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Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death

Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death

by Gyles Brandreth (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2008

    $3.27

  • Used

    Paperback 2008

    $3.27

  • New

    Paperback 2009

    $11.85
Synopsis

In OSCAR WILDE AND THE RING OF DEATH, the second in Gyles Brandreth's acclaimed Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries series featuring Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle, a parlour game of 'Murder' has lethal consequences... 'Intelligent, amusing and entertaining' Alexander McCall Smith

'I see murder in this unhappy hand...' When Mrs Robinson, palmist to the Prince of Wales, reads Oscar Wilde's palm she cannot know what she has predicted. Nor can Oscar know what he has set in motion when, that same evening, he proposes a game of 'Murder' in which each of his Sunday Supper Club guests must write down those whom they would like to kill. For the fourteen 'victims' begin to die mysteriously, one by one, and in the order in which their names were drawn from the bag...
With growing horror, Wilde and his confidantes Robert Sherard and Arthur Conan Doyle, realise that one of their guests that evening must be the murderer. In a race against time, Wilde will need all his powers of deduction and knowledge of human behaviour before he himself - the thirteenth name on the list - becomes the killer's next victim.

$3.27

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Quantity

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 416
 Edition: First edition
 Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 01 May 2008
ISBN 10: 0719569508
ISBN 13: 9780719569500

Media Reviews
'Hugely enjoyable' * Daily Mail *
'Rather fun ...Brandreth unashamedly wheels out a cast of historical characters to die for' * Lucy Atkins, Sunday Times *
'A neat take on the big hitters in the book world just over a century ago ... Gyles is a joy to the nation' * Virginia Blackburn, Daily Express *
'A clever concept spiced with great Wilde epigrams' * Daily Telegraph *
'He has won great acclaim for his series of Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries ... as witty and entertaining as his hero, Gyles is renowned for his charisma and charm' * Daily Mail *
'The last novel I read was The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries ... it was very good' * Nicholas Parsons, Daily Telegraph *
'A carnival of cliffhangers and fiendish twists-and-turns' * Sunday Express *
An amusing and satisfactorily unlikely story * Jessica Mann, Literary Review *
One of the most enjoyable crime series around ... He slips easily into the 21st century, does this Oscar (imagine, if you can, an even higher-wattage Stephen Fry), just as, thanks to Brandreth, we as readers are able to travel effortlessly back to join him in his own age. It is well worth the journey - and I can't wait until the next one. * Scotsman *
'Brandreth's knowledge of fin-de-siecle London, of the social and political history of the period and, above all, of Wilde himself is most impressive. Wildean witticisms abound' * Brian Maye, Irish Times *
'Terrifically well researched, it all whizzes along and the reader can have fun identifying the real Wilde's witticisms from Brandreth's' * Scotland on Sunday *
'As much imaginative biography as murder mystery, this book paints a lively portrait of Wilde at the height of his fame' * Irish Examiner *
It's all mid-morning bracers, detections based on the shininess of shoes, hansom cabs and gems like work is the best antidote to sorrow as we gallivant around 1890's London. Wilde is a tough subject to make boring, but this is great escapism * Danny Wheeler, London Lite *
'Brandreth really has got the measure of his subject, catching the essence of the great man at almost every turn' * Yorkshire Evening Post *
[A] deservedly well-received series * District Messenger *
'Gyles Brandreth has done a great job with this continuing series...I'm wild about Wilde' * Birmingham Sunday Mercury *
'Sparking dialogue, as you would expect, mystery piled deliciously upon mystery, a plot with a pace and a panache and a London backdrop that would grace any Victorian theatre' * Steve Craggs, Northern Echo *
'That curious, uneasy shadowland of late Victorian London, where Society, Art and Popular Entertainment overlap, is richly evoked, and the details of Wilde's life are mentioned by Sherard ... in a perfectly natural, convincing manner: the man he presents to us is both the authentic Oscar and the authentic amateur sleuth' * District Messenger *
'A good read' * Woman's Way *
'Utterly charming caper of murder and wit . . . my reader loves them' * Bookseller *
'Brandreth characterises Wilde with great finesse and provides an unconventional and languid narrative to match' * Tangled Web (online) *
'Brandreth writes with a light touch, but conveys a sense of the moral hypocrisy and oppressive class system of the time. What raises this book several notches above most mysteries is the authentic historical detail and the engaging portrait of Wilde ... sparkling bits of wit and wisdom' * Historical Novels Review *
'Highly acclaimed Oscar Wilde murder mysteries ... richly described background of fin-de-siecle London' * Greenock Telegraph *
'Engaging, entertaining and skilfully written' * The Sydney Morning Herald *
'One of the most enjoyable (series) around' * Diplomat Magazine *
'Gyles is a joy to the nation.' * International Express *
'Wickedly imagined and wildly entertaining' * Good Book Guide *
'An enjoyable read' * MX Magazine (Australia) *
'Give a big, fat, sloppy kiss to the Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries, a sharply-written, deeply urbane and ongoing series' * QX International *
'Wickedly imagined and wildly entertaining series' * Good Book Guide *
'Plenty of cliff hangers, and twists in the tale to keep even the most avid crime buff flicking pages 'till last in the night' * Birmingham Sunday Mercury *
Author Bio
Gyles Brandreth is a writer, performer, former MP and government whip whose career has ranged from hosting Have I Got News For You to starring in his own award-winning musical revue in London's West End. Currently a reporter with The One Show on BBC1 and a regular on Radio 4's Just a Minute, his acclaimed Victorian detective stories - The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries - are now being published in nineteen countries around the world and are currently in development for TV. All six books in the series, Oscar Wilde and the Candellight Murders, Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death, Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man's Smile, Oscar Wilde and the Nest of Vipers, Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders and Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol are available from John Murray. You can find out more about the Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries at www.oscarwildemurdermysteries.com and at www.johnmurray.co.uk and about Gyles at www.gylesbrandreth.net