Wilkie Collins

Hi everyone

This is the first time I have written to a news group. I love mystery books,
so I thought that this group would be a good choice. I am currently reading
a Wilkie Collins book. He is a great author who was writing mystery novels
in the 19th century. Has anyone out there read any of his books? The most
well-known are probably 'The Woman in White' and 'The Moonstone'.

Anna

"Anna" <anna.TakeThisOut@aussiemail.net> wrote in message
news:c4luc7$nha$1@yeppa.connect.com.au...
> Hi everyone
>
> This is the first time I have written to a news group. I love mystery
> books,
> so I thought that this group would be a good choice. I am currently
> reading
> a Wilkie Collins book. He is a great author who was writing mystery novels
> in the 19th century. Has anyone out there read any of his books? The most
> well-known are probably 'The Woman in White' and 'The Moonstone'.
>
> Anna
>
>
I just read The Moonstone last year and was surprised thatI could hardly put
it down. The characters were what made it most appealing, particularly the
butler, and, like all good mysteries it is the quality of the writing, not
the plot, or the plot twists that make it good. Since you're reading
Collins, you might have fun looking at a short series of mysteries by
William Palmer, in which Wilkie Collins is a character, playing Watson to
Charles Dickens as Sherlock. They aren't great, just fun. Palmer is
something of a Dickens scholar and works details of the two men's real lives
into his narrative. Collins was in fact close friends with the older
Dickens. The books are out of print now, but fairly easy to find cheaply at
http://www.bookfinder.com or a good library.

I have a fondness for old mysteries. Their atmosphere is so comfortably
irrelevant that it is easy to escape in them. For example, did you know
that the author of Winnie the Pooh wrote a mystery, called The Red House.
It's pretty good, too, and the only one he ever wrote, darn him. Georgette
Heyer, known for her romance novels, also wrote some very clever and witty
mysteries.

I haven't read Woman in White yet. Is it up to Moonstone?