Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man's Smile:

OSCAR WILDE and the Dead Man’s Smile, by Gyles Brandreth.
Touchstone/Simon and Schuster, 2009, 373 pp., $14.00.
ISBN 1-4165-3485-7

Oscar Wilde – renaissance man of the late 19 th century, world traveler, author, thrill-seeker – returns from a wild and wooly trip to America, back to his home in Liverpool, where he is detained by customs and other officials. His luggage reveals not his bound personal books but the carcass of a dead dog, a poodle named Marie Antoinette, belonging to Madame (Maman) Liselotte LaGrange, of the world-renowned LaGrange acting family.

Why is the dog dead? Who would want to kill it? And why involve Oscar?

The dead dog raises a lot of suspicions. Who is the LaGrange family, and what are the perpetrator(s) trying to do?

When Monsieur Edmond LaGrange’s dresser, a black man by the name of Washington Traquair is killed, many think there are very evil intentions for the LaGrange family. But why?

Later, on stage at rehearsal, a weight drops from the ceiling very suddenly, barely missing Oscar – somebody wants him dead as well. Are all these random acts of violence, or is there a unifying, evil intent?

Not long after, Agnes LaGrange is found drowned, and Bernard LaGrange burns to death in a deliberately set carriage fire. After this event, Edmond LaGrange is found dead himself, the result of a suicide by revolver.