About this ebook
A ruthless killer shadows Oscar Wilde across the frontier in this “perfect blend of mystery, satire and travelogue” by the author of Miss Lizzie (Publishers Weekly).
An outrageously controversial literary icon in Great Britain, Irish poet, novelist, and playwright Oscar Wilde has taken his act to America in 1882. The renowned wit is thrilling audiences on his tour of the American West, while gleefully soaking in the rugged ambiance of dusty cow towns and rough saloons.
But all isn’t well on the lecture circuit. At every stop, soon after Wilde’s arrival, eviscerated corpses of redheaded prostitutes are turning up—a grim “coincidence” that hasn’t been lost on dour, alcoholic federal marshal Bob Grigsby. Apparently there’s a serial killer hiding among the writer’s traveling entourage: a motley group of managers, servants, and European aristocrats that has lately included the famed gunman John “Doc” Holliday.
Between his liaisons with married admirer Elizabeth McCourt Doe and fending off potential assaults by unamused cowboys, the flamboyant dandy decides it might be prudent to assist Grigsby in his investigation. After all, his reputation has already been savaged. Unmasking a killer might help to repair it—as long as the manhunt remains entertaining enough . . . and Wilde lives to quip another day.
An outrageously controversial literary icon in Great Britain, Irish poet, novelist, and playwright Oscar Wilde has taken his act to America in 1882. The renowned wit is thrilling audiences on his tour of the American West, while gleefully soaking in the rugged ambiance of dusty cow towns and rough saloons.
But all isn’t well on the lecture circuit. At every stop, soon after Wilde’s arrival, eviscerated corpses of redheaded prostitutes are turning up—a grim “coincidence” that hasn’t been lost on dour, alcoholic federal marshal Bob Grigsby. Apparently there’s a serial killer hiding among the writer’s traveling entourage: a motley group of managers, servants, and European aristocrats that has lately included the famed gunman John “Doc” Holliday.
Between his liaisons with married admirer Elizabeth McCourt Doe and fending off potential assaults by unamused cowboys, the flamboyant dandy decides it might be prudent to assist Grigsby in his investigation. After all, his reputation has already been savaged. Unmasking a killer might help to repair it—as long as the manhunt remains entertaining enough . . . and Wilde lives to quip another day.
About the author
DIVWalter Satterthwait (b. 1946) is an author of mysteries and historical fiction. A fan of mystery novels from a young age, he spent high school immersed in the works of Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane. While working as a bartender in New York in the late 1970s, he wrote his first book: an adventure novel, Cocaine Blues (1979), about a drug dealer on the run from a pair of killers./divDIV /divDIVAfter his second thriller, The Aegean Affair (1982), Satterthwait created his best-known character, Santa Fe private detective Joshua Croft. Beginning with Wall of Glass (1988), Satterthwait wrote five Croft novels, concluding the series with 1996’s Accustomed to the Dark. In between Croft books, he wrote mysteries starring historical figures, including Miss Lizzie (1989), a novel about Lizzie Borden, and Wilde West (1991), a western mystery starring Oscar Wilde. His most recent novel is Dead Horse (2007), an account of the mysterious death of Depression-era pulp writer Raoul Whitfield./div
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