Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance: A Mystery
    Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance: A Mystery
    Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance: A Mystery
    Ebook354 pages6 hours

    Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance: A Mystery

    By Gyles Brandreth

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Lovers of historical mysteries will relish this chilling Victorian tale based on real events and cloaked in authenticity. The first in a series of fiendishly clever historical murder mysteries, it casts British literature’s most fascinating and controversial figure as the lead sleuth.

    A young artist’s model has been murdered, and legendary wit Oscar Wilde enlists his friends Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Sherard to help him investigate. But when they arrive at the scene of the crime they find no sign of the gruesome killing—save one small spatter of blood, high on the wall. Set in London, Paris, Oxford, and Edinburgh at the height of Queen Victoria’s reign, here is a gripping eyewitness account of Wilde’s secret involvement in the curious case of Billy Wood, a young man whose brutal murder served as the inspiration for The Picture of Dorian Gray. Told by Wilde’s contemporary—poet Robert Sherard—this novel provides a fascinating and evocative portrait of the great playwright and his own “consulting detective,” Sherlock Holmes creator, Arthur Conan Doyle.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTouchstone
    Release dateJan 8, 2008
    ISBN9781416553793
    Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance: A Mystery
    Author

    Gyles Brandreth

    Gyles Brandreth is a prominent BBC broadcaster, novelist, biographer, and a former Member of Parliament. He is also the author of the Oscar Wilde Mystery series. Find out more at GylesBrandreth.net.

    Read more from Gyles Brandreth

    Related to Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance

    Titles in the series (6)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Historical Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Dec 15, 2021

      The Old Un’s Notes
      5 min read

    • Article

      Past IMPERFECT

      Oct 2, 2023

      Past IMPERFECT
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un's Notes

      Feb 7, 2024

      The Old Un's Notes
      5 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Aug 25, 2021

      Readers’ Letters
      4 min read

    • Article

      Readersʼ Letters

      Jul 27, 2022

      Readersʼ Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Things That Unite Us

      Jul 25, 2021

      Every Thursday, at the Coopers Chase luxury retirement village, a converted convent sitting among rural landscapes and market towns south of London, four “not friends” meet in the jigsaw room. Sandwiched “between Art History and Conversational French

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Oct 20, 2021

      The Old Un’s Notes
      6 min read

    • Article

      Past Imperfect

      Sep 2, 2023

      Past Imperfect
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un's Notes

      Jul 26, 2023

      ✽ ‘Given sufficient notice, one can always be spontaneous.’ If this saying reminds you of Oscar Wilde, it’s entirely appropriate. With this aphorism, Robert Eddison has won the fourth Wilde Wit Competition run by the Oscar Wilde Society, in partnersh

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Jun 29, 2022

      The Old Un’s Notes
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Matt Seidel

      Dec 9, 2017

      I tend to buy used books in bunches, which means the haul from some expeditions stays buried for weeks, months, years even. For this entry, I highlight three finds that, breaking custom, I bought and read almost immediately this year: Hugo Charteris’

      6 min read

    • Article

      Thirty Years Of Laughs

      Feb 9, 2022

      Thirty Years Of Laughs
      5 min read

    • Article

      THE Reading room

      Nov 27, 2019

      THE Reading room
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Sep 21, 2022

      The Old Un’s Notes
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un's Notes

      Apr 5, 2023

      Is there anything more heart-warming than a church kneeler? And now this most British of things has found its biographer in the shape of Elizabeth Bingham, the leading authority on Anglican church kneelers and founder of the website parishkneelers.co

      6 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Sep 21, 2022

      Readers’ Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Jan 12, 2022

      The Old Un’s Notes
      6 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Dec 13, 2023

      SIR: I found Dunphy's cartoon about incompatible typefaces (November issue) most amusing, not least because it reminded me of a verse I wrote during a few moments of boredom in a meeting at which typefaces suitable for exhibition posters were being d

