The Moonstone by John Sutherland, Wilkie Collins (2000, Paperback)

Introduction I've been meaning to read this book for ages, but kept putting it off - I do most of my reading on public transport and so tend to prefer something reasonably light - and a book written in 1868 isn't really my idea of light reading. But as a fan of crime fiction, I felt that I had to read the book that has been classed by many as the first of modern English detective novels and so just finished reading it. It was definitely one of the best books I've read for a long time; not particularly for its crime fiction value, but more for the fabulous writing style and some of the most...