Considered by many to be the first detective novel in English, Wilkie Collins’s masterpiece still has the power to grip and surprise more than a century on. Heiress Rachel Verinder is given The Moonstone, a priceless Indian diamond, for her eighteenth birthday. That night it is stolen from her bedroom, and the race is on to find the thief. The book is divided up between different narrators, each with their own perspectives on what happened. It’s got the lot – red herrings, twists and turns, sinister uncles, locked rooms, country houses, and a dastardly villain.
You should read it because: it works not only as a gripping and entertaining mystery (and without any gruesome serial killers) but also for its subtle manipulations of the reader, forcing us to examine our own prejudices and judgements.
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