      3 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Feb 9, 2022

      The Oldie, 23-31 Great Titchfield Street, London, W1W 7PA letters@theoldie.co.uk To sign up for our e-newsletter, go to www.theoldie.co.uk SIR: Like Gyles Brandreth, my husband and I are great fans of Bargain Hunt. As well as enjoying the banter betw

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un's Notes

      Jun 28, 2023

      If you want to be a bestselling writer, get on the GCSE syllabus. That's the message from the Bookseller magazine. It reports that the top-selling book on the syllabus is An Inspector Calls (1945) by J B Priestley, selling 123,059 copies this year th

      6 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Sep 30, 2021

      Anniversaries
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Scott, Bucak, Zeh, Steinberg, and More

      Aug 20, 2019

      An intriguing near-future dystopian thriller, two innovative short story collections, and a remarkable portrait of Britain at its Brexit inflection point. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Scott, Bucak, Zeh, Steinberg, and More appeared firs

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un's Notes

      Mar 8, 2023

      Happy 75th birthday, Shakin' Stevens! He was born Michael Barratt in Cardiff on 4th March 1948. It's over 40 years since his first number one, This Ole House, in 1981, followed up with Green Door and Merry Christmas Everyone. The Welsh Elvis was born

      5 min read

    • Article

      Memoir & biography

      Apr 3, 2024

      Memoir & biography
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance

    3.5/5

    12 ratings10 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Thoroughly enjoyed this book - very different from the other two works I have read by this author. I am perhaps biased because I live 50 miles north of Syracuse and the locations mentioned in the novel are familiar to me and I have had the pleasure of attending a reading by the author of her memoir, The Language of Baklava. Yes, there were some little annoyances along the way, the heroine's rigidity can be a drag at times, but overall I found the story and voice to be unique and engrossing.
    • 3/5
      So I read this book in a single sitting. While a lot of that was due to the facts that 1) I'm a fast reader and 2) today is Saturday and so I can curl up on the couch without missing work, a certain amount is due to the engaging nature of the plot.
    • 4/5
      Brief Description: Lena Dawson is a fingerprint specialist who has an odd gift for communicating almost telepathically with crime scenes. When a series of SIDS deaths strike an odd note within her, Lena feels compelled to look deeper into the cases. However, the more she explores, the more convinced she is that a serial killer of babies is on the loose and, odder yet, the killer seems to have a connection to Lena herself. As Lena investigates her past and the current crimes, she is drawn into the confusing web of her own past, including the stories told to her by her adoptive parents. As she confronts her own origins, Lena learns how the past has followed her into the present.My Thoughts: Although the book description may sound like a straightforward mystery, it is anything but. The book had the strangest and most elusive tone to it. It is like a standard mystery was wrapped inside a cotton blanket and then pushed out through the fibers of the blanket into the book. Lena is aloof and distant from us as readers, and there is an almost dream-like feel to the book. Although I was almost convinced that Lena’s long-held and fantastical origin story about herself was true, Abu-Jaber is giving us cold hard reality but wrapping it up in a strange dream-like texture. This makes for an odd read. To this day, I’m not what to make of this book. It definitely isn’t your standard mystery in tone and feel. If you’re looking for a mystery with a literary and dream-like feel to it, this would be a good choice.
    • 5/5
      I was very pleasantly surprised by this novel. I had trouble getting into the story at the beginning as I was only able to read in fits and starts. But once I got about 100 pages in I was hooked and couldn't put it down. The lead character, Lena, is wonderfully complex and remains consistent, but somehow progressive, throughout. Her supporting characters are also spectacularly rich and well defined.I found the plot riveting in its strange - but plausible - twists and turns, and by the end my emotions had run the gamut. If you are a fan of murder mysteries - or strong female leads - you will not be disappointed.
    • 4/5
