The Moonstone, written by Wilkie Collins, is described as being the first and best of modern English detective novels. Wilkie Collins, who is associated with Charles Dickens, created many levels of intrigue and suspense through out the entire book. The book seems way ahead of its time because of this. It was published in 1868, a time when Britain was fighting against India in order to maintain control of the country. The Moonstone is an expensive, rare gem that brings a curse with it. Originated from the head of an Indian god, the moonstone's curse is that it is usually stolen and the old keeper is usually killed by some means.
             The Moonstone's main character is Rachel Verinder. This interesting that Collins chose a woman as the main character and gave a lot of life to her. Her love interest, Franklin Blake, is another interesting character in the book, who turns out to be the thief but even he doesn't know it. A local doctor gives Blake a dose of opium, a popular drug in the 1800's, influences him to steal the jewel. Blake comes through for the doctor, but does not realize until he receives help from Ezra Jennings, an outsider doctor who is addicted to opium, and Sergeant Cuff, a military officer. Jennings uses his knowledge of opium in order to piece together the crime and find out what happened the night that Blake took the jewel. The story is ended when the Brahmins recover the moonstone and return it to their deity. Blake and Rachel end up together, and all is well.
             Despite the curse's effects on most of its owners, it doesn't work on Blake and Rachel. This is most likely due to the fact that they weren't searching for the jewel out of greed. The jewel brought them closer together as a result of their adventure. Everyone else who owned the jewel had a terrible fate ahead of them as shown in the first few chapters of the book.
             The book is very creative. Collins wrote a great no...