Are you interested in early detective tales? Have you exhausted Poe, grown tired of Dickens, and not wanting to read another Agatha Christie? Then give Wilkie Collins a try! He wrote the Woman in White and The Moonstone among several other dramas. And in this brief biography Peter Ackroyd provides a road map to his work and life.

In less than 300 pages and twenty short chapters Peter Ackroyd covers the life of William Wilkie Collins from his birth in 1824 to his death in 1889. And what a life it was. Each chapter provides information on the books being written and events of his life - where he was living, trips taken and overall flow of his engagement with society or lack thereof.

His father was a decent painter and was the subject of Wilkie Collins first book. In spite of passing the bar, Wilkie Collins made his living by writing books, stories, and articles. He was a friend of Charles Dickens and worked with him on plays and wrote for his periodicals. He had two mistress and several children, but no wife, so definitely not your typical Victorian. As the reader of his books discover, his peculiarities and viewpoints were often at odds with Victorian sensibilities. The reader will also find out that the tales are crafted to keep the reader engaged and reading which fits with most of the tales being published in circulating periodicals before appearing in book form.

In Wilkie Collins, Peter Ackroyd provides a mosaic of the life of a writer in the Victorian age who shaped the melodrama and mystery genres that are read today.

I "met" Wilkie Collins a few years ago when Heather Ordover's CraftLit did <I>The Woman in White</i>. I loved it. It was entirely unexpected and fun and quirky and altogether engaging … and, come to find out, all of those adjectives can be equally applied to the author. And also to this biography – Ackroyd is a deeply enjoyable writer, who obviously has a solid knowledge and affection for Collins. I actually wish this had been longer, deeper – but, as it is, it's lovely as an appetizer, something to whet the appetite for more of Collins's own work.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.