      I highly recommend this atmospheric literary mystery. The fascinating main character, Lena Dawson, is a lab tech in snowy, frigid Syracuse, NY, who has an uncanny ability for intuitive leaps of deduction and an exceptional sense of smell. She's also kind of socially out of step with coworkers and the rest of the world. When multiple SIDS cases start coming into the lab and a distraught mother barges in to beg Lena to help, she starts to think that perhaps something suspicious is going on. And, it may be connected to her own past as a difficult foster child with strange memories of the jungle and apes. The story of her investigation into the babies' deaths and her own origin is riveting; the depiction of the frigid weather adds to the dark, suspenseful mood. I became so involved with Lena's story and wanting the mysteries explained that I couldn't put the book down. Abu Jaber is a great writer.
    • 3/5
      Interesting mystery I found on the bookshelf in a friend's bedroom when I was visiting and recovering from an illness. This book was a pleasant companion for the several days I was stranded there.
    • 5/5
      This is, without a doubt, the most well written mystery novel I have ever read. The characters are deeply engaging, the plot is fascinating on multiple levels, and the writing was lovely. The title, "Origin", speaks to all levels of the plot. The primary themes are: identity, trust, intuition, courage, and determination. Wonderful read!
    • 3/5
      The story of a woman who aches to know more about her past. She grows up in a foster family that never formally adopted her and this fact is a huge emotional tension between her and her family. She grows up to work in a crime lab focusing on fingerprint identification. A case of babies written off as SIDs cases turns out to be something else altogether. The main character's search for a baby killer is linked to her need to know about her personal history. The book also weaves in the childish office politics with her co-workers, her love life which includes a new love interest with a detective and a strained relationship with a husband she is separated from, and some goofy neighbors.The book was engaging enough and the mystery itself kept me through to the end to find out "whodunit". Looking back, some of the elements were a little odd and I don't know if they worked. There was some whimsy- like the theme that she may have been raised by apes. It was a bit out there and was made even more out there when you learn the conclusion to that story line. I could not stand the main characters passive personality- she was walked on by her coworkers, her ex-husband and on and on. When she started to stand up for herself it did not seem believable because she was portrayed as such an "out-of-touch" person. It was as if life happened to her and she stood outside herself and watched. I like a little more of a sense of agency in my characters.
    • 5/5
      Fascinating tandem mysteries--one solving the mystery of a fingerprint analyst's infancy and the other solving a series of suspicious crib deaths. The winter Syracuse setting is bleak and evocative. Abu-Jaber's writing is beautiful. One of the best literary mysteries of 2007.
    • 3/5
      A fingerprint expert in the Syracuse, New York police crime lab, Lena notices a strange rise in the number of crib deaths occurring in and around the city. Though others in the police department, even those she works with in the crime lab, don't believe her theory of a serial baby killer, Lena pursues the evidence with the help of detective Keller Duesky. Her investigation becomes all the more strange when the deaths seem to connect to her own memories of the past spent in the care of an "ape-mother" in the rain forest. Soon, hunter becomes the hunted, as the killer has the need to eliminate Lena, not to stop the investigation, but to stop Lena from investigating her own past.Although an interesting plot, it lacked characters that could be identified with. Lena in particular seemed withdrawn from the reader in a way that, although I read her story, I didn't really feel anything for her. The supporting characters all seemed like a group of whack jobs, from the people in Lena's apartment building to everyone she worked with, to her soon to be ex-husband (but then, what else would you expect from a fictional ex?).The writing was occasionally filled with too many metaphors and similes that were a stretch, or just didn't make sense. Abu-Jaber frequently put so many similes out there, I found myself counting them. Lena's strange, Tarzanic memories of the past, made the first half of the novel an almost unbelievable story. It felt as though I was reading something from Edgar Rice Burroughs, but at least he explained Tarzan's origins in a way that was believable. Ultimately, the "ape-mother" story line was explained somewhat satisfactorily.Readable, but not instantly engaging. Sterile settings, and unsympathetic characters- yet, the one thing that ultimately saves the book and compelled me to finish was the story itself.

