Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death

US title: Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder
by Gyles Brandreth
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In 1892 Oscar Wilde is at the top of his fame, his play Lady Windermere's Fan is a success and he is celebrated wherever he goes. Wilde regularly gathers what he calls the Socrates' club at Cadogan Hotel in London. This the evening of May 1st the company consists of Oscar himself and six of his friends. His friend has each in turn invited one person putting the total of the company to 14 persons. Several of the celebrities of this time can be found within this group.

At this meeting Oscar initiates a game he calls Murder. Each one in the party has to anonymously write down the name of someone they would like to murder if there were no risk of getting caught on a piece of paper. The task of the group is then to find out who put which name and why. As the names from the notes are read out and the names of some of the members in the group are listed the game does not seem so much fun anymore. The party breaks up with the participants all trying to convince it other that it was - after all - only a game.

But already the next day the person whose name was first listed dies suddenly. When more people on the list die Oscar Wilde has to apply his sharp mind to finding out who has turned his game into a sinister reality.

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I noticed this book in a bookstore in Copenhagen thanks to its beautiful cover. When I realised it was a crime novel with Oscar Wilde as the lead character it became irressistable.

And this is an amazing book that cleverly mixes real people with ficticious characters, real time events with ficticious events - everything located in Wilde's London. Many of the famous quotations of Oscar Wilde's find a natural place in the text as well as statements by other famous people from the time. The book is also written in a lovely language.

Wilde is also very well suited as a crime investigator. He was friends with Arthur Conan Doyle - who also has a role in this book - and many claims he was the model for Sherlock Holmes' brother Mycroft. He is observant, has an eye for details, imaginative but also logical and analytical.

I believe you can take a lot of pleasure from this book without knowing too much about Oscar Wilde and his friends, but some statements and passages takes on a deeper meaning and are more fun if you do. Among other things Wilde mentions regarding someone who has been buried at the Père-Lachaise cemetery how "that's not much of an achievement, they will accept anyone there". It is in Père-Lachaise you can since 1908 find Wilde's own grave.

The cast of characters is fascinating; I know a little about some and want to know more about them all;

• Arthur Conan Doyle;
  doctor, writer and creator of Sherlock Holmes
• Willie Hornung;
  writer and creator of the gentleman thief Raffles
• Bram Stoker;
  writer and creator of Dracula
• Walter Sickert;
  famous painter and among those suspected of being Jack the Ripper

This would go on far too long if I were to list all the people I became intrested in finding out more about so I will limit myself to these and instead recommend people to read the book.