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    The Moonstone
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    The Moonstone
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    The Moonstone
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    The Moonstone

    Written by Wilkie Collins

    Narrated by Terence Hard and Michael Pennington

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Penguin Classics presents Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone, adapted for audio and available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by Michael Pennington and Terence Hard.

    'Here was our quiet English house suddenly invaded by a devilish Indian Diamond - bringing after it a conspiracy of living rogues, set loose on us by the vengeance of a dead man'

    When Rachel Verinder's birthday present - the Moonstone, a large Indian diamond - is stolen at her party, suspicion and the diamond's mysterious curse seem set to ruin everyone and everything she loves. Only Sergeant Cuff's famous detective skills offer any hope of peace and a future for them all.

    The intricate plot and modern technique of multiple narrators made Wilkie Collins' 1868 work a huge success in the Victorian sensation genre. With a reconstruction of the crime, red herrings and a 'locked-room' puzzle, The Moonstone was also a major precursor of the modern mystery novel.


    Part of a series of vintage recordings taken from the Penguin Archives. Affordable, collectable, quality productions - perfect for on-the-go listening.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin UK Audio
    Release dateApr 26, 2012
    ISBN9780718198237
    Author

    Wilkie Collins

    William Wilkie Collins (1824–1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and more than 100 essays. His best-known works are The Woman in White and The Moonstone.

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    Reviews for The Moonstone

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      The one word which comes to mind when I think of this novel is mesmerising. Slow and steady in its pace, the suspense builds almost inperceptibly until it becomes a page turner. I love the technique of using different narrators and I love how my perception of characters underwent shifts as those characters in turn becamse narrators and got to tell their own part of the story. This is a novel of mystery, romance, comedy, drama and tragedy. It's not a novel for a reader who wants instant gratification. Still less is it a novel for a reader whose idea of a good novel is one involving non-stop action. But I found it truly one to savour.
    • 4/5
      Well after being a mystery aficionado for years it was about time I read the seminal piece. It was well worth it. It just flowed. It was not at all hard to read like much of the literature written at that time by Collins' contemporaries like Dickens.
    • 3/5
      The Moonstone is credited with being one of (if not the) first detective mystery novels, and I wanted to read it because another book I plan to read references it.

      I liked it. It is the proverbial English country house mystery. Nice little dead ends, twists and fun stuff. Unlikely (and likely) suspects, a little of the paranormal-ish... I think it was the first to really feature a twist at the end, but nowadays we're so used to twists, it wasn't one to me (seriously, it was easy to figure out, but fun).

      The story is a little long. It takes place through several narrators, from the house-manager to the aristocratic guest, the lady's religious niece, the opium addicted doctor, and the retired, rose-growing detective.

      There is not a lot of overlap in the narratives, and the narratives follow the story chronologically, making them a wee bit less tedious than if we had to read about the same event from 5 viewpoints. There's a lot of thought, introspection, distractions, and human frailties in the narratives that make them interesting.

