It's 1892, London, England. Oscar Wilde is at his peak, garnering acclaim for his recently released play, Lady Windemere's Fan. Oscar and several of his friends—including Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker—belong to a seven-member group called the Socrates Club, which holds a monthly dinner at the Cadogan Hotel. For the May event, Oscar tells each member to invite a guest, making the dinner party a total of fourteen. After dinner Oscar introduces a game called "Murder". Each person is to write down the name of a person he'd like to murder. Things turn somber when some members of the dinner party—including Oscar himself—find themselves on the list of potential victims.

When suspicious deaths follow the club dinner, Oscar and his sidekick, narrator Robert Sherard, wonder if the deaths are coincidence or murder. They begin to investigate the dinner party members, uncovering who selected whom for murder. The more questions they ask, the more unclear the picture becomes. As the deaths continue to pile up, Oscar becomes convinced that there is a devious plot in the works.

Acting as a real-life Sherlock Holmes, Oscar ferrets out the truth. And he does it all while dressing and dining in fine style. Is there a murderer on the loose? Are the deaths really accidental, natural and/or suicide as the police believe? Why was one fellow chosen for death by multiple persons? Will Oscar uncover the truth before it's his turn to die?

Oscar Wilde makes an engaging sleuth for this second book in the Oscar Wilde mystery series. Readers will find OSCAR WILDE AND A GAME CALLED MURDER to be a highly enjoyable mystery. The clues throughout are subtle and the mystery is quite complex. The denouement reminds me of Agatha Christie at her best. Mr. Brandreth has done an excellent job bringing Victorian England to life. I can't recommend this book enough to fans of historical mysteries.

Book Summary

The second witty installment in an astonishingly authentic historical mystery series featuring detective Oscar Wilde and his partner in crime, Arthur Conan Doyle

It's 1892, and Wilde is the toast of London, riding high on the success of his play Lady Windemere's Fan. While celebrating with friends at a dinner party he conjures up a game called "murder" that poses the question: Who would you most like to kill? Wilde and friends -- including Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, and poet Robert Sherard (the novel's narrator) -- write the names of their "victims" on pieces of paper and choose them one by one. After leaving the party, Wilde scoffs at the suggestion that he may have instigated a very dangerous game indeed....

The very next day, the game takes an all-too- sinister turn when the first "victim" turns up dead. Soon Wilde and his band of amateur detectives must travel through the realms of politics, theatre, and even boxing to unearth whose misguided passions have the potential to become deadly poisons...not only for the perpetrator of the seemingly perfect crimes but also for the trio of detectives investigating them.

Richly atmospheric and as entertaining as Wilde himself, this book is the second in a series destined to delight mystery readers and fans of historical fiction alike.