Oscar Wilde and the Death of No Importance is the first of a series of what is planned to be nine novels. Narrated by the poet and Wilde’s future biographer Robert Sherard in 1939– fifty years after the events of the story– the novel seems to catch Wilde’s personality and flair. I had a hard time deciding which of Wilde’s witticisms the author penned and which were lifted from Wilde’s published work.
By far the most interesting parts of the book are Wilde’s rather unlikely friendship with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who figures prominently; and the domestic detail of Wilde’s everyday life. The plot itself is not quite riveting, but overall, it’s fun. When Wilde is being “observant,” he is a very like Sherlock Holmes; when he is, as Sherard says, “on song,” is is witting and entertaining, carrying the reader and his friends on great waves of entertaining talk.
I don’t always like historical mysteries or ones with famous authors, but I like the ones with Jane Austen, and I’m sure I’ll read more in this series.
Follow this link for a synopsis and review of the novel.
