Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol (The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries #6) by Gyles Brandreth


In OSCAR WILDE AND THE MURDERS AT READING GAOL, the sixth in Gyles Brandreth's acclaimed Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries series featuring Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle, Reading Gaol's most famous prisoner is pitted against a ruthless and fiendishly clever serial killer. 


It is 1897, Dieppe. Oscar Wilde, poet, playwright, novelist, raconteur and ex-convict, has fled the country after his release from Reading Gaol. Tonight he is sharing a drink and the story of his cruel imprisonment with a mysterious stranger. He has endured a harsh regime: the treadmill, solitary confinement, censored letters, no writing materials. Yet even in the midst of such deprivation, Oscar's astonishing detective powers remain undiminished - and when first a brutal warder and then the prison chaplain are found murdered, who else should the governor turn to for help other than Reading Gaol's most celebrated inmate?



In this, the latest novel in his acclaimed Oscar Wilde murder mystery series, Gyles Brandreth takes us deep into the dark heart of Wilde's cruel incarceration.



In the latest installment of the Oscar Wilde novels, and the last, Brandreth outdoes himself with such a stellar novel!    

Oscar Wilde tells his tale of what happened while he was incarcerated in the prison of Reading Gaol for just over two years.  In fact, everything that transpires is gritty and gripping.  I couldn't stop turning the pages, so enthralled was I with Wilde's story - one he tells after his release.

While he's spending his time, Wilde's clever detective skills are put to use when a warden and a chaplain are found murdered.   But what I found the most riveting is the change in Wilde's character.  He really gives us, the reader, an indepth look into what he's thinking.  Being silence, when he's used to speaking whenever he wanted and how, not to mention that there is next to no humor in between these pages, it's clear that Wilde faces some of his own fears and humanity.   I'm sad to see the series end, but if this is, indeed, the last one, Brandreth did Wilde proud.  Excellent writing and character depiction. If you enjoy this series, you won't want to miss this one.  It's the best of the series! I can't praise this book enough!! 



*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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The old grey donkey, Eeyore stood by himself in a thistly corner of the Forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, "Why?" and sometimes he thought, "Wherefore?" and sometimes he thought, "Inasmuch as which?" and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about.

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