The Hellfire Club

by Peter Straub

Book Overview

A riveting novel that "combines the intellectual-puzzle mystery with a powerful vein of psycho-thriller suspense" (The Washington Post) and "moves like an express train" (Stephen King), from the #1... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679401377
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Random House
• Length: 463 Pages
• Weight: 1.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 1.8" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Straub's masterwork

It has taken me a long to enjoy the works of Peter Straub. Or maybe it just took him a while to write ones I like. First, I read his "classic" Ghost Story ... and hated it. Bored me stiff. Still, I decided to give him another try and picked up the shorter -- and therefore more easily experimentable -- Julia. It was more interesting and had more sympathetic characters, but it still was a struggle to get through. Koko was no better, it being more a Vietnam novel than the less-reality-based horror I was used to. By this point, I had almost entirely written Peter Straub off as an author for me. I was still curious due to his collaborations with Stephen King (The Talisman and Black House) and his pure stature as an author. Then, lost boy lost girl won the Bram Stoker award of 2003 and something told me to try again. I'm so glad I did. However, it's unfortunate that I've read The Hellfire Club this early, because nothing is likely to top it. On the surface, The Hellfire Club concerns Davey Chancel, scion of the multi-generational family that rules Chancel House, a struggling publisher that is being kept afloat by its ownership of the copyright of author Hugo Driver's Night Journey. Night Journey is one of those books that people obsess over, name themselves after, and gather together to perform their own versions of, and their number includes Davey Chancel and several other characters in the book, including one who came as a complete surprise, especially given how he is written from his entrance on. The history of this book is a major plot point and is so well-described as to make it eminently frustrating that I'll never actually be able to read it. But it's not long before we realize who the lead character really is. I don't want to give much away, because the ride of surprises offered by Straub in The Hellfire Club was most of what kept me reading. Sure, it reads like gangbusters, but there are a lot of people who can write fast-paced fiction. There are much fewer who can write fast-paced fiction and strong characters (especially female ones) and the most fascinatingly disturbingly-evil-yet-somehow-charming villain since Hannibal Lecter in Dick Dart and weave a mystery all through the pages and keeping bringing new and more fascinating characters into the mix without derailing the whole thing and tie the whole works together in a rocket of an ending that leaves you nearly breathless and wanting to start the whole thing all over again. All of which makes The Hellfire Club a compulsive read that I was picking up in every available free moment. Straub may never top this, but this will certainly keep me reading him in the meantime.

A Great Villain

This one has a straight ahead action oriented plot set against a fairly cerebral mystery that operates on multiple levels, and indeed, across generations. Best of all, it features Dick Dart -- as disdainful, odious, and all the way around great villain this side of Hannibal Lecter. In Nora, he has a worthy adversary. On a plain with Straub's best (Koko, Ghost Story).

Best book by favorite author

Peter Straub is my favorite author, and this novel is certainly his best. Full of suspense and intriguing twists of the plot, this book will fully capture your attention. If you like Peter Straub, don't pass this one up. You may also want to read Peter Straub's Mystery and Floating Dragon; they are captivating.

complex, twisting tale of murder

I didn't know what to expect after reading KOKO and hating it! I'm addicted to Straub now. Hellfire Club made me root for one of the strongest and most complex heroines I've seen in a long time. I went back to the prolouge of this book about 15 times, trying to figure out how it all tied together. The book within the book, the story of Pippin,at the beginning of each chapter is also worth re-reading. Hellfire Club is an intelligent book, something I'm not used to when reading mystery books, always figuring out the plot half-way through it...I hate that! I'm on MYSTERY now, and can't put it down, again Straub putting over-drive thought into the characters, and the plot.