      I also think it has held up well over time. Not bad. I'd recommend it to anyone that likes to read these kinds of novels or even watch these kinds of movies/shows.
    • 5/5
      I seem to be going through a phase of re-reading books, and this is certainly one of my favourites - indeed, probably my favourite "classic".First published in 1868, it is certainly notable for its innovative approach to story telling. Nowadays we are familiar with novels written from more than one character's perspective, but I imagine that such an approach was probably very daring back in the 1860s. Collins handles this device, which could so easily have backfired, with great deftness, and the reader gleans a deep insight into the various characters as the successive narratives unfold.The "Moonstone" of the title is a diamond stolen from the head of a revered statue in a Hindu temple by John Herncastle, a British Officer serving in India. Over the following years stories about the lost jewel abounded, along with a growing belief that the stone might be cursed. Having subsided into illness Herncastle bequeathed the jewel to his niece Rachel Verinder, to be given to her on her eighteenth birthday.The Moonstone is to be delivered to Rachel by her cousin Franklin Blake, formerly a great favourite of the Verinder family, who has been travelling the world for the last few years. He arranges to visit the Verinder household in Yorkshire, arriving a few days ahead of Rachel's birthday. On the day that he is expected three itinerant Indian "jugglers" turn up and perform some odd tricks in the neighbourhood, and seem to be "casing" the Verinder house. Franklin Blake arrives a little earlier and, after consulting with Betteredge (the butler and wryly sage narrator of the opening section of the story), departs to the nearby town in order to lodge the jewel in its strongroom. Before he goes he bumps in to Rosanna Spearman, one of the domestic servants in the Verinder household. We subsequently learn that she had previously been in prison after having turned to crime to escape a life of deep deprivation down in London. Mr Verinder, aware of this background but also swayed by good reports of Rosanna's reform, had employed her some months previously. In that chance encounter with Franklin Blake Rosanna immediately falls madly in love with him.The day of the birthday arrives, and various other friends and relatives attend a special dinner. Rachel, who had known nothing about the Moonstone, is delighted by her special birthday present, and cannot be dissuaded from wearing it at the dinner table. Almost inevitably, the jewel is stolen from Rachel's room that night. Rachel herself is clearly disturbed by its loss and starts to behave in an uncharacteristically aggressive and bad-tempered manner. It soon becomes evident that she is particularly angry towards Franklin Blake.The local Superintendent of police is called in but achieves little. Meanwhile, Franklin Blake has communicated by telegraph with his father, an MP in London, who commissions the lugubrious Sergeant Cuff to travel up to take over the investigation. Cuff is generally credited as the first great detective in English literature and he certainly comes across as an awesome character. Like so many of his modern day successors, he has his oddities and his querulous side. In Cuff's case it is gardening, and particularly the rearing of roses, that dominates his thoughts away from his job.Cuff becomes convinced that Rachel Verinder herself is involved in the loss of the diamond, and speculates that she might somehow have incurred extensive debts, and then recruited Rosanna to help conceal the diamond and then smuggle it out of the house and down to London where it could be pawned or otherwise converted into much needed cash.Various other misadventures befall the characters, and one year on the mystery has not yet been resolved. It is at this point that, in what was to became a tradition in whodunnit stories, the scene is recreated, and a startling yet also convincing denouement is achieved.Collins was a close friend of Charles Dickens, and they collaborated on various publications. In The Moonstone, however, Collins displayed a fluidity and clarity of prose that Dickens never achieves. His satirical touch is light but more telling because of that. Nearly one hundred and fifty years on this novel remains fresh, accessible and immensely enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      Firstly I find it truly amazing that I have never read this book before especially given that Collins's 'Woman in White' is one of my all time favourites and this book certainly does not let the side down. That said I found this one a bit of a slow burner because it was not an instant hit but once hooked it certainly reeled me in.This book is claimed by many to be the first feature length crime novel and you can certainly see echoes of those that were to follow within it. I spent most of the book willing Sergeant Cuff to say 'elementary' but of course he never did. Yet although the book revolves around the theft of a diamond it is more than just a crime novel. It is a love story, a story about moral standards and about Victorian society as a whole. It is also witty in places, I loved Druscilla Clack in particular, with her trying to convert everyone she meets to her way of thinking yet totally blind to her own flaws and I loved the image of the lawyer Bruff being described as being 'as imaginative as a cow.'The characters were so well fleshed out I felt that I was able to connect with them all in one way or another and really shows Collins was a master of his art. Personally I worked out who the real villain was fairly early (I won't give it away) even if not how but unlike most modern crime novels it just did not matter a jot. I loved this book and was almost sorry tofinish it. Almost
