The Murders at Reading Gaol

It is 1897, Dieppe. Oscar Wilde, poet, playwright, novelist, raconteur and ex-convict, has fled the country after his release from Reading Gaol. Tonight he is sharing a drink and the story of his cruel imprisonment with a mysterious stranger. He has endured a harsh regime: the treadmill, solitary confinement, censored letters, no writing materials. Yet even in the midst of such deprivation, Oscar's 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

In this, the latest novel in his acclaimed Oscar Wilde murder mystery series, Gyles Brandreth takes us deep into the dark heart of Wilde's cruel incarceration.

“'What sets the novel apart is Brandreth's talent for conveying time and place. The barbarism of close confinement has rarely been so graphically and movingly portrayed'”

The curse of fictionalising well-known characters is having to manoeuvre within the facts, but Brandreth manages it superlatively. This is light stuff, but energetic, and Brandreth clearly has Wilde at heart - Financial Times

Praise for the Oscar Wilde Series

'Gyles Brandreth and Oscar Wilde seem made for each other' - Daily Telegraph

A cast of historical characters to die for - Sunday Times

Genius . . . Wilde has sprung back to life in this thrilling and richly atmospheric new novel - Sunday Express

A witty fin-de-siecle entertainment . . . rattlingly elegant dialogue - Sunday Times

Very entertaining - Literary Review

A flight of imagination that partners Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle in a deadly pursuit to the heart of the Eternal City merits a round of applause for sheer chutzpah . . . Gyles Brandreth succeeds magnificently . . . The relationship between the two writers is drawn so convincingly, but there is also dialogue of the period without any Victorian heaviness and a plot that is intriguing throughout. Brandreth's research is impeccable. Literary and theological references merge easily into a skilfully crafted story that goes all the way to meet the standards set by his two eminent protagonists - Daily Mail

Brandreth has always delighted in puzzles, in the quirks of both the past and present, and in the gloriously camp wit of Oscar Wilde. Here all of these things come together in a story that reminds us how enjoyable a well-told traditional murder mystery can be - Scotsman

Gyles Brandreth is a writer, performer, former MP and government whip whose career has ranged from hosting Have I Got News For You to starring in his own award-winning musical revue in London's West End. Currently a reporter with The One Show on BBC1 and a regular on Radio 4's Just a Minute, his acclaimed Victorian detective stories are now being published in nineteen countries around the world and are currently in development for TV. All six books in the series are available from John Murray. You can and at and about Gyles at

It is 1897, Dieppe. Oscar Wilde, poet, playwright, novelist, raconteur and ex-convict, has fled the country after his release from Reading Gaol. Tonight he is sharing a drink and the story of his cruel imprisonment with a mysterious stranger. He has endured a harsh regime: the treadmill, solitary confinement, censored letters, no writing materials. Yet even in the midst of such deprivation, Oscar's 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 In this, the latest novel in his acclaimed Oscar Wilde murder mystery series, Gyles Brandreth takes us deep into the dark heart of Wilde's cruel incarceration.

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