Red Money

I am a big fan of Hume. I have read many of his breath taking mysteries. So, when I began to read this mystery, I had expected a lot of "Humeish myterious aura" right from the beginning in the sttory. Unfortunately I didn't find it. The starting of the story was very slow, filled up with trivial boring dialogues and scenes. As the story moves on, it becomes a little bit interesting. The plot and the characters were poor, specially there were some gaps in character development of Mr Silver, Miss Greeby...
Hume has written much much much better mysteries than this. Please do not read this one -- this is the urge to the 1st time Hume readers from me.. Instead, read Hume's 'The opal serpent' 'The green mummy' ' the secret passage' ' The crowned skull'.. Hume is a great mystery writer, I don't want any 1st time Hume reader get a bad impression with him just by reading this one..He is above the standard of this mystery

Murder occurs at an English country estate following the arrival of a caravan of Gypsies temporarily camping on the grounds.

This is the best mystery I have read for a while - a complex and interesting plot and strong characters. Highly recommended.

Red money starts promisingly if for no other reason than the excessively fine manners found in most novels of a century ago are varied with sly insults and snarkiness. Before long the realism falters, however, and we find ourselves in the middle of a preposterous murder mystery.

The characters are distinctive, certainly, but as the tale progresses they act less and less like genuine humans, and more like cutouts, with highly unlikely motives for such acts as murder, extortion and the naming of heirs.

Fergus Hume is superior to Romer and inferior to Doyle as a storyteller however his characters are interesting. The women are multi dimensional and actually appear to be integral to the human race. Something not always found in mystery stories of this era. This story includes an English manor house and a somewhat dysfunctional family, a pack of gipsy transients and a reasonably good mystery. There are numerous potential suspects and more than a few flawed and damaged players. Some quasi-racialist comments not intended to offend which no doubt accurately reflect the early 1900\'s era. Not a great mystery but a decent read.