    • 4/5
      This is one of the first modern mystery stories, and it's fascinating. You absolutely cannot put it down. Plus, it has the soothing cadences that we all love in Victorian novels. Mystery readers will notice that, for a Victorian novel, the plot is not overly contrived. The story feels fairly authentic. Modern and Victorian all at once--the best of both worlds.
    • 5/5
      What can i say that hasnt already been said at some point regarding this book? Pleasantly surprised that it has survived the test of time so well and found it to be an excellent read .
    • 5/5
      I think this is generally recognized as English literature's first detective story. It certainly provides some useful patterns for others to follow, and like all great detective stories keeps the reader gripped and guessing from first till last. Wilkie Collins was a contemporary and friend of Dickens, and there are similarities of style, though in general Collins is less given to authorial moralising or the use of the extended metaphor. Both employ the mini-climax technique to keep us turning the pages. Collins has other clever tricks up his sleeve. I particularly enjoy his multi-narrative structure, where the responsibility for telling different parts of the story is passed on from one character to another. Collins does a superb job with voice and characterisation of both male and female narrators - my favourites were the loyal servant Gabriel Betteredge with his passion for his pipe and 'Robinson Crusoe' (preferably together), and the prudish Miss Clack, a wonderful comic study in sanctimonious egotism. It is interesting also, for the modern reader who may have read Kate Summerscale's 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher' to see the famous real-life Victorian detective portrayed in fictional form here as Sergeant Cuff. Like most 19th Century novels 'The Moonstone' is quite long, but there is always something interesting going on and the denouement is more than satisfactory.
    • 4/5
      First line:~ Extracted from a Family Paper - I address these lines—written in India—to my relatives in England ~I started reading this book in May for the RTT Theme Read - Historical Crime; carried on into June 2012 for the TIOLI Challenge #5 - Read a book with a title which contains a brand of automobile (make or model) (Moon); finished in July for the TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book of *more than 300 pages* with *a multiple word title*This crime novel was written in 1868 so the language and style took a little getting used to but I really enjoyed this book, even though it took me 3 months to complete it. It was not because I did not like it but rather it required a lot of focus and that is often a problem for me. This novel was written in an epistolary style which I found enjoyable. Getting details of the story from several different narrators brought different perspectives and sustained my interest. This book is considered to be the first detective novel, one of my favourite genres. I loved the way that the solution to the mystery evolved slowly and was not aware of the identity of the perpetrator of the crime until Collins revealed it. Collins incorporated a lot of humor into this work and I like that also.
    • 5/5
      I tend to be slightly sceptical toward books that are considered classics, especially the ones written ages ago. I was therefore somewhat sceptical toward The Moonstone, a classic which is almost 150 years old. My scepticism was put well and truly to shame. The Moonstone is an original mystery, in every sense of the word, which is centred around a valuable diamond said to be cursed. The story is told in the form of statements written after the fact by some of the people involved in the story, recounting events as they observed them. This works extremely well. The differences in perspective adds an additional level to a story which is already great. The personality of the writers shines through in the narratives written by them, and some of the more personal observations and musings of the characters made me laugh out loud to the extent at which I got looks, on both an airplane and a train. I could go on about how great this book is, and how much I enjoyed it, but I won't. I'd just encourage you to read it. Unless you really don't like the mystery-genre, I think you'll enjoy this book. If you're lucky, you'll enjoy it as much as I did.
    • 4/5
      Published in serial form in 1868 and now considered the first English language detective novel, the Moonstone sets up a closed room crime: the theft of the moonstone, a precious jewel stolen decades earlier from a Hindoo (sic) statue. Although all the clues were there for the reader to use, the solution seemed to me to be a little far-fetched.Nonetheless, I found The Moonstone to be a witty and entertaining book. If you’re a dedicated mystery fan, you owe it to yourself to read this and appreciate the origins of the genre. 4 stars
    • 4/5
      At the first glance this novel looks bland but the pace seems to catch up rapidly a few chapters onward. I loved the way the author fitted himself in various characters starting from the humble servant Gabriel Betteredge to the detective Sergeant Cuff and giving us different perspectives of the mystery that surrounds the moonstone. I do admit though that it is a tad bit different from the other detective novels I have read so far but it did quite make my day.
    • 3/5
