It's 1892, London, England. Oscar Wilde is at his peak,
garnering acclaim for his recently released play, Lady
Windemere's Fan. Oscar and several of his
friends—including Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker—belong
to a seven-member group called the Socrates Club, which
holds a monthly dinner at the Cadogan Hotel. For the May
event, Oscar tells each member to invite a guest, making the
dinner party a total of fourteen. After dinner Oscar
introduces a game called "Murder". Each person is to write
down the name of a person he'd like to murder. Things turn
somber when some members of the dinner party—including Oscar
himself—find themselves on the list of potential victims.
When suspicious deaths follow the club dinner, Oscar and his
sidekick, narrator Robert Sherard, wonder if the deaths are
coincidence or murder. They begin to investigate the dinner
party members, uncovering who selected whom for murder. The
more questions they ask, the more unclear the picture
becomes. As the deaths continue to pile up, Oscar becomes
convinced that there is a devious plot in the works.
Acting as a real-life Sherlock Holmes, Oscar ferrets out the
truth. And he does it all while dressing and dining in fine
style. Is there a murderer on the loose? Are the deaths
really accidental, natural and/or suicide as the police
believe? Why was one fellow chosen for death by multiple
persons? Will Oscar uncover the truth before it's his turn
to die?
Oscar Wilde makes an engaging sleuth for this second book in
the Oscar Wilde mystery series. Readers will find OSCAR
WILDE AND A GAME CALLED MURDER to be a highly enjoyable
mystery. The clues throughout are subtle and the mystery is
quite complex. The denouement reminds me of Agatha Christie
at her best. Mr. Brandreth has done an excellent job
bringing Victorian England to life. I can't recommend this
book enough to fans of historical mysteries.
The second witty installment in an astonishingly
authentic historical mystery series featuring detective
Oscar Wilde and his partner in crime, Arthur Conan
Doyle
It's 1892, and Wilde is the toast of
London, riding high on the success of his play Lady
Windemere's Fan. While celebrating with friends at a
dinner party he conjures up a game called "murder" that
poses the question: Who would you most like to kill? Wilde
and friends -- including Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker,
and poet Robert Sherard (the novel's narrator) -- write the
names of their "victims" on pieces of paper and choose them
one by one. After leaving the party, Wilde scoffs at the
suggestion that he may have instigated a very dangerous game
indeed....
The very next day, the game takes an all-too-
sinister turn when the first "victim" turns up dead. Soon
Wilde and his band of amateur detectives must travel through
the realms of politics, theatre, and even boxing to unearth
whose misguided passions have the potential to become deadly
poisons...not only for the perpetrator of the seemingly
perfect crimes but also for the trio of detectives
investigating them.
Richly atmospheric and as
entertaining as Wilde himself, this book is the second in a
series destined to delight mystery readers and fans of
historical fiction alike.
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