"The Moonstone"

There are books which may rightly be said to have defined an entire genre of literature. Surely one of those is "The Moonstone," by Wilkie Collins, the 1868 novel which is generally regarded as the first real detective novel (as opposed to detective story). The elements which defined the mystery novel were present in, and often introduced by, this book:

• The presence of a real detective, who gathers clues, interrogates witnesses, and ultimately solves the crime;
• The inclusion of a group of suspects, with the guilty party being one of the least likely choices (and the requirement that the guilty party be a significant, if not major, character);
• the English country-house setting;
• The fabulous jewel stolen from an idol and pursued by relentless foes determined to reclaim their treasure;
• the inclusion of false leads and red herrings to throw the reader off the trail.

These and so much more are all part of "The Moonstone." Most interesting, to me, is that after nearly a century and a half, it is still an excellent read, with plenty of unexpected twists. It's the subject of this week's podcast on our "Classic Mysteries" podcast, and you can listen to the full review here. It's available in a variety of editions and as an ebook as well for Kindle and other readers.

Comments

[melissa]

This book is really good as you can never figure out what happened to the diamond. You can see the influence of the period in the book as well as the famous authors of the time period.

[Les Blatt]

Well, Melissa, we do learn ultimately what happened to the diamond and where it winds up. But you're right - "The Moonstone" is written in the style of popular literature of the mid-nineteenth century, and it proved to have an enormous influence on the kind of fiction - mysteries and other crime stories - that came after it.