Robert Louis Stevenson with his usual storytelling of the South Seas.

The Wrecker is different from other Robert Louis Stevenson books I've read. For one thing, he wrote the novel with his stepson, Lloyd Osborne. Also, Stevenson and Osborne seemed to be experimenting with form:

We had long been at once attracted and repelled by that very modern form of the police novel or mystery story, which consists in beginning your yarn anywhere but at the beginning, and finishing it anywhere but at the end; attracted by its peculiar interest when done, and the peculiar difficulties that attend its execution; repelled by that appearance of insincerity and shallowness of tone, which seems its inevitable drawback. For the mind of the reader, always bent to pick up clews, receives no impression of reality or life, rather of an airless, elaborate mechanism; and the book remains enthralling, but insignificant, like a game of chess, not a work of human art... After we had invented at some expense of time this method of approaching and fortifying our police novel, it occurred to us it had been invented previously by someone else, and was in fact—however painfully different the results may seem—the method of Charles Dickens in his later work.

At the time Stevenson and Osborne wrote the novel, the mystery genre was still in its early days. In many ways, the novel is more like the sensation novels of the Victorian era than 20th century (or later) mysteries. Of course, it also has a strong element of adventure typical of Stevenson's better-known works. While the premise is interesting, the structure isn't entirely successful. The setting shifts between Scotland, Paris, San Francisco, Midway Islands, and Australia. The mystery isn't introduced until about halfway through the book. The suspense builds once the wreck of the Flying Scud enters the story. Why is the wreck so valuable? What secrets does it hold? Why does its captain behave so strangely? The first-person narrator, Loudon Dodd, is perceptive enough to question many of the circumstances, but not perceptive enough to piece together an explanation without a revelation from another character.

I wouldn't have discovered this book had I not been looking for something with a Midway Islands setting. It was a mildly entertaining read, and I learned a little about some unfamiliar occupations and parts of the world. Since I downloaded it free on the Internet, it didn't cost me anything but time. ( )

"I should find room also for Stevenson's "Wrecker" and "Ebb Tide." " --Through the Magic Door, p. 241