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A review by dyno8426
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
4.0
The origins of detective mystery have been traced back to this book. Reading this, one can see how this ageless and beloved literary genre evolved from this budding work. This branching out would eventually result in the creation of iconic characters (the likes of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot) in the times to come. In the process of learning more about it, I came across its Wiki page which very nicely enlisted the essential elements of a good mystery that the story in this book offered and rendered a template for good detective fiction in the process. Referring to that list of tropes verbatim, you'll find all of them checked off in this book:
1. an English country house robbery
2. an "inside job"
3. red herrings
4. a celebrated, skilled, professional investigator
5. a bungling local constabulary
6. detective enquiries
7. a large number of false suspects
8. the "least likely suspect"
9. a reconstruction of the crime
10. a final twist in the plot
While it's not a perfect mystery by any means, it does engage the mind and reveals unexpected disclosures. The enriching aspect is Collins' writing here and his witty humour through interesting characters (who take turns to give their narrative in their typically eccentric manner). There are Gothic flavours in the narrative as well, with psychological extremes of love, hatred, fear and thrill. Thus, this work is interesting because of its history, while being enjoyable due to its multi-dimensionality.
1. an English country house robbery
2. an "inside job"
3. red herrings
4. a celebrated, skilled, professional investigator
5. a bungling local constabulary
6. detective enquiries
7. a large number of false suspects
8. the "least likely suspect"
9. a reconstruction of the crime
10. a final twist in the plot
While it's not a perfect mystery by any means, it does engage the mind and reveals unexpected disclosures. The enriching aspect is Collins' writing here and his witty humour through interesting characters (who take turns to give their narrative in their typically eccentric manner). There are Gothic flavours in the narrative as well, with psychological extremes of love, hatred, fear and thrill. Thus, this work is interesting because of its history, while being enjoyable due to its multi-dimensionality.