The Teahouse Detective. The Old Man in the Corner. Baroness Orczy (Writer 1908) Pushkin Press (2018).

Hugely engaging and entertaining Edwardian UK armchair detective stories. Miss Mary J. Burton, a journalist for the Evening Observer finds her lunch at the Aerated Bread Company interrupted by a old man who restlessly knotted a piece of string. The man talked about a mystery that was engaging the press and public. This is used as the framing device for all the stories involving the The Old Man in the Corner that Baroness Orczy wrote. The old man is not a detective, nor does he solve the mysteries. Instead, he provided an explanation which, implicitly, is the solution. Baroness Orczy has solved a difficult problem, how to use the formula of an eccentric private detective with ferocious reasoning powers and a companion who is given the explanation and not be obviously imitating Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. She succeeds wonderfully with her Teahouse Detective stories. They are superbly written, with a light touch. Nice dash of humour and superb plot mechanics. The public details of the mysteries are always given, frequently including the arrest of a suspect and a sensational trial. It is the story behind the details that the Old Man in the Corner is interested in, to see the hidden story that explains the mysterious outcomes. Baroness Orczy plays fair with the reader, the mysteries are very well set up, the events in the court cases are sharp and serve to deepen the mystery. What the Old Man in the Corner does is to provide an explanation that neatly ties all the events together into a very satisfactory explanation that does not require any supernatural or superhuman interventions. The explanations are rooted in people acting as people do which gives them power and pleasure for the reader. There is no physical action in any of the stories, the detective, never named, talks to Mary Burton, explaining his delight in his own cleverness and slighting the perceptions of the police. The static nature of the stories creates a huge problem which Baroness Orczy solves by the strength of her writing. The cast, in particular the detective must be a master storyteller to be able to engage and entertain the reader, the mysteries must be varied enough to make up for the static setting. The stories are a pleasure to read, Mary Burton is engaging, the detective is distinctive and cranky and above all the ingenuity of the stories is amazing. The reveals are cunningly set up, credible and very satisfactory. Baroness Orczy clearly aimed at finishing the stories at the conclusion of the volume and provide a nice and unexpected concluding event for the Old Man in the Corner. There are however further stories, published by Pushkin Press, Unraveled Knots and The Case of Miss Elliot. Baroness Orczy recycles some of her plots in later stories, they are reused in imaginative ways and are not simple retreads. Baroness Orczy makes a astounding difficult process, the short story mystery, appear light and effortless, engaging, setting up and satisfying the reader in a short space. Wonderful, a treat to read.