I was intrigued by the title of Brandreth’s book Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders, since it promised to depict a giant of literature as a detective. In fact, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the main character, with him as the narrator in first person, with Wilde as secondary. However, as the story unfolds, it is Wilde who employs Sherlock Holmes’s techniques to solve a mystery and murders unfolding in the Vatican. Although Doyle is the creator of Holmes, one of the world’s greatest detectives, he is relegated to playing Watson to Wilde’s Holmes.
Doyle is depicted as clueless and Wilde is the observant one,
who eventually solves the mystery.
During the heyday of Doyle, the author received volumes of
fan mail, including many messages for Sherlock Holmes. In Brandreth’s novel, Doyle receives several
packages addressed to Holmes, which he opened weeks and months after receipt. Doyle had been delinquent in responding to
his mail, which moved slowly in the late nineteenth century. Among the correspondence, Doyle found a mummified
hand, a severed finger with a rose-gold ring, and a lock of hair.
Since the packages were sent from Rome, Oscar Wilde
convinces Doyle that they must travel there to discover the source of the objects,
the purpose in sending them, and solve the mystery of their origin.
To Wilde, money is no object and is more than willing to
throw it around to conduct the investigation in luxury, with good food and
drink.
Brandreth employs Wilde’s flair and witticism throughout the
novel. But his treatment of Doyle is bland
in comparison. Doyle seems dull and
without personality. Of course, compared
to Wilde, most everybody would be ordinary.
In this story, Doyle meets a charming young lady, “Irene Sadler” (an
obvious reference to Irene Adler, who appears in A Scandal in Bohemia, and is
the only person to outsmart Sherlock Holmes). It seems Doyle is smitten by Irene
Sadler based on Wilde's observations, but there are no inner thoughts or acknowledgement of his feelings
toward her.
Weird.
If you’re an Oscar Wilde fan, you might enjoy this novel,
but it really did not hold my interest and took me a while to finish it.
