Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. Filled with drama and unexpected plot twists, Collins' Jezebel's Daughter is based on a play, The Red Vial, which was produced in 1858. A story of intrigue, betrayal and misplaced trust, revolves around Mrs. Fontaine, a sinister widow who uses her dead husband's poisons and antidotes to control the futures of those around her. Filled with forensic details found in the best detective fiction, Jezebel's Daughter is remarkable in the way it handles the treatment of mental illness at the turn of the 20th Century.