May 24, 2013

Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol by Gyles Brandreth

Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol by Gyles Brandreth is about Wilde’s time spent in prison. It is cold, harsh, and quite different than the life he was living before being imprisoned. Take a dive into this story and feel what it was like for Wilde during his time in prison.


Book Description
Oscar Wilde has fled to France after his release from Reading Gaol. Tonight he is sharing a drink and the story of his cruel imprisonment with a mysterious stranger. Oscar has endured the treadmill, solitary confinement, censored letters, no writing materials. Yet even in the midst of such deprivation, his 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?” – Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol


My Thoughts
Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol is a novel that is more about Wilde’s life in prison than a mystery, like the other stories in the series. After living for pure pleasure out of life, Wilde’s life in prison is quite horrible. However, he is able to eventually see it as a period in his life that he needed for his soul to evolve. Seeing Oscar Wilde in this light is quite different from the guy you normally think of or read about in such stories.

Of course no novel about Oscar Wilde is complete without some sort of murder mystery, so that is included, too. Fans of the series and Oscar Wilde will definitely enjoy this novel.



* Thank you to the publisher of Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol, Touchstone, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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