In 1895 Oscar
Wilde was imprisoned for homosexuality. He spent two years at hard labor, in a
dismal setting where the prisoners starved, were beaten, died of untreated
illness, and were not allowed to talk or even look at each other. Despite being
in proximity to others a couple of times a day, they were effectively in
solitary confinement. This is the setting for this novel, the 6th in
the series that feature Wilde as a detective so clever that his friend Arthur
Conan Doyle based Sherlock Holmes on him.
The story is
told by Wilde to his biographer Robert Sherard (a contemporary of Wilde’s), but
it’s a retelling of how he told the story to a stranger in Paris, where he fled after his release from
prison. In this tale, two gaolers were killed, perhaps murdered. Brothers, one
was known as vicious while the other accepted sexual favors from prisoners in
return for leniency. Someone higher up wants to know if it was murder, and if
so, is the person being blamed the real killer? Wilde is given some leeway and
preference in the name of figuring this out.
It’s a good
mystery story, and Brandreth uses a lot of historical detail to bring the dank,
stinking, horrible prison to vivid, unpleasant, life. There are a couple of
nice twists in the tale. All in all a very entertaining adventure.
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