Tangled Web UK Review October 2007
Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders by
Gyles Brandreth
hbk out May 07
Published by John Murray
at £12.99
The use of real historical figures as fictional detectives is now well-
established and here is one written in the style of Conan Doyle, who
himself features in the book. The characters and chronology stick closely
to the truth, as shown by some extensive appendices. The story is narrated
by Robert Sherard, an actual friend of Wilde and a poet and author in his
own right.
The tale concerns a number of months in 1889-90, when Oscar is
combining his usual spendthrift man-about-town lifestyle, with some
heavy writing, The Portrait of Dorian Gray being on the stocks at that
time. Sherard is his almost constant companion through a nasty period,
after Oscar discovers on of 'his beautiful boys' lying naked in a
Westminster house with a cut-throat, surrounded by guttering candles.
Throughout the book, the writing skates delicately around Oscar's
fondness for beautiful young boys, which led to his downfall five years
later, but they are at the heart of the plot, which chronicles the efforts of
Oscar to discover the killer, aided by Sherard and Arthur Conan Doyle,
then a family doctor in Southsea.
The storyline is embedded in a mass of detail about Oscar, his dress, his
flambouyant habits and above all, his incessant witty conversation. I am
sure that the author has described this with expert fidelity, but I think that
being with Wilde for more than an hour or two would have driven me to
distraction by his remorseless cleverness. In fact, my favourite line in the
book is 'Veronica turned on him. "Oh, do hush, Oscar! Your never-
ending witticisms can be quite wearisome at times!"'
There is a strong 'whodunit' element in the story, but it is fairly easy to
anticipate the outcome. A skilful and erudite piece of writing and one
well worth reading, not only for the plot, but for much information about
Wilde and his friends at that period.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
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