Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Moonstone [Naxos AudioBooks Edition]

Author: Wilkie Collins

Narrator: Ronald Pickup, Sean Barrett, David Timson, Jamie Parker, Jonathan Oliver, Fenella Woolgar, Joe Marsh

Format: Unabridged

Length: 22 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-01-14

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 112 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Upon inheriting the Moonstone, a huge and priceless diamond, Rachel Verinder's delight turns to dismay when the gem suddenly disappears. But this is no ordinary theft. Sergeant Cuff of Scotland Yard is called in and immediately suspects an intricate plot. However, not even his powers of detection can penetrate fully the mysteries surrounding the diamond. And as we listen to each characters version of the events, layer upon layer of drama and suspense build to the final and astonishing denouement of this magnificent, classic English detective novel.

Members Reviews:

The very finest detective story ever written

That's not my opinion. That's Dorothy Sayers' verdict, the woman who gave us Lord Peter Wimsey. But more on that later.

I suppose you could read this novel as a critique of British Imperialism: the fabled Indian gem, the Jewel in the Crown if you will, becomes the source of scandal, revenge, ruined reputations and general unhappiness. Obviously, everyone is better off without it.

Or you could take the social justice angle. For all his faithful service, Gabriel Betteredge admits that those above stairs have the freedom to express emotions which those below stairs dare not reveal. The fishermans daughter, Limping Lucy, goes proto-feminist/socialist when she conceives that a young gentleman of quality has made poor Rosanna Spearman the plaything of an idle hour.

Nah. Why ruin a good thing by going all PC/intellectual/lit-crit? Better to stick with T. S. Eliot. The Moonstone is, "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels...in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe". Or Dorothy Sayers: "probably the very finest detective story ever written". Or me: this is one of the most delightful, engaging and engrossing books youll ever hear.

As indicated by Old Possum, Poe has his partisans. But whoever wrote the Wikipedia article on Moonstone has it right. Collins introduced all the elements that would become standard fare in mystery tales until, Im guessing, the advent of the hard-boiled school:

A country house setting

The inside job

Red herrings

Bungling local cops

A celebrated, skilled investigator

A large cast of false suspects

A least likely suspect

A reconstruction of the crime

The final, bravura plot twist

Because this first and best of all detective stories was written in the 1860s, Moonstone is a fabulous composite. First, you get a full-blooded Victorian novel, with all the attractions the best of that breed of literature has to offer: elaborately crafted writing, intersecting story lines, living characters, engaging observations, wit, pathos, charm. Then, on top of all that, we have the country house, the bungling local constable, the false suspects, the red herrings and a perplexing mystery, one that I bet youre not going to be able to crack before the final revelation.

As usual, the Naxos recording is superb. The full cast includes some of my favorite readers. And, given the way Collins constructed his novelsat least the two Im now familiar witha full cast is essential. The story is carried along by sequential narrators each keeping strictly to what they knew at the time of which they write. Each of their narratives deserves a voice actor dedicated to that part, giving it his or her all.