May 3, 2012

Featured Book: Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders by Gyles Brandreth

I peered closely at the ring. "This is where I need Holmes's magnifying glass," I said.

"Or Wilde's eagle eye," my friend countered. "Do you not see a shape in the scratch marks?"

Screwing up my eyes, I saw something. "The outline of a key?" I suggested.
(ch. 2)



Title:Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders: A Mystery 
Paperback: 368 pages; Touchstone
Publication date: May 8, 2012

Book description: Oscar Wilde returns in the historical mystery series, featuring Wilde as the detective aided by his friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

In 1892 Arthur Conan Doyle, exhausted by his creation Sherlock Holmes, retires to the spa at Bad Homburg. The first person he encounters is Oscar Wilde, and when the two friends make a series of macabre discoveries amongst the fan mail Conan Doyle has brought to answer - a severed finger, a lock of hair and finally an entire severed hand - the game is once more afoot.

The trail leads to Rome, to the very heart of the Vatican. Pope Pius IX has just died. These are uncertain times. To uncover the mystery, Oscar and Conan Doyle must penetrate the innermost circle of the Church - seven men who have a very great deal to lose.
(Goodreads)

Author Gyles Brandreth is a well known BBC broadcaster, theatre producer, novelist, biographer. He has written books on Britain’s royal family and a diary of his years as a member of Parliament.

Thanks to the publisher for a complimentary review copy of this book.

6 comments:

  1. I love mysteries where real historical people solve the crimes. I haven't read this series yet, but I'm going to have to soon.

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  2. I really do need to give these a try!

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  3. Martha and Stacy: The combination of the deboniar Oscar Wilde with the serious Arthur Conan Doyle should make for good reading!

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  4. I have never even heard of these books, and it seems like I have been missing out! This is something that I would be really interested in and need to check out. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

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  5. I have a fondness for mysteries! I've never heard of this author. Will keep my eye out!

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  6. I have never read any SHerlock Holmes, but I would like to someday.

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