Gyles Brandreth's second Oscar Wilde murder mystery is wiser, wittier and more mysterious than the first, and that's saying something. Brandreth has created a livelier and more engaging murder mystery this time around, and he seems more at ease with his historical characters. Wilde, as well as other historical notables like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the poet Robert Sherard, act and speak more naturally.

Brandreth's casting of Wilde as a detective with Sherlock Holmes' powers of observation and Nick Charles' panache is brilliant. Wilde makes an engaging and entertaining detective, as much a tour-guide through the world of Victorian England as a sleuth. Told by Wilde's friend Robert Sherard, with Sherard and Wilde as Watson and Holmes, "A Game Called Murder" is an even better mystery than the first.

When a dinner-party game turns ugly and guests start dying, its up to Oscar Wilde to discover the truth. With a wider cast of characters than the first Wilde mystery, A Game Called Murder keeps the reader guessing until the very end. I thought I had the mystery figured out in the end- but as with the best mysteries- there was a final twist I'd never suspected; a twist that Wilde reveals with his famous wit and aplomb.

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