erastes

I'm blogging today on Unusual Historicals for their themed month "Places you;ve never heard of" about Chaeronea. Never heard of it? Go and check it out.

Just finished the 3rd Oscar Wilde book by Gyles Brandreth, and I'm sorry to the people who recommended this, but *shrug * I didn't find it any better than book two. I'll probably review it on SIN but it won't get more than a 3. I think the reason for this is that I prefer detective novels that allow you to join in, but this book (called Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man's Smile) doesn't do that. There is, in fact, very little detectoring going on, but a hell of a lot completely superfluous nonsense, while - once again - Brandreth proves how well he knows Oscar Wile by including loads of his aphorisms and sneaky references to plays he has yet to write. No doubt this is Great Fun for those who like finding sneaky references - but when it's a detective story, I expect it to be a detective story and not a tale of inane chat, endless chapters of what they ate and drank - and which part of historical Paris they visited (proving the research....)

In this respect it's no better than Dan Brown - it really smacks of I'VE DONE THE RESEARCH AND YOU'LL LEARN IT OR ELSE - and there's a lot of this sort of thing.

"We saw Jenny Lind perform."

"Oh, yes- the Swedish Nightingale"

Because obviously we need to be told this stuff in such a tub thumping way. There's also a lot of repetition, Brandreth seems obsessed by ages and heights - we are told a bazillion times how old Oscar is, how old Robert is, how tall everyone is in relation to everyone else - so much so that I began to think it was relative to the murder but it's not. In fact NOTHING is relevant to the murders - not even the name of the book!! Who's the Dead Man with the smile? Because he's never bloody mentioned! It's like the Ring of Fire - snappy title, but not IN THE BOOK. Editor needed.

If it hadn't've been a library book, it would have been unfinished and thrown against the wall. Bah. Won't be bothering with this series again. Mr B? Take a big fish slap from me.