A review by lauraborkpower
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

3.0

I'd give this book an extra half star if I could. It's a long listen, but a classic for a reason. I'm still unsure what made me download this from Audible, but I'm glad I did. It's an epistolary novel (a term I learned after reading this book), which means that it's a series of letters written by the characters. In this novel, the characters writing the narratives are doing so to try to figure out the mysterious disappearance of the Moonstone, a gigantic Indian diamond stolen by a British military captain. The narrators are terrific; each takes on a distinctly different voice, and Collins does a brilliant job of writing each first-person account as not only an entry in the mystery, but also a detailed character exploration. The reader, Peter Jeffrey, is wonderful. He develops distinct, perfectly suited voices for each of the writers. And he does something I really appreciate: he doesn't do a "woman" voice for our only female writer, Clack (Drusilla Clack, a kooky religious spinster), he just gives a pompous and elitist voice, which is her to a "t".

I'd recommend this book, though not for listening on traffic-heavy, rainy afternoons. It's a 19th Century character mystery, so it's not terribly fast-paced. There were times I felt my eyelids drooping a little bit. That's not good when you're driving.