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Books: Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man’s Smile

August 27, 2009

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HOLLYWOOD (RPRN) 08/27/09 — Gabrielle Pantera interviews author Gyles Brandreth; Third book in the Oscar Wilde mystery series seeks help from Sherlock Holmes, rates as 3 Stars ***

“The fall of 2009 marks the 120th anniversary of the first meeting between Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle,” says Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man’s Smile author Gyles Brandreth. “They were introduced by an American publisher, J M Stoddart, in 1889. That historic encounter resulted in Conan Doyle deciding to write a second Sherlock Holmes story. He’d only planned to do one. It led Wilde to write the Picture of Dorian Gray. And, it led me to create the Oscar Wilde mysteries.”

Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man’s Smile has Wilde spending Christmas Eve 1890 with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. As a Christmas gift, Wilde gives Doyle a manuscript of events that took place years before in Wilde’s life. The manuscript is about a mystery that occurred during Wilde’s travels to the United States and Paris in the 1881. Wilde meets the famous acting La Grange family and members of their acting troop on their way to Paris. A member of the troop dies. Was it an accident or murder?

This is Brandreth’s third installment in the Oscar Wilde Mystery series. Brandreth had an interest in Oscar Wilde from an early age. At age 14, Brandreth met Oscar Wilde’s friend John Badley, then 97 years of age. Later, Badley met Oscar Wilde’s grandson. “Meeting Oscar Wilde’s grandson put me right when I was going wrong,” says Brandreth. “For example, I had Oscar drinking Dom Perignon champagne. It didn’t exist in Oscar’s day. Oscar drank Perrier-Jouet.”

“I need to get it right, so I’ve been to all the places he visits in the story: Reading Jail, his London home, his Paris hotel, where he stayed in New York,” says Brandreth. “I also made amazing and amusing discoveries. Oscar Wilde met Louisa May Alcott and P. T. Barnum and Jumbo the Elephant. I want the book to be both an exciting mystery and an accurate and revealing portrait of Wilde and his world and circle.”

Brandreth met his agent Ed Victor when he interviewed him on a radio show. “I was looking for the world’s best literary agent,” says Brandreth. “So, I invited the world’s best literary agent as a guest onto my radio show to reveal his secrets and tell his story.”

“My books were inspired by the true-life friendship between Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes,” says Brandreth. “I went to John Murray, Conan Doyle’s publishers. And Oscar had a generous a patroness in his time of trial: a lady by the name of Schuster. So in New York I went to Simon and Schuster and their Touchstone imprint.”

Brandreth’s editors are Kate Parkin in London and Lauren Spiegel in New York. “They keep me on my toes,”says Brandreth. “As do my editors in France and Italy. I’ve been writing books for 40 years. Publishing is a tough and complex and ever-changing business. The business of making and marketing and selling a book is almost as fascinating to me as the business of writing. I’m not against e-books, but I know there will always be a place for the traditional book you can hold in your hand. A book is the best friend who never lets you down.”

“I’m about to sign a deal for their development as a TV series,” says Brandreth. “This is very exciting. I know it will take time before the books hit the screen, but I’m in no hurry. I’m now writing book four, Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders. I have another nine already planned in outline. My hero’s life was so extraordinary. He knew so many remarkable people. The possibilities are endless.”

“I’m marking the anniversary by unveiling a plaque at the Langham Hotel in London where they met,” says Brandreth. “This is also the 150th anniversary of the birth of Arthur Conan Doyle and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe. He really invented the mystery as we know it.”

Gyles Brandreth was born in a British Forces Hospital in Germany. His father was a lawyer in the army and served with the man who first published the transcripts of the 1895 trials of Oscar Wilde. Brandreth currently lives in London and Paris.

Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man’s Smile: A Mystery has wonderful historical facts about Oscar Wilde and the people and events that occur around his life. The plot of the mystery is slow to start. The facts about Wilde are interesting and a great book unto itself. As a mystery it could start sooner and be fleshed out more. You’ll feel like you’re there listening to Wilde chatting with his friends. Brandreth, captures the essence of Wilde and his life perfectly, but the mystery seems secondary.

Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man’s Smile: A Mystery (Oscar Wilde Mysteries)
by Gyles Brandreth
Trade Paperback, 400 pages, Publisher: Touchstone (September 1, 2009), Language: English, ISBN: 9781416534853

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