The well-versed modern reader of crime will know that each detail could be important and there is plenty of foreshadowing of that. However, red herrings are also liberally sprinkled throughout the story, and Collins keeps you on your toes. It is still a page-turner today, even though our attention spans have shortened and the crime committed is merely theft, rather than murder. It’s a book which demands to be read quite quickly, especially since there are so many small details to remember. And so the Victorian genre of the ‘sensation novel’ was born.Īn 1882 American serialisation of the book. He combines all of these elements with a love for theatrical surprises, melodrama, gothic descriptions and plenty of plot twists. They include the country house setting, the locked-room mystery, a large cast of potential suspects, a famous and eccentric detective sent to compensate for the bungling local cop, numerous red herrings, a seemingly impossible situation, and a reconstruction of the crime. Wilkie Collins was the first author to use many story devices which have since become standard in detective stories.

However, it will take more than a year and several narrators to discover the truth. The famed and authoritative Sergeant Cuff is brought in to find the thief and the precious stone.

However, many believe that the gemstone is cursed and their fears seem justified when the diamond disappears from a locked cupboard in Rachel’s bedroom.

Rachel Verinder inherits this diamond from her uncle on her 18th birthday. It has been acquired in rather brutal circumstances by British Army officer John Herncastle. The Moonstone of the title is a large yellow diamond sacred to Hindus living under the British Raj. It’s a true classic – but is this 1868 book more talked about than read in the present day? Does it still bear reading in a world which has so many more accomplished modern tales of detection? Although its claim to be as the first detective story in the English language is often disputed by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue (published more than 25 years earlier), The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is certainly the first full-length novel where a detective systematically examines clues and follows leads. It has been praised by TS Eliot, admired by Dorothy Sayers and it has certainly influenced Arthur Conan Doyle, PD James, Ruth Rendell and others.

The moonstone by wilkie collins