Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man's Smile by Gyles Brandreth

Oscar Wilde is in his late 20's when he goes to the United States for a lecture tour. While he is there, he meets a man named Eddie Garstrang, who saves Oscar from being taken (along with his wallet) by two rogues and confidence-men. Oscar spends a few days with Garstrang, who is an excellent shot and makes his living playing poker and other card games for money.

Along the way, Oscar has a black manservant who was hired for him by the same people who arranged for his lecture tour, a man named W.M. Traquair. Traquair acts as Oscar's manservant all throughout his travels in America, and when it is time for Oscar to return home, he runs into another series of acquaintances, Edmond LaGrange, a famous French Actor, who is traveling with his theatre company back to Paris. With him are his mother, Liselotte, known as Maman, and his leading lady, Gabrielle de la Tourbillion.

Oscar recommends Traquair as LaGrange's new dresser, the former one having died in America, and accompanies them onto the ship to London and Paris, where he discovers another old acquaintance, Eddie Garstrang, who LaGrange won at cards. Literally! When Garstrang couldn't pay his gambling debts, LaGrange hired him to play cards with himself and some of his other actors and actresses in the company. And so he does.

Liselotte La Grange is roundly disliked by most of the actors, but they will not say so to her face. Her companion, an old French Poodle named Marie Antoinette, is spoiled by her mistress and creates messes wherever she goes, not to mention drooling and clouds of potent flatulence. But when Oscar is ready to disembark in England, her dead body is discovered in his steamer trunk, suffocated to death in dirt from one of the plant pots. Maman assumes Oscar to have done it, but while Oscar despised the beast, he didn't kill it. And how stupid would it have been for him to hide the dead animal in his own trunk? Oscar soon persuades the Police to see it his way, and recovers the books that he originally had in his trunk and goes home.

But when he is invited to Paris by LaGrange, he decides to go. There, he meets a young American named Robert Sherard, and the two quickly become fast friends. So, when Oscar decides to go see LaGrange, Sherard comes with him. Oscar, though, has been troubled by the death of Marie Antoinette, the Poodle. Even though Maman has replaced the dead dog with another poodle, this one named the Princesse de Lamballe- the best friend and handmaiden of Marie Antoinette, Oscar is sure that what happened to the dog was out and out murder. But who would do such a thing?

Though it has been several months since they last met, Oscar is happy to be reunited with Traquair, who is quite depressed in being in a country where he doesn't speak the language. Oscar attempts to help tutor him, but meets with little success. Then, one day, Traquair is discovered dead in his room, an apparent victim of suicide, having inhaled gas from the gas-jet. LaGrange grieves that he didn't take Traquair's homesickness seriously enough, that it obviously led to Traquair committing suicide rather than continue to remain in a place which he couldn't understand people's words.

Robert Sherard is prevailed upon to be LaGrange's new dresser, but at the same time, Oscar asks him to keep an eye on the troupe, and the main actors, including LaGrange's son and daughter by his first wife:Agnés and Bernard. As Oscar has Washington Traquair cremated and takes his ashes to the American Consulate in London to be sent home and buried in America, events take a stranger turn at the theatre. First, it seems that Agnés has gone mad, breaking down every time she shows up to rehearse. The only one who can seem to console her is her father.

Robert Sherard has fallen in love with Gabrielle de la Tourbillon, and persues her, even though Eddie Garstrang feels much the same. But LaGrange, who is not only the head of the company but also her lover, says he doesn't mind if both of them have time with her and have affairs with her. He understands and doesn't mind. Meanwhile, Agnés says she has fallen in love with an older man and is happy, but she still seems troubled. So when she disappears, even though her father says not to worry, she has done this before, Oscar and Robert Sherard worry very much.

They do eventually find her, in a rest home, but shortly after she returns to the company for another performance in Hamlet, she seemingly kills herself by drowning in a small fountain pond. By now, Oscar is severely worried for both the company and her brother- who soon after commits suicide by burning himself to death in his coach. It seems someone has a grudge against the LaGrange family. But who could it be? One of the other actors in the company? A rival theatre company?

As Oscar races to protect Edmond LaGrange, he must find the true identity of the murderer before an innocent man dies, and before a murderous plot can come to complete fruition. But can Oscar, dilettante and asthete, have any hope of solving such horrible crimes?

I like these books, and I feel it captures the spirit of Oscar Wilde and the spirit of the age in which he lived. Oscar is an asthete, but true to his works, he is also a keen observer of humans, and uses this to seek out the answer to the mystery. I found this mystery to be disturbing in some ways- mainly in what some of the characters get up to and some of the intimate connections they make during the story.

Yes, this is the gilded age, and drugs, drinking and sex are everywhere. But I didn't find them half as disturbing as some other aspects of the story- and this isn't delving into half of the things which were allowed and seen as just fine back in those days. Oscar Wilde's proclivities aren't delved into during the story- he's quite in love with the woman who will become his wife, and turns down all invitations to "play" sexually. But most of Oscar Wilde's interesting character is explored less than that of the other characters in the story. Oscar's character only really comes through in the almost parenthetical first chapter, when it talks about his visit to America, but which almost sounds cribbed from a history book or a biography of Wilde.

I liked this novel for a razor-sharp portrayal of Wilde, and the knotty, thorny mystery it presents for us, as well as the portrayals of the other characters, which seem just as sharp and real as Wilde himself, and just as suited to the milleu. Highly recommended.