Includes bibliographical references.

The Moonstone is an enormous diamond, stolen from an Indian shrine and bequeathed to a young English heiress, Rachel Verinder, by a malicious uncle. When the cursed gem vanishes from Miss Verinder's bedroom, suspicion falls alternately on a lovesick, hunchbacked housemaid, a band of Indian jugglers, Rachel's beloved cousin, Franklin Blake, a sanctimonious suitor named Godfrey Ablewhite, and even Rachel herself. The eccentric Sergeant Cuff arrives to solve the mystery, employing clever methods of deductive reasoning that have since been employed by countless fictional detectives.

Told in vastly entertaining narratives (highlights include the comical house steward Gabriel Betteridge and the religious zealot, poor Miss Clack), the sensational mystery hinges on unrequited love, the avarice of an evangelical layman, the peculiar effects of opium, and the looming menace of a trio of Brahmins, determined to restore the stolen gem to its original shrine.

Accelerated Reader AR,UG,7.6,34.0,11597.