English writer William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) is considered the founder of the so-called 'sensation novel,' which later diversified into the adventure and detective genres. Collins is a master of intrigue and a gripping plot. His skillful combination of mystery, detective fiction, morality play, and romance in a single work is the key to the unprecedented readership of his novels and short stories.

Wilkie Collins's ideas and plot devices from The Moonstone were used by Conan Doyle, Gilbert Chesterton, and Agatha Christie, many of which have become classics of the detective genre.

The Hindu god Vishnu commanded that 'the Moonstone be guarded by three priests day and night, until the end of time,' and predicted misfortune to anyone who dared to take possession of it. A gripping continuation of the story – in the very first and, according to T. S. Eliot, the best detective novel in English literature.