In OSCAR WILDE AND THE CANDLELIGHT MURDERS, the first in Gyles Brandreth's acclaimed Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries series featuring Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle, the brutal murder of a young rent-boy puts Oscar in grave danger... 'Intelligent, amusing and entertaining' Alexander McCall Smith
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 and the bohemian demi-monde to the underclass, that will prove the decisive factor in their investigation of what turns out to be a series of brutal killings.

The Oscar Wilde Murders is a gripping detective story of corruption and intrigue, of Wilde's growing success, of the breakdown of his marriage, and of his fatal friendship with Aidan Fraser, Inspector at Scotland Yard... Set against the exotic background of fin-de-siecle London, Paris, Oxford and Edinburgh, Gyles Brandreth recreates Oscar Wilde's trademark sardonic wit with huge flair, intertwining all the intrigue of the classic English murder mystery with a compelling portrait of one of the greatest characters of the Victorian age.

In OSCAR WILDE AND THE CANDLELIGHT MURDERS, the first in Gyles Brandreth's acclaimed Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries series featuring Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle, the brutal murder of a young rent-boy puts Oscar in grave danger... 'Intelligent, amusing and entertaining' Alexander McCall Smith

About the Author
Gyles Brandreth is a writer, performer, former MP and Government Whip, now Chancellor of the University of Chester and probably best known these days as a reporter on BBC1's The One Show and having been a regular on Radio 4's Just a Minute. On TV he has featured on Have I Got News For You, QI, Room 101, Countdown, and This is Your Life. As a journalist he writes for the Telegraph and Daily Mail and is a columnist for The Oldie. The founder of the National Scrabble Championships, his books about words and language include four best-sellers, The Joy of Lex, Word Play, Have You Eaten Grandma? and Dancing by the Light of the Moon. His novels include seven Victorian murder mysteries featuring Oscar Wilde as his detective and he has published two volumes of diaries and two acclaimed royal biographies. In 2020 he published The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes.

Reviews
Praise for Gyles Brandreth and Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders * - *
'Brandreth has poured his considerable familiarity with London into a witty fin de siecle entertainment, and the rattlingly elegant dialogue is peppered with witticisms uttered by Wilde well before he ever thought of putting them into his plays' * Sunday Times *
One of the most intelligent, amusing and entertaining books of the year. If Oscar Wilde himself had been asked to write this book he could not have done it any better.' * Alexander McCall Smith *
Genius . . . Wilde has sprung back to life in this thrilling and richly atmospheric new novel. . .The perfect topography for crime and mystery . . . magnificent . . . an unforgettable shocker about sex and vice, love and death * Sunday Express *
Very funny * Independent on Sunday *
Gyles Brandreth and Oscar Wilde seem made for one another . . . There is much here to enjoy . . . the complex and nicely structured plot zips along. * Daily Telegraph *
This is to be a series and if they're all as enjoyable as the first, they'll all be surefire best-sellers . . . The plot races along like a carriage pulled by thoroughbreds . . . So enjoyably plausible * The Scotsman *
Both a romp through fin-de-siecle London . . . and a carefully researched portrait of Oscar Wilde . . . Very entertaining * Literary Review *
Brandreth has the Wildean lingo down pat and the narrative is dusted with piquant social observations. A sparkling treat for fans of Wilde and Sherlock Holmes alike * Easy Living *
Wilde as detective is thoroughly convincing. . . . The period, and the two or three worlds in which Wilde himself moved, are richly evoked . . . Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders is an excellent detective story. I'm keenly looking forward to the rest of the series * The District Messenger, Journal of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London *
Brandreth knows his Wilde . . . Candlelight Murders is an excellent read, and it seems the scene may be set for others in the same style -- and with the same lead character * Gay Times *
This is not only a good piece of detective fiction in its own right, it is highly entertaining, spiced as it is with Wildean sayings, both real and invented and the imagined conversations and intellectual sparring between Wilde and Conan Doyle. Future tales in the series are something to look forward to * Leicester Mercury *
Brandreth's accomplishment is evident in the force of Wilde's personality, which fairly leaps off the page...readers will delight in the effortless characterization and deft portrait of late Victorian England. * Stephanie Barron *
I always wanted to meet Oscar Wilde and now I feel that I have done, and shared a terrific, bizarre and frightening adventure with him. I recommend the experience. * Anne Perry *
This excellent novel . . . I'd be staggered if, by the end of 2007, you'd read many better whodunnits. Brandreth demonstrates supremely measured skill as a story-teller. * Nottingham Evening Post *
'The rollocking tale...a witty and gripping portrayal of corruption in late Victorian London,a nd one of which Wilde and Sir Arthur would be proud' * Livewire *

PRAISE FOR GYLES BRANDRETH

'Not merely, like all the best after-dinner speakers, does he know how to spin a yarn; unlike most politicians, he has a touching access to the secrets of the human heart'

* The Times *
A fine and sympathetic writer * The Times Literary Supplement *
He can tell a story in the way Daphne du Maurier could . . . He creates a world and keeps you there * Sunday Express *



Book Information
ISBN 9780719569302
Author Gyles Brandreth
Format Paperback
Page Count 368
Imprint Hodder Paperback
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Weight(grams) 252g
Dimensions(mm) 197mm * 130mm * 25mm