      I try to convince myself that reading classics is good for me, just as eating spinach is supposed to be healthy. I would rather not eat spinach, unless it's completely hidden in a burrito and adds color. Unfortunately I can't do that with a book. The burritos generally have enough fiber without added pages. I muddled through this, enjoyed about 1/20th of it, and overall I could have saved myself the slogging boredom by having read a good synopsis. Maybe it's self-inflicted punishment for not having sat through many literature classes and thinking I have missed something. Not. Only the time I spent reading this.
    • 4/5
      I'm not much of a one for mysteries, generally, but everything about this book is so irrepressibly charming and smart that I never wanted to put it down. Collins masterfully disrupts our expectations of what a Victorian novel should be and do.
    • 4/5
      Wilkie Collins is great fun to read. His philosophies are somewhat liberal for his time, particularly those in regard to servants, foreigners and women. His stories are sprinkled with just a dash of wit and satire, yet his characters and their motives are crystal clear and believable. In this, arguably one of the first mystery novels, (Poe began it all, after all, did he not?) the plot revolves around a stone, a great gem that has been stolen from an Indian idol. A birthday present to our heroine, it is stolen the same night it is given, and through a series of changing narratives the mystery is uncovered. It's a clever twist of plotting to make the hero the villain and then the hero again, but how it comes about I will not say. No one likes to have a mystery spoiled. The Moonstone is a thoroughly enjoyable read. I highly recommend it.
    • 5/5
      I recently decided to reread The Moonstone, a classic of Victorian fiction by Wilkie Collins. One of my online reading groups chose to read it because it is available free as an ebook these days, so it seemed to them like a good “recession buster.” That got me to thinking maybe I’d join them with this particular book (though, much as I love my Kindle, I read my aged, yellowed paperback priced originally $1.45). I could only dimly remember the plot since I last read it as a teenager. T.S. Eliot called it “the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels.” That seemed like a good recommendation, and I am in the midst of laying out the plot to my own mystery, so studying a master would be good inspiration, and he certainly was.What fun to reread this book! I’m afraid I neglected my own writing for a day or two. I certainly learned some good tricks. For example, Collins invents multiple ways for critical information to be kept from the necessary characters for unconscionably long tracks of time. No quick resolutions here. Sometimes you need to hold off letting the cat out of the bag, and I got plenty of ideas in that regard. He plants clues masterfully, sometimes letting them hide in plain sight, sometimes carefully drawing attention to them but cloaking their true significance behind layers of false assumptions. But the greatest enjoyment for me about this venerable book lay in the personality of the narrators. Collins uses the conceit that one of the main characters has requested reports from each of the key witnesses to the various stages of the remarkable episode of the Moonstone, an exotic diamond originally stolen from India. In this way, Collins creates interest in his long book by changing who tells us the action, but it’s more than variety that intrigues. Each narrator is built into a richly developed character. Their ways of understanding the people and events contribute to the engaging quality of the novel. After a brief Prologue “extracted from a family paper” that gives the Indian background, we hear from Gabriel Betteredge, the aged and delightful house-steward of the grand country home where the main strand of the mystery begins. He’s impossible not to like, even while we chuckle at his set notions. Did you know Robinson Crusoe is an eternal fount of wisdom for all of life’s difficulties, a true prophetic document? We’ll hear from the spinster aunt Miss Clack, Mr. Bruff, a clever and worldly solicitor, Franklin Blake, the romantic hero of the book, Ezra Jennings, an outcast physician with Gypsy bloodlines, and Sergeant Cuff, an early example of the brilliant and eccentric detective (but there’s a twist with his brilliant conclusions). Collins has fun with his story-tellers. Their blindnesses, prejudices, and humanity are all on display. We are invited to assume a superior stance to their limitations, but that, of course, is only part of the ploy. Dear reader, you will discover your own limitations as you read! But you’ll also laugh at the foibles and idiosyncrasies of each narrator in turn. This is a winding, complex tale with a heart and a conscious. Collins is remarkably forward thinking for a Victorian. The do-gooder Miss Clack, who is always out to save another Christian soul, is portrayed as remarkably small-minded. Her version of religion, a parody of what we sometimes imagine of the Victorian era, does not shine as a beacon of love and charity. Nor do those characters who immediately suspect evil of all dark skinned “Orientals.” Nonetheless, Collins’s portrayal of India is decidedly un-PC, as much as his view is enlightened for his day. You’ll have to accept the historical moment from which he wrote. I found it interesting in light of our current East-West dichotomy that so often underlies the way we approach issues without our being fully conscious of it. The Victorians were, after all, only carrying on a tradition of bigotry against the East started by the Athenians in the 5th Century B.C.E. History has its uses on the road to enlightenment.And, it turns out, Victorian mysteries have their pleasures. Sometimes the best things in life are indeed free. (That is if you have an e-reader or you kept your high school paperbacks.)
