The Moonstone

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is a pioneering Victorian detective novel published in 1868, widely regarded as one of the first full-length mysteries in English literature. The story revolves around a massive yellow diamond, sacred to a Hindu temple and looted from India during the Siege of Seringapatam, which Colonel John Herncastle bequeaths to his niece Rachel Verinder on her 18th birthday. That night, the gem vanishes from her bedroom, sparking a complex investigation involving suspicious Indian jugglers, household servants like the troubled Rosanna Spearman, and Scotland Yard’s Sergeant Cuff, narrated through multiple perspectives that reveal secrets of opium-induced amnesia, hidden motives, and imperial guilt. Told with intricate plotting and social commentary, the novel explores themes of colonialism, fate, and deception, culminating in a surprising resolution that restores the stone to its origins.