Masterpiece Theatre Widely regarded as the first "true" detective novel, Wilkie Collins' 1868 gothic thriller, The Moonstone, is presented here in a five-part BBC production. The title refers to a valuable but cursed yellow diamond that leaves a tra... (more)il of death and devastation with each passing owner. In Part One - The lovely but headstrong Rachel Verinder receives The Moonstone for her birthday, under circumstances which would frighten any ordinary mortal, and then it mysteriously disappears.