Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders

March 12, 2012
Arthur Conan Doyle plays Watson to Oscar Wilde in Brandreth’s strong fifth whodunit featuring Wilde as a Holmesian sleuth (after 2011’s Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders). In July 1892, Holmes’s creator runs into his friend Wilde while on holiday in a German spa town. Doyle is beside himself because of the many letters to his creation that his publisher insists must be acknowledged in writing. Wilde volunteers to help cull the correspondence, and in the process makes a grisly find—a human hand cut cleanly off at the wrist. The Rome postmark leads the pair to seek out other mail from the same sender and to the discovery of a human finger addressed to Holmes. Since the ring on the severed digit bears the pope’s symbols, Wilde and Doyle travel to Rome, where they learn the ring was previously owned by a priest suspected of murder. The mystery is more engaging than the previous book’s, even if the solution isn’t Brandreth’s cleverest. Agent: Ed Victor, Ed Victor Ltd.

May 1, 2012
When someone sends the creator of a legendary sleuth a severed hand, the game is afoot! After a rhapsodic 1877 letter from Oscar Wilde to his devoted mother concerning the wonders of Rome, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sets out to narrate the tale in chief, beginning 15 years later at a Homburg spa. Doyle is flush with success, Wilde decidedly less so, though critically celebrated, and the duo enjoys a friendly, albeit barbed rivalry. Oscar relishes the region's sensuous delights, but for Doyle this will be a working vacation. He brings an Everest of fan mail to answer, clearly triggering Wilde's envy. Inside one package, postmarked Rome, they find a severed hand. Another, smaller package from Rome contains a finger, which they at first mistake for a cigar. Doyle advises proceeding carefully, but Wilde, with brio, convinces him to "act recklessly." Indeed, a delightfully dangerous adventure may be just what the doctor ordered for the weary Doyle. So it's off to Rome. On the lengthy train ride, the pair shares confidences from their past and meet nervous Martin Sadler and his effervescent sister Irene (a name that should be familiar to fans of Sherlock Holmes). Tea at the Vatican with the influential circolo inglese proves a turning point in the mystery, which involves precious jewels and deceased Pontiffs. Brandreth's fifth Oscar Wilde caper (Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders, 2011, etc.) floats on a cushion of bubbly banter and droll period references. The whole series is literary escapism of a high order, though with each episode the mystery seems to recede further in importance.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2012

In Brandreth's fourth engaging historical (after Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders), Wilde meets up with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and both are summoned to Rome. A well-crafted mix of the real-life and fictional by a Wilde scholar.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.