Author: Gyles Brandreth
First published: 2011
Contains spoilers
The blurb: Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders opens in 1890, at a glamorous party hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Albemarle. All of London’s high society—including the Prince of Wales—are in attendance at what promises to be the event of the season. Yet Oscar Wilde is more interested in another party guest, Rex LaSalle, a young actor who claims to be a vampire.
But the entertaining evening ends in tragedy when the duchess is found murdered—with two tiny puncture marks on her throat. Desperate to avoid scandal and panic, the Prince asks Oscar and his friend Arthur Conan Doyle to investigate the crime. What they discover threatens to destroy the very heart of the royal family. Told through diary entries, newspaper clippings, telegrams, and letters, Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders is a richly atmospheric mystery that is sure to captivate and entertain.
The review: Gyles Brandreth was, as far as I knew years ago, a rather posh, very literate and somewhat amusing TV face but then I discovered he was a Tory and, worse, became a Tory MP and he really fell from my radar as anything other than a Tory and therefore to be ignored in my polite society. However, I saw this book (part of a series he has written of Oscar Wilde mysteries) and a combination of Wilde and vampires, well it had to be read and whilst I still find the man’s politics despicable, I can’t fault this as a piece of entertaining, well-written literature.
The book is epistolary and pulled together by Wilde’s “Doctor Watson” Robert Sherard. There is a “vampire style” murder and Wilde, Conan Doyle and Sherard are told to investigate by the Prince of Wales, who wishes to avoid scandal and thus keep it out of the hands of Scotland Yard. Wilde is our principle and, whilst the young actor Rex LaSalle seems to the reader a prime suspect, he also seems to not have had opportunity. This is despite his insistence that he is a vampire.
The majority of characters are historic personages and we do occasionally meet Bram Stoker – consulted as a vampire expert (he is researching still for Dracula) who does actually take them to a “vampire club” – a night-time gathering of thrill seekers, poets and debutants in a graveyard, officiated by an actual priest, where they do use a white virgin stallion and virgin lad to try and detect a vampire grave (to no avail). Things heat up when a second victim is found, in the proximity of the Prince of Wales once more, as he entertains at the theatre.
There are odd bits that are slightly out – the word undead is used pretty openly and though whilst the timeframe was in proximity to Stoker, as far as we know it only became commonly used for vampires once he used the word in Dracula. Porphyria is also mentioned as “the disease of vampires” but, of course, there was no known connecting of the disease and vampirism until fancifully connected in the twentieth century, using film tropes not folklore, and popularised by Dr David Dolphin. Quibbles aside (more due to these details being out with the otherwise historical setting) the writing is excellent, the pace bounces along and Wilde in particular is drawn so very well, as is Conan Doyle. Of course, within a real world setting this is a mortal murderer not a supernatural creature. 8 out of 10.
In Hardback @ Amazon US
In Hardback @ Amazon UK
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