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Title details for Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance by Gyles Brandreth - Available

Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance

#1 in series

by Gyles Brandreth
Bill Wallis
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

London, 1889. Oscar Wilde, celebrated poet, wit, playwright, and raconteur is the literary sensation of his age. All Europe lies at his feet. Yet when he chances across the naked corpse of sixteen-year-old Billy Wood, posed by candlelight in a dark stifling attic room, he cannot ignore the brutal murder. With the help of fellow author Arthur Conan Doyle he sets out to solve the crime—but it is Wilde's unparalleled access to all degrees of late Victorian life, from society drawing rooms to the underclass, that will prove the decisive factor in the investigation of what turns out to be a series of brutal killings. Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance is a classic murder mystery in the tradition of Dorothy L. Sayers and Arthur Conan Doyle.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Oscar Wilde Mystery

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 1, 2011

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780792782964
      • File size: 300972 KB
      • Duration: 10:27:01

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      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.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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