Hide And Seek

Because he is held in high regard by many people who love Dickens, Wilkie Collins has been on my radar for a while. As the earliest of the three Wilkies presently in my possession, I decided to start with this one, aware that it isn't regarded as his best work. And that consensus seems to me to be correct, because Hide And Seek contains some considerable flaws. Wilkie plonked far too many deuses in the machina to make the story completely plausible, and his occasional flights of purple Victorian prose can tax the modern attention span. However the characters are well drawn, the story is ultimately a good one (unlikely coincidences and all), and there is much good and witty writing. I thoroughly enjoyed it, enough to forgive it its trespasses and make me look forward to my next Collins.