The Hellfire Club [Import] [Paperback]

Peter Straub (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins; New Ed edition (2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006498485
• ISBN-13: 978-0006498483
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,103,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Straub's masterwork, November 9, 2004

By 

Craig Clarke "Living After Midnight: Hard and... (New England) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Hellfire Club (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book by favorite author, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hellfire Club (Hardcover)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good or Bad?, May 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hellfire Club (Mass Market Paperback)

This is my third Straub book, the first was Shadowland. I must say that this one is written better technically but I enjoyed the plot of Shadowland much better because it was so unique. The Hellfire Club, however, had classic Steven King elements along with the classic Straub flare. A King fan could see the vilian Dart coming a mile away. As regards the style of the book, