The Moonstone

A great yellow diamond, looted from an Indian shrine during the fall of Seringapatam, comes to Rachel Verinder as a birthday gift with a curse attached. By morning the stone has vanished from her room, and suspicion spreads through the household like a stain. Wilkie Collins tells the story through a chain of narrators, from the loyal old steward Betteredge to the sharp-eyed Sergeant Cuff, each adding a piece to a puzzle no one can quite see whole. Often called the first great English detective novel, it laid down conventions later writers leaned on for a century: the country-house crime, the flawed investigator, the trail of red herrings. Suspenseful and slyly funny, it rewards patient reading. This free PDF and EPUB edition brings the full mystery to you.