    Book preview

    Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance - Gyles Brandreth

    Babook_preview_excerpt.html}˲Ƒ寀\^E4ԨJ]e$ ^fVѢ{;1'Z/s{KLD?/bC,)UEUbWø)9ybC?ŝ ,%>; {g~N LjzuòbҐη._mo;6Tc>UJ] e< ξ_Mnع a݁$ {RqSW n+6FzS;pލ*FߚcLU< *X$mxЇOO2S}})c 9@i+S&/6Pn(46IUlRp :~Hҟ)kvZBSjQBG皻7ɘ"|Hc!y{>ЍuWnR,UU4eg?v]m6C8miCP]ҟy fJ<+N|dF*MLCi(md)ll@,A>K ƆJ ]_  k.q#%1aS yaq xTWXCI?(~%#mݠD0);=l1N >se:-?Ԍt~sp;tv7ϱFP-\B (\: :D6)(w{M 6 y,cik >f|_{7/ikJlc8`|0GC2T FK틟U$cH2[ESl2d8y\\>v:ck 3 ۧmuuWX}?QX{&‰JO.q5ݻRm$PtX)T|65cM(=.!R]Іm'ܙ֬7c,dhh_}=ww~l P<-R'x ZQNI>{nO{,\I| `C]C`6(7AqiϽ1s٤lx{ںvaLwπ 3yӡFT4OrZAbIC ))fG;$XpbK?IHB2or~^籏 j~ޠJy)8oI?H>zyljz(~,G֣?͹sIO~]:cHDвo [&Z3^T.Xeh8"T$Y#M|4aչGoI|F gt2݌LRzyb7(Ə y3?å<%`@]GDniQ~%Iˀ ued6)J͇LJPr cj 'JzqMb) "3U 31ʩCq=RsA "7as"Ȅ.Iү2t#ݴ@o, g{Wfu~=NM֔Aa3s=q6t]Y3U6x&XR7S#1 c$T,BufKoJ|MG7vE|R|už ~w [$:2aR  B |]eȧDc:KCf+r/͸"[FM I'0=CFCY 3E)J__-4f2`!ՐƧ}To7 ' ynҨ7Wb{+Vd",<,=~EQl8xTEoKvS|x!Cj+I g |⽨OW{0~yk Ƞ8]z_G(~7>U6ϛCb^#LMPq^Β-pDJ.Եz8de0UaiZCK?x';#rO1 ^=V(ʖ%SD3$R˝E@:9$'bX7ӒQQ.]xݒC\7+{Чf5NHZwг0p}o\SoEoB[qܛiuhIK,YX2m*DFr +rW`, ҧ. /zƣj uӓ2WOQVx.RJ%ʴQK2I`ȇـ?}I }zRF~ďf 9r5Z6fP\,2#-&a}ʚK6$ߩP0GjpzPZu '+Kg-0'4=Y61`Fg1cll{!Rݟ}>L~8P$B'ӝm<\{JT&k9 -zK0ʜ,h"c?V[f SkU) "[Zq{Bb;w.7NcRei`kߋ7w-.)[=sA@4b)W&5$W.S\cfձt"GxeETiJw,L*J~,JY^2Sfo=)ETr 4ss:&ҕ4J `Q%#Y4RGFnj-av;۹]+;2/L$`:6 ,l 'کѷgVUe}UEضV8=dظS+j_f/; }wc0C8:epeytd;>IUL$+chĵJ9/%$*#NTzĊ@wUB`$) ŪsWEhR=]?Y.3*rФ+W9M<`Dg>&/l_iOR2˰)¼{߰æC?Ä'h#7l#?5^5r5@G&ؕ0YY>JO}8)wNK lZv"ԤZy+x>;ٿWWa=5.-uKeAQC'hdS |3.Gd1`fY9:p 1}2V *K1}8dbIhK8QIon !o2}ziS]O*x-Pd){WDwp-_arFě r5 7͌R\+TGpZ၅"\Z"]o2oIT)K2>(6u z-3,1ቩ7WaO}įёF\-kzLz7*gM-RpbJWwz@j,۳ Q _;jg>,՝}rϾ㻟롌Q8ĜW&0w)Q;b"\)Sc-W_bCRGKYbBƐ!s;#D-f[zjK\~vSS|kyipE6?5qqm$+^qVNW\%pxS ѱٯbNK WX$0%^H /uR/Վ J-rgo^HP–y%ka95./pi y/_wf.