Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance

October 8, 2007
Oscar Wilde makes a stylish sleuth in this clever series debut from Brandreth, a British author best known as a biographer (John Gielgud: An Actor's Life
, etc.). Narrating the tale from his old age, poet Robert Sherard enjoys recalling the summer of 1889, when his friend Wilde was still celebrated and happily married. After discovering the butchered body of handsome young Billy Wood, Wilde fetches Sherard and his new friend Arthur Conan Doyle, but upon returning to the scene, they find neither body nor blood. Wilde and Sherard urge charismatic Scotland Yard Det. Insp. Aidan Fraser to investigate, but without concrete evidence, Fraser refuses to act until another murder occurs. Undeterred, Wilde interviews suspects from Wood's stepfather to his pimp, and sets a trap that helps reveal the truth. Brandreth blends history and invention, integrates a nicely complex solution with entertaining subplots and delivers the whole in witty, precise prose. This tale should please readers partial to period mysteries, literary heroes and deft writing.

November 1, 2007
In 1889 London, writer Oscar Wilde finds the corpse of a male artist's model in a house used by men for assignations. Wilde later returns with friends Robert Sherard and Arthur Conan Doyle, but the body has vanished, the room cleaned, and the police declare that nothing has happened. While skirting Wilde's predilection for young men, Brandreth, a BBC broadcaster and novelist, spins a tale of human frailty and self-preservation. The crime's solution is somewhat apparent, but this first title in a projected trilogy is still a promising start. [The publisher is issuing a limited-edition hardcover for libraries: ISBN 1-978-4165-5174-4. $24.Ed.]

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2007
In this wow of a history-mystery, Brandreth (a former MP, BBC broadcaster, and biographer) gives us nothing less than the most credible Sherlock Holmes since the master of deductive reasoning toppled into Reichenbach Fallsexcept the uncannily brilliant sleuth is not Holmes but Oscar Wilde. Wilde gets to demonstrate his Holmesian knack for discovering the telling detail to his new friend Arthur Conan Doyle, whose recent Study in Scarlet has skyrocketed him to fame. The mystery that engages Wilde is the murder of a 16-year-old artists model and male prostitute, Billy Wood (whose demise was the inspiration for The Portrait of Dorian Gray), with whom Wilde had an appointment. Wilde discovers the naked body of the model in the middle of a squalid flat; when he, enlisting Doyle as witness, returns later, the scene has been entirely cleaned and the body removed. This mystery is fascinating on several levels: for its plotting, which quickly ensnares the reader; for its ring of absolute authenticity (its clear that Brandreth is an expert on Wilde and his writings); but, most of all, for the portrait Brandreth provides of a truly complex character, as entertaining as he is controversial. The setting is Victorian England, during the time of the Ripper murders. The narrator, taking a cue from Dr. Watson, is a friend of Wildes, whose journals, previously unpublished, now see the light of day. This is the first in a projected series, and it is a first-class stunner.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)