Cultural Dessert

Having been enthralled by Kate Summerscale's 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House' (reviewed here in April 2009) I turned to one of the fictional works the case inspired. 'The Moonstone' by Wilkie Collins was the first great English detective novel and it's ambitious, inventive, entertaining and amusing. It's no simple re-telling of the Road Hill case - the crime here is theft rather than murder and, despite the familiar country house setting we seem to be in quite a different story. But every now and then, as a film director might pay homage to classic movie by recreating an iconic scene, Collins inserts a recognisable element of the Road Hill case. I found 'The Moonstone' surprisingly readable - much easier-going than Collins' contemporary and friend, Charles Dickens. The narrative structure tells the story through a series of accounts written by some of the principal characters and the lack of an authorial voice occasionally made me forget I was reading a Victorian novel rather than a modern work set in the 1840s. At times this style of first person narration reminded me of Adam Thorpe's 'Pieces of Light' (reviewed here in July 2008) for example (though this might also reflect Thorpe's skill in recreating an authentic period voice). Collins' detective, Sergeant Cuff, plays an oddly peripheral role for much of the book - not yet really the hero of the story - but the scenes in which he and the family steward, Betteredge, investigate the crime (seen through Betteredge's eyes) were a clear precursor of Holmes and Watson. 'The Moonstone' is gripping, intricately plotted and very funny, never going quite where you expect it to: a real gem!