So, being a fan of vintage / golden age mysteries, I was really looking forward to The Teahouse Detective: Unravelled Knots by Baroness Orczy. Having enjoyed many of the British Crime Classic short stories that have been released recently, I thought that this would be right in line with those fine examples. I was wrong.

There was something missing in all of these short stories – a sense of excitement, tension, the moving forward of the plot. Polly Burton as a narrator leaves something to be desired – she just asks the appropriate question and sits back to listen to the Teahouse Detective lecture her while he plays with his string. His arrogance and her indifference make this an uncomfortable relationship to witness – she’s just there to get a story, he complains about the lack of intelligence of her, the police, and pretty much everyone else in the world.

All of that could be forgiven if the 13 mysteries were challenging, or even interesting. But reading them one after the other makes one realize how alike they all were. The Teahouse Detective mentions some crime that captivated the city, he recounts all of the details with little or no emotion, then he names the guilty party (who is always the exact opposite of who was accused) with the one puzzle answer / clue that makes it all make sense. And on to the next one.

It took me a long while to get through this book because I found the reading tedious – these are a bit too long to consider them short stories, and the narration was enough to help me doze off a couple of times.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Pushkin Press/Pushkin Vertigo via NetGalley. Thank you!

When the young woman journalist sees her old friend, the teahouse detective, in the cafe, she wants to avoid him. However, this strange creature with baggy trousers, horn-rimmed glasses and claw-like hands exerts a strange fascination with his mystery tales, and she can't help listening again...



Although, Baroness Orczy was one of the pioneers of women's detective stories, and these are well-written and meticulous, her Scarlet Pimpernel books are really the ones to read. These became rather dry, repetitive and detailed. I liked some of them, but I am not sure whether I will read any more of these books.



I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Only mildly enjoyable for me because these short stories appear to be featuring two people who don't really like each other very much and the telling of the details of each crime was without tension or excitement. This is my first reading of Baroness Orczy and I thought a series of short stories would show me if I wanted to read more of her work. Surprisingly the result is that I'm not interested in reading anything more. I should point out that this is the third book in the series of short stories and the final one; I had to dig out all the background information for myself. This collection was originally published in 1926 with most of the stories seeming to take place between 1919 and 1922. There is a disclosure in the last story that came as a complete surprise to me; never would I have supposed anything like that.

Not only are The Teahouse Detective and the listener not friends, they also aren't even very friendly toward each other. It took me a long time to understand that the listener is female and that she is a journalist who gets copy to write her articles from the old man in the corner. Evidently this information was contained in the first or second book of stories. I found the stories to be rather flat, lacking in feeling, because there is little dialogue and almost no description; just relating the facts of an unresolved crime with the old man stating his eventual solution which had been missed by everyone else. The cases all feel very similar.

Maybe I would have enjoyed these stories more if I had not read them all straight through, but I don't really think so. I am also in the process of reading each Agatha Christie short story that features Hercule Poirot and reading straight through that volume of work is not causing any problems whatsoever. I thank NetGalley and Pushkin Press/Pushkin Vertigo for an e-galley of this collection.

The old man in the corner sits in a teahouse knotting a piece of string while simultaneously unraveling mysteries brought two him by his journalist friend Polly Burton. He’s a classic armchair detective of the old school. The delightfully old-fashioned ambience combined with the can-you-solve-it puzzle aspect makes these stories read like a golden age Encyclopedia Brown for grownups. This sounds like great fun until you realize that these stories lack a key appeal of the Encyclopedia Brown stories: brevity. True, they are technically short stories, but they feel so very—long. The setup for each puzzle was so longwinded and boring that I found myself not caring how the perpetrator committed the crime as long as he or she would get on with it. This was especially true when the solution was obvious, meaning that I cared about neither the puzzle itself nor the old man's unsurprising explanation. I didn’t expect these to be "minute mysteries," but despite their short length they just were too slow-moving to hold my interest; the central puzzle of each could have been expressed in half the length and would have been twice as appealing.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a digital advance review copy.

Unravelled Knots is the third (and final) collection of Teahouse Detective short stories by Baroness Orczy. Originally published in 1926, this edition is due out 2nd June 2020 from Steerforth on their Pushkin Press imprint. It's 320 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats (other editions available in other formats).

The format is much the same as the other collections. They're presented as intellectual exercises, pas de deux between an eccentric old man and reporter Polly Burton, set as conversations in the ABC Teashop, where the old man in the corner sits for the most part alone. His engagement with the crimes is strictly intellectual, he's not out to hand the criminals over to justice. He reminds me a bit of Poirot, with a touch of Mycroft Holmes and a healthy foreshadowing of Nero Wolfe.

These are cleverly constructed mysteries. Some of them are somewhat transparent by modern tastes, but I really think that's because so many of the literary devices she employed have been copied and reused since then that modern readers are familiar with the twists and turns.

