-
Access Our
Most Anticipated
Books of 2025!
Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Book Reviewed by:Lovers of historical mystery will relish this chilling Victorian tale based on real events and cloaked in authenticity. Best of all, it casts British literature's most fascinating and controversial figure as the lead sleuth. (UK title: Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders). Published in the USA simultaneously in hardcover and paperback.
Lovers of historical mystery will relish this chilling Victorian tale based on real events and cloaked in authenticity. Best of all, 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.
(Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance was first published in the UK as Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders.)
Mystery fans of deductive reasoning will appreciate this first book in the series, especially knowing that there will be eight more opportunities to enjoy Oscar Wilde as amateur sleuth...continued
Full Review
(691 words)
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access,
become a member today.
(Reviewed by Vy Armour).
Did you know?
Although married and the father of two children, Wilde's intimate association
with Alfred Douglas
led to his trial on charges of homosexuality (illegal in Britain in 1895). Wilde
was sentenced to two years hard labor for the crime of sodomy. In spite of his
fame as a successful playwright including The Importance of Being Earnest
(1895) and A Woman of No Importance (1893) he died penniless in 1900 in a
cheap hotel in Paris at the age of 46. More about Wilde at the
official
website owned by
CMG
Worldwide, who appear to have a thriving business protecting the
intellectual property rights of dead celebrities!
In The Death of No Importance, Oscar Wilde makes reference to Dr. Thomas
Holmes, often referred ...
This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.
If you liked Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance, try these:
by Tom Crewe
Published 2024
A brilliant and captivating debut, in the tradition of Alan Hollinghurst and Colm Tóibín, about two marriages, two forbidden love affairs, and the passionate search for social and sexual freedom in late 19th-century London.
by Charles Finch
Published 2019
This chilling new mystery takes readers back to Charles Lenox's very first case and the ruthless serial killer who would set him on the course to become one of London's most brilliant detectives.
Anne Perry
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.