    • 5/5
      A terrific read, not just for the mystery but for its deft treatment of class in Victorian England. Characters remark on the primitive caste system in India while seemingly oblivous to their own rigid social order. The character of the pious Druscilla Clack is as entertaining as anything Dickens ever dreamed up. The names of her beloved religious tracts made me laugh out loud, especially "A Word With You on Your Cap Ribbons."
    • 5/5
      I was prepared for how funny this book is! Miss Clack is a hoot!
    • 4/5
      This Victorian bestseller is a joy on many counts. The challenges of gripping the mystery and enjoying the twists and turns of the plot are highly complemented by the lush English facilitating them.
    • 4/5
      Wilkie Collins uses a variety of narrators to tell the mystery of a beautiful diamond called "The Moonstone." Collins does a good job of relating the appropriate details at the appropriate times, and while the ultimate solution wasn't a complete surprise, it was still enjoyable to witness the unfolding of the tale. Collins' characters are nearly as full as his friend, Charles Dickens, was able to create. He is particularly hard on the religious characters in this book, but the hardness makes the characters more flat rather than interesting objects of satire. Overall, though, it's still an enjoyable read.
    • 5/5
      The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins was quite possibly one of my first exposures to the world of mystery novels. I can't remember if I read Sherlock Holmes series first of this, but, I distinctly remember being absolutely blown away by The Moonstone upon my first read. And let me tell you - I've read it several times since, and it never fails to amaze me, still! The beauty of the Moonstone lies not only in its ingenious plot, but in its characterization. The author has mapped out the characters so well in this book that you feel akin to them, you feel as if you've known them all your life. Their temperaments, their actions make sense and they are not just used simply to move the plot forward, but to create the illusion that the reader is literally part of the character's world. There are a lot of characters, and it may seem that some characters are in the novel merely to add to its shroud of mystery, however, as the story unfolds you will see that every character in this novel was warranted and needed for the plot to be as interesting as it is. You, as the reader, will make various guesses as to who you think is the "culprit", however, do not be surprised if you find yourself guessing wrong, only to guess again and be proved wrong yet again. The Moonstone is a novel that keeps you guessing till the very end - but leads to an extremely satisfying and sublime ending, tying romance, mystery and drama all together in a nice, neat and pleasant package.
    • 4/5
      Interesting for being the first modern detective story and also for its unique form (epistolary), this story throws out all kinds of plot threads as Mr. Collins leads his reader through the mystery. There are suggestions of curses and supernatural doings mixed in with unrequited love. An enjoyable read.
    • 3/5
      An enjoyable read, although the solution to the mystery is only barely believable. The ending is strangely satisfying if a bit unexpected in that it seems anti-imperialistic in the time of the British empire.
    • 5/5
      Very fun! And Rachel is pretty gutsy for her time. She is an admirable heroine. The doctor's theory that explains the mystery is wacky. I had to suspend my disbelief to read the last part, but that's my only complaint.
    • 3/5
      An entertaining story by one of the earliest mystery writers.
    • 4/5
      Mr. Franklin Blake brings the moonstone - a gem of Indian origin, seeped in history, supposedly cursed – to the home of Lady Verinder, and her daughter, Rachel with whom he is in love, and to whom the gemstone has been bequeathed. The next morning, the moonstone is missing, and suspicion points in a satisfying array of directions, setting the bar for every mystery novel to follow.I was delighted by the resolution of the puzzle, never having even begun to guess the circumstances, yet it followed the rules (or set the precedent for) the crime genre in being plausible within the book’s events; there was no cheating on the author’s part, and while the revelation was too out of left field for this reader to guess, it was satisfyingly set up and then engulfed in a sea of classic misdirection.I found this not quite as enjoyable as The Woman in White (which was rather more sensational and fun), but still a perfectly intriguing mystery with marvellous characters and a dash of that romance that Collins handles so well. It did take me an unusually long time to read, but that’s more a slump in my reading habits than anything to do with Collins’ book, which has great pace for one of the first mystery stories ever written.
    • 5/5
