GajimaruClassics.
The MoonstoneOn the coverReflections on the Thames, Westminster, John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1880
The Moonstone
A cursed Indian diamond, looted and bequeathed to a young Englishwoman, vanishes from her room on the night of her birthday, and a chorus of narrators pieces together what happened. Widely called the first true detective novel.
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The blueprint for every detective story since, ingenious, witty, and told in a chorus of wonderful voices. T. S. Eliot called it the first and best of English detective novels.
SettingVictorian England, 1840s–60s
Country-house Victorian England, its comfort quietly built on empire, where a stolen jewel from India brings the guilt of conquest home to a respectable drawing room.