The Moonstone
The Moonstone, one of the first English detective novels, written by Wilkie Collins and published in 1868.
A debased Englishman steals the moonstone, a sacred gem, from India. It brings bad luck to each of its English possessors. When the gem disappears from a young Englishwoman’s room and three sinister Hindus menace her family, the careful, methodical Sergeant Cuff is assigned to the case.
Several features of The Moonstone were to become conventions of the detective story. The reader has all the clues before the crime is solved, yet the solution comes as a complete surprise. Several different persons are plausibly suspected of theft. The plot is complicated and features red herrings, false alibis, suspicious behaviour, and thrilling scenes. Collins increased the novel’s complexity by using multiple narrators.