      On her eighteenth birthday, Miss Rachel Verinder is surprised by a gift left to her by her late uncle Herncastle, a man mostly cut off from his relatives. The gift is an unusually large yellow diamond known as the Moonstone which she wears pinned to her dress throughout her birthday party. By the next morning, the Moonstone is gone. In a series of accounts written from different perspectives, those who were present on the night in question or those who had dealings with certain individuals of interest in the months after the theft, both the reader and all those involved are able to unravel the mystery.I loved this book. LOVED IT! Set in Victorian England and hailed as the first English language detective novel, there is a lot of good stuff here: tension between the servants and those they serve, major red herrings in the mystery, the exotic excitement of Indian curses, sanctimonious religious zealots, and a lot of humor. I'm becoming a big fan of Wilkie Collins.Because the novel is written in this specific epistolary style, each narrator has a very distinct voice and take on events and other characters. I found it really enjoyable to see how certain narrators portrayed themselves versus how other narrators saw them. For example, when Betteredge narrated he seemed so composed and respectable as the head steward of the Verinder servants, but when Mr. Blake or Mr. Jennings narrated, he was a little more quirky. The reader got to see Betteredge's feelings about the power of Robinson Crusoe, and then also see Mr. Blake and Mr. Jennings humoring this obsession. And by obsession, I mean he would read it the way some people read the bible. He would open it randomly and use the passage he first came to as advice or an omen.Another character who I found greatly changed between narrators was Mr. Bruff, the lawyer. Seen as so stuffy and judgmental as Miss Clack was writing her account, I was surprised to then find him so intelligent and thoughtful and kind throughout his narration and Mr. Blake's subsequent narration. Of course, by the end of her narration I was ready to take everything Miss Clack said with a grain of salt. She was just so ridiculously sanctimonious! I wanted to scream every time she tried to give someone else a religious tract (with titles such as Satan Under the Tea Table). I think she was the only character I couldn't wait to get rid of. Maybe Godfrey, too, but at least he was never a narrator.I like a mystery where things get a bit convoluted before the big reveal. There's a big drug experiment close to the end of the novel where they tried to reenact the birthday party, and I kept having to refer to the first half of the novel to remember the little details that tuned out to be major clues. I like when every detail turns out to be important.Unfortunately, there is one problem with this novel. Much like The Woman in White, another of Collins' most famous works, The Moonstone hasn't quite aged well. In the 142 years since its publication, we've come understand a little more about drugs and their effects. And while I have no personal knowledge of opium, having never chased the dragon myself, I'm pretty sure you can't manipulate circumstances into giving a person the exact same trip twice. So if you're not someone willing or able to suspend some disbelief, you might have a problem towards the end of the novel. It didn't bother me too much, but it could totally ruin the whole book for other readers.Other than that one issue, I was enthralled the whole way through. It wasn't creepy or suspenseful the same way The Woman in White was, but it kept me thinking and guessing the whole way through.
    • 5/5
      Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone," an epistolary mystery story published in 1868, often is cited as one of the first, if not the first, detective novels ever written. No less a literary luminary than T.S. Eliot attributed to Collins the "invention" of the detective novel genre. "The Moonstone" is certainly an excellent mystery story, featuring what would become staples of classic Western detective fiction -- an amateur detective, a renown professional investigator, incompetent policemen, multiple false leads and red herrings, and an "inside job." It's also subtly laced with social commentary about class, race, sexuality, religious evangelism and substance abuse in Victorian England during a period when the British Empire ruled about a quarter of the world's population. For anyone interested in the genesis and evolution of the modern socially conscious detective novel, "The Moonstone" is impossible to ignore.
    • 5/5
      The Moonstone has it all.....memorable characters, a completely engaging plot, and wonderful use of language. Wilkie "Collins wove a mysterious tale complete with thwarted love, dashing heroes and not so dashing heroes, a loyal, lovely maiden, and of course......thievery, trickery, and subterfuge......And remember, this was one of the first suspense novels ever written.
    • 4/5
      Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but don't ask Rachel Verinder to agree with that maxim. She only had twelve hours to bask in the glow of the rare yellow diamond that was given to her on her 18th birthday. This stolen diamond came complete with an Indian curse and three Indians in hot pursuit of it as it once again disappears and becomes the focal point of this Victorian detective novel.Collins uses multiple narratives to ascertain the events of that fateful night and the year following it. These eye-witness accounts from some colorful characters help move the story along, although having been originally written in serial form, the book tends to be wordy with many needless cliffhangers. My limits of credulity were stretched by the reenactment of the night of the crime, and I became impatient with too many sealed letters that mostly revealed "secrets" that weren't relevant to the main story. Overall, I enjoyed the characters and dry humor more than I liked the story. If you like Victorian melodrama, you will most certainly like this book.