ŕ7JU̝]\qn_kYfޡ9q޹~r`1nOQc:fwv_q0s\cMf,* :;1'dqsLx|0:}.{"j-ʼfS}Up}E,+05SV /yzf ^UYE[O6iص}6̪o3܆r/&]_/=srOdѿq^ϲ9d,u9v!~V؏i--$ҫ˓|9O$YCUr:8.-|kV]D3eMTH̳ꄨcZ %]H}x@]-}DR1if |<}$1$=])rz4tNf.h5b]:l usn,۾_/J4E8\uE1! VYs,K ~t PK+4S.ogfd`c#l?p`/ qrP4gHpT{LYӐ|/(>V$n,gڞ_-˜G3!7,̋,4d"{J&jx0l , %7 =s5WzKn;eTkxim*vSgVm֡4'e^%q4aM=zZ)Jpg:ഊ< P'GuIćX֕IR#&'}[={r&\nͻ'DzQ}%5= $7=gw 4ƤlhϚЪ `*Hlĺ3.d6@IN]2:nS $ `Y$-e(vJnR͸!i Uެ[LN4B´/ ,]kVY>iK+?5k:~Z*oQ-xSTG. WH/?gC_'D gŻ뷯ˣlOD;5mN-6B*pXVclG twna89QHGvXYgh.ذ*^eԹ{8L)#YC{֐ @fX) uV2[+q5ewūz2-;:f6&1{[PλzJj2xeZzmv?X .Ӌ4a{a,mrJX .l:m?z#?ġ'wPw(\c˖<7s usOSr!Ժ]3b5F-eB{ۥ.O>Xf ڄ<"Aio} t]-l׻62ILЋMC׉5p6<%iH nppM4LŒ?J % sT%y`gL>3p]׍~ 5.hhZ9_ϰ@w۔fz۳F(dvi>3}Uv+dD_\rsTJp͘9 mAROV57؆{m& rRuqJPpPq?e,,lZzVK8IzW{7:Ѣלbݕ-[CgK9nF\x '.,fz9&2WV2?z +ሶnm5ă:OZeFXPupŏcv?l8j-5Sk :]Zu6T&cL:3]8zR\ =s@3ڡ"Ahtgȳ@U>Cd;>Ijrw*Jkk;rXl- `wDw4(rmI;F?t«e;nr(F|ڍ<p[s߬֕ǟEMǨJr?8"fCF-ЛmLQGϛǣqL0‰5DV#,A1; ZӃ. Ϧ\W%<7W(e&t}jǻptOO)Xӎ14C*:#ǓeP"8s,}DQ y5Ԁ7)Ցw<K)JD?Ǜc%%RiQfj_y,͂=h^JMn:;l;\=qok%j@GG bl\͊@{9>B|nXaqJgOMX$(vضc'54Kw_FNVz|TaMuVonj.M9]_ƧK*9V$ ),C,Ï>Н|a~mZz;tN9nN:pnq)X+9oVyAr17DaC3P~8qx4}|:]"v_Jxm{S^s&A&O%Q. II&ٚ=X+=Edtp":U C>a5iAWJ33ST&U7>vSu]8F+ɆcI5A7E/3S(G^ƹ*ڀf`ﾏa$X(ͩ7r;u q'O/zY1i֢p~x&ڣU KcLuu~AH3}9Z=DQ6StjT1`vl\+?`>*guyƛ[E\8,CY?IF]أQFs^N28SiV57NIjYЍ0[fpsuӊzՁMT7 ]^pTGj~."\ʷaɹ.d3l~`HAOaLCF | s5Co#!B$Xq>xX6^ ƨif&t>5neѹgj3뤚ɈdծP%H5SfY[rd>Ŏ|͊,* ݖnmypdT <)7 YVtpT52"yap9Qc.ۛcԙ}>#O}]8bD:43%@Am 6z_ k>mZac㍗P &WAygoPX%]uAzS|%ژ]͖@DE#Q= \7kj
    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1