imitations. Such is Baroness Orczy’s unnamed Old Man in the Corner.

This collection of short stories features conversations between a young reporter and an “odd scarecrow” of a man who sits in the corner of a teahouse tying complex knots in a piece of string while quietly (but arrogantly) expounding to her the answers to unsolved crimes. His deductions are based almost exclusively on attending inquests and reading the stories as they appear in the newspaper. The old man has no desire to bring the criminals to justice and offers no concrete evidence that could do so. He is content with working out to his satisfaction (and his listener’s amazement) what must have happened.

For me, everything about the book was very bland. The characterization was shallow, relying on the same few stock descriptions (“scarecrow” “sarcastic” “tying and untying complex knots”). The subject matter of the stories was the usual assortment of blackmail, gambling debts, unhappy marriages, inheritance disputes, etc, with nothing terribly unexpected, exotic, or spine-tingling, and the solutions to the mysteries became tediously similar after the first two or three. The eARC Pushkin Vertigo edition that I read provided nothing in the way of background, commentary, or any other added interest.

Overall, if you’re really into classic armchair detectives, you will probably enjoy this, but if you’re just dipping into the “genius detective” genre go with Holmes or Dupin.

One lunch time, Polly Burton is disturbed from her usual routine by a strange old man sitting down at her table. He proceeds to talk about a recent murder case which has puzzled police and remained unsolved. After laying out the facts, the old man shows Polly how the murder was actually committed and by whom. Over the coming weeks, Polly regularly meets the old man to discuss other unsolved mysteries, each time providing evidence to support his solution to the crime.
Having grown up reading the Scarlet Pimpernel adventures, I was intrigued to discover that Baroness Orczy had also written these detective stories. They are a fascinating read, and the settings and description give an insight into the life of Britain around the beginning of the 20th century. Each mystery is quite short, and so a book that is easy to dip in and out of.
Similar in style to other books of this era, it is worth a read by all fans of Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.

This is the third time I have read this book, and with each time, comes the satisfaction of reading a book that is well written. I love the fact that one can delving into many well constructed puzzles, and come to the end of the story with all the " of course" flash answers.
All short with brief abrupt endings which lead to a story within these stories. If you enjoy the old style mysteries you will enjoy this book.

This review was originally posted on my blog Trails of Tales.
Top of the morning Ladies and Gents of the bookish posse!

It is Time

Time to dust off your Time Machines.

Because we are going on a ride

To Britain, 1900’s.

When Baroness Orczy, a Hungarian born British author conjures through her magical pen an armchair detective ‘The Old Man in the Corner’ in the Teahouse Detective

Now being brought to us in 2019 by the good people at Pushkin Vertigo.

The Teahouse Detective originated as serialized magazine stories which were then compiled in a book for the first time in 1908.

Did you know Baroness Orczy created The Teahouse Detective as a response to the Sherlock Holmes craze?

Yours truly here is a big fat Sherlock fan.

But I am still going to say this

Take a back seat Sherlock

This Old man has much more sass than you could ever muster.

And that is saying a lot!

We see the Old man in the corner, I’ll call him Corner King from now on, through the eyes of Polly Burton, journalist at the Evening Observer.

(Yes I know, Corner King…not the most creative of names. There’s a reason I am not Baroness Orczy!)

One fine day, in the A.B.C Teashop on Norfolk street,Polly was reading her newspaper at her usual corner, minding her own buisness.

When out of nowhere an old man slides into the seat opposite her.

Good Heavens!

Well I never…

How rude of you Sir!

Polly looks up from her newspaper with, what I believe is her best hell-hath-no-fury eyes and is greeted by the sight of Corner King.

She kindly describes him as the palest, thinnest, balding nervous old man with a birdlike head and resembling an old scarecrow.

Hardly someone you would peg as a sleuth.

But then

Without any kind of preamble Corner King delves into dissecting the most mysterious crimes of the British society.

Not just analysing or discussing, but solving them!
Right there, in the corner seat of the Teashop.

He lays down all the dead ends of an unsolvable case in front of Polly.

And starts to unravel them one by one, until he presents a conclusion clear as day.

Polly Burton, being a journalist knows that what the Corner King has is only a theory.
Where is the proof? The facts?

Inspite of that, Polly cannot help but admit that he had just cracked the case wide open.

While he does all of that, Polly notices Corner King constantly fidgeting with what he calls an ‘adjunct to thought’. A piece of string that

He ties into unfathomable precise knots

And then unknots them.

That process continues in circles for the whole duration of the conversation.

Knot. Unknot. Repeat.

From here, we turn the pages to find a treasure trove of mysteries. Each one more stupendous and breathtaking than the other.

My bookish heart/brain profusely thanks Pushkin Vertigo for compiling these beautiful enigmas and bringing them to us because I had no idea about the existence of Baroness Orczy and her works.

A fact I am kicking myself for by bending my leg at freakish angles.

Ah well…we have this saying in Hindi

“Der aaye, durust aaye“

Which, roughly translated means

Better late than never.

Since Baroness Orczy created ‘The Old Man in the Corner’ in the 1900’s, the beautiful British English of that time immediately shifts you to a world of the past. And I for one, find myself feeling warm and comfortable.

There is something about all fiction that enlivens the past gone by. Perhaps because it is a bridge between fantasy and reality?

Our Corner King character puzzles me with his sarcastic smiles. He is innately made up of contradictions:

° An evident possessor of nervous disposition yet extremely self assured of his deductions to the point of being smug.

° Does not want to be actually involved in solving a crime still does make enough efforts to take pictures of the crime scenes from afar and attends all court hearings just to observe the people involved in the crime.

And the biggest contradiction of all…

° Insists since the beginning that there are no such things as mysteries. You only have to view the crime intelligently ( Which he does and the police obviously does not)

But the mystery still remains

Who IS the Old Man in the Corner?

More often than not, in a collection of stories you can sift between the stories you like more than others.

But not here.

Every single story shines on it own. Baroness Orczy had created gems of story-telling and I was completely oblivious to them before. Fortunately, that grave folly of mine is rectified.

However I would tell you this

The last story…..

Nothing

I repeat

Nothing can prepare you for that

It’s…well… it’s…well….ah….words….

Just read the stories!!!

I remember reading The Scarlett Pimpernel in my younger years and enjoying it which induced me to read this series of stories. These stories were written after Sherlock Holmes became very popular. The man in the corner is meant to have Sherlock’s sort of logical and brilliant mind who can deduce the outcomes of the crimes. He’s a sort of odd duck who is condescending and has a piece of string that he manipulates into knots them throughout his recitation. The female reporter to whom he shares his thoughts, Polly, is no more than a plot device who he can tell the stories.

There are eleven mysteries in this book of less than 300 pages. Each is structured with the two meeting in a tea shop and the man sits and begins to discuss a famous mystery, reviewing the mystery, the police and coroner evidence and the outcome of trial. This man will then share what he sees as the obvious failures of the police and describes the real culprit. The language is very verbose and can be confusing. The mysteries themselves are a mixed bunch. There were times I wanted to give up. I’m glad I stuck in there because the last one was a doozy. Overall, if you can put up with the wordy language, it’s an I tersting read. Keep in mind this was written in the early 1900s and so hold quite a few prejudices that be jarring.

I was provided an advanced reader copy provided by Netgalley. This has not influenced my opinions or review.

A series of short stories involving mysteries unsolved by the police in which the Man in the Corner (reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes in his arrogance) offers his own solutions to the crime. Light reading, reasonably entertaining. The stories become a bit predictable towards the end but any one of them would have made an interesting plot for a longer novel.

The short story, not too popular with today’s authors, is ideal for reading on a commute and these tales, by a renowned writer with the now added dimension of being from a past age , are an easy read.