Author:Wilkie Collins,Sandra Kemp
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 the idiosyncratic Sergeant Cuff and the Franklin piece together a puzzling series of events as mystifying as an opium dream and as deceptive as the nearby Shivering Sand. T. S. Eliot famously described THE MOONSTONE as 'the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels', but, as Sandra Kemp discusses in her introduction, it offers many other facets, which reveal Collins's sensibilities as untypical of his era.
A regular winner . . . as smooth, swift and lean as ever
—— Sunday ExpressAs a jockey, Dick Francis was unbeatable when he got into his stride. The same is true of his crime writing
—— Daily MirrorWith immaculate control, Ruth Rendell builds a menacing crescendo of tension and horror that keeps you guessing right up to the brilliantly paced finale
—— Good HousekeepingWithout doubt the most distinguished living writer of crime stories... Ruth Rendell really makes the most of this beautifully-imagined plot
—— Birmingham PostThere are quite a few Ruth Rendells: the doyenne of the traditional English detective novel; the queen of the psychological thriller; the celebrated author of the literary thriller
—— Mail on SundayBrilliant and compulsive
—— Evening StandardA haunting, compelling, and brilliant piece of fiction ... Packed with literary allusion and told with a sophistication and texture that owes much more to the nineteenth century than to the twentieth
—— The Times