This would make a superlative commute read. The 13 stories are short and could be read during free moments here and there. They're all well written and a lot of fun to read.

Four stars. I'm very happy that Pushkin is preserving and presenting these gems to new generations of readers.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

A set of short stories where "The man in the corner", amidst his intricate string knotting, solves mysteries that defeated the police to, mostly, the frustration of his attentive young journalist listener. Well argued cases, well written and a definite feel of late Edwardian England make these enjoyable reads. Can the reader get there before the rather arrogant yet brilliant old man. Grey cells to the fore. I did like the twist at the end. Thanks to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

A nice collection of old fashion mysteries. Pretty good quality overall, but not great. This is my first book by this author (although I know her PIMPERNEL story), and like the rather unique approach of the detective being based in a teahouse. These are not terribly sophisticated stories or crimes, but their still pretty interesting most of the time, and the author's talent is pretty obvious.

I really appreciate the review copy!!

While I appreciated reading a book of such historical important, I don't think I'd be likely to head back to the Teahouse Detective well anytime soon. I see the connections to Sherlock Holmes, but it's a sort of grotesque homage that I found more unsettling than anything else

Unravelled Knots: The Teahouse Detective is a delightful collection of short mysteries told by a rather inquisitive and eccentric man in a teahouse. In the same vein as Agatha Christie, this book gives you short mysteries that you can plow through in a sitting and then come back to. The perfect accompaniment for a day spent cozied up reading inside.

Fun old-fashioned mysteries- To put it simply, Unravelled Knots is a nice addition to the three-book series.

A collection of short stories The Teahouse Detective gives us mysteries told to a lady journalist by the old man sitting in the corner of the tea shop while he ties intricate knots in string.

The Teahouse Detective stories were published in the early 1900s. This means that the stories are slower paced and not as graphic as books published today. There are a few slurs in the book about race and class that could be seen as problematic today but not so offensive that it makes the book unreadable.

The lady journalist while wanting to know the Old Man's opinions on the mysteries that have taken place does at times come across as condescending. She isn't very likable when you can tell she thinks she is better than he is. The old man is obviously quick witted and smart. Solving the mysteries by just attending the inquests and from information he picks up here and there. He never takes his knowledge to the police however as he does not care if justice is served or not.

Overall the book was a nice change of pace in my reading. I think that if I would have used a story or two in between books as a break instead of reading them all at once I may have enjoyed it even more. If I happen to come across other titles by Baroness Orczy I will pick them up.

I received this book free on NetGalley for my honest review.

More Classic Mysteries.....
More classic mysteries with The Teahouse Detective. The old gentleman in the corner of the ABC Teahouse solves more mysteries with uncanny capability. Atmospheric and enjoyable. Enchanting reading.

For my tastes in detective stories, this collection of The Old Man in the Corner stories was rather boring. My expectations were probably high after enjoying The Scarlet Pimpernel. The action is quite passive in this series of short stories. The narrative is reiterated, often in a first person format with 'Polly', and an old fellow in a teahouse who takes up a discourse on the mystery.

There was very little mystery, in fact. The chapters are presented as more of a puzzle, with pieces being dropped in the telling. Suspense and heightened engagement are absent. This approach may be more reflective of a dated style of murder mystery rather than poor writing. For readers who enjoy solving literary puzzles, the collection may be very appealing.

This is the third and last collection of Baroness Orczy’s stories featuring the Old Man in the Corner, the classic epitome of the armchair detective, who but rarely stirs from his seat in an ABC Teashop.

The thirteen stories here appeared twenty years after the first two sets, and, despite the intervention of World War One, little has changed in this Edwardian-flavoured world.

Orczy’s detective may have his origin in Mycroft Holmes, but the way he solves the puzzles and problems he encounters foreshadows the reliance on the ”little grey cells" of Poirot, and others of the Golden Age.

The mysteries encompass murder, theft, deception, and disappearance with the detective reading about cases in the newspapers which either baffle the police or are leading to a miscarriage of justice. They are solved by the application of logic and attention to details which others consider of no significance.

I am a great fan of these underrated stories which are eminently readable and highly recommendable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the digital review copy.

Some time back I read the "Old Man in the Corner" by the Baroness, and have been a fan ever since. This book is a follow up on the first and it is just as good and just as clever. Her other books include Lady Molly at the Yard (which I still haven"t got my hand on) and the "Scarlet Pimpernel" which I consider a classic.
This books finds our Old Man, again solving impossible crimes whilst making fancy knots in a cafe and talking to a reporter.
Really clever plots.

This book is a collection of short story mysteries that was originally published in the early 1900s. 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. Occasionally, one of the short stories is told primarily by her and gives the details that she picked up in reporting about the case.

These were clue-based puzzle mysteries. There were enough clues that the reader can guess his solution, especially since the clues were obvious due to the shorter format. I didn't find the solutions very difficult to guess. They were interesting scenarios, though. There was no sex or bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this collection to fans of puzzle mysteries.