The Moonstone is often considered to be the first detective novel, in which Wilkie Collins established the groundwork for the genre itself. It introduced tropes such as the gentleman detective, the manor house mystery, red herrings and a reconstruction the crime scene.
The Moonstone, a priceless yellow diamond, is looted from an Indian temple and maliciously bequeathed to Rachel Verinder. On her eighteenth birthday, her friend and suitor Franklin Blake brings the gift to her. That very night, it is stolen again. No one is above suspicion, as Sergeant Cuff and Franklin, the original ‘gentleman detective’, piece together a puzzling series of events as mystifying as an opium dream and as deceptive as the nearby Shivering Sand…
