The Wisdom of Dead Men - (Wildenstern Saga) by Oisín McGann (Paperback)

About the Book

The British Empire is no longer the authority it once was. Instead, it's controlled by private business organizations-the most powerful of which is Ireland's ruthless Wildenstern family. Eighteen-year-old Nathaniel Wildenstern has given up his dreams of travel and adventure to devote himself to being his brother Berto's head of security. With the help of his wife, Daisy. Berto wants to change the barbaric ways of the clan. But there are many among the Wildensterns who like things the way they are, and will resort to whatever devious methods necessary to keep them that way. Meanwhile, the burned bodies of women are appearing around Dublin. When a connection to the Wildenstern family is discovered, Nate, Daisy, and Nate's sister Tatiana decide to investigate. Soon they are digging into shadowy societies and dark family secrets that date back to the origin of the part-animal, part-machine enigmals. And what the young Wildensterns find could shed light on the savage nature of their family itself.

Book Synopsis

While investigating a series of mysterious murders, Nate uncovers dark secrets that threaten to reveal the true nature of the Wildenstern family

The British Empire is no longer the authority it once was. Instead, it's controlled by private business organizations--the most powerful of which is Ireland's ruthless Wildenstern family. Eighteen-year-old Nathaniel Wildenstern has given up his dreams of travel and adventure to devote himself to being his brother Berto's head of security. With the help of his wife, Daisy, Berto wants to change the barbaric ways of the clan. But there are many among the Wildensterns who like things the way they are, and will resort to whatever devious methods necessary to keep them that way.

Meanwhile, the burned bodies of women are appearing around Dublin. When a connection to the Wildenstern family is discovered, Nate, Daisy, and Nate's sister Tatiana decide to investigate. Soon they are digging into shadowy societies and dark family secrets that date back to the origin of the part-animal, part-machine enigmals. And what the young Wildensterns find could shed light on the savage nature of their family itself.

Review Quotes

"Give this Victorian series to teens looking for a unique steampunk angle (a Dublin setting instead of London) with a hint of horror, à la H. G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau." --School Library Journal

"Very tense, with red herrings aplenty and a goodly dollop of humour." --The Bookbag

"McGann mixes science, politics and history and raises many moral issues. He manages it all with a wonderful lightness of touch and superb control of an ever-evolving story that grows in complexity with every chapter but somehow never becomes confusing to the reader." --Inis magazine

"The Wisdom of Dead Men is an explosive fantasy read, set in the Victorian era. It opens with a gripping spontaneous combustion and the action never lets up." --The Independent

"A rollicking, steampunk adventure . . . I couldn't put it down." --The Irish Times

"He reveals lush detail as he builds a fascinating world for his characters to inhabit but never gets bogged down in self-indulgent minutiae and his characters, even the bit-part players, are always fully rounded and believable." --Sci-Fi-London

About the Author

Oisín McGann was born and raised in Dublin and Drogheda, County Louth, in Ireland. He studied art at Senior College Ballyfermot and Dún Laoghaire School of Art, Design & Technology. Before becoming an author, he worked as a freelance illustrator, serving time along the way as a pizza chef and a security guard, as well as a background artist for an animation company and an art director and copywriter in an advertising agency.

In 2003 McGann published his first two books in the Mad Grandad series for young readers, followed by his first young adult novel, The Gods and Their Machines. Since then, he has written several more novels for young adults, including the Wildenstern Saga, a steampunk series set in nineteenth-century Ireland, and the thrillers Strangled Silence and Rat Runners.

A full-time writer and illustrator, McGann is married, has three children, and lives somewhere in the Irish countryside.