Classic detective novel, first published in 1860.

''he is more important to the development of detective fiction than of supernatural fiction through THE WOMAN IN WHITE (1859-1860 All the Year Round; 1860), with its Gothic residue, and The Moonstone: A Romance (1868), one of the earliest police procedurals, which also established a subgenre of accursed-jewel stories'' (Mike Ashley/Encyclopedia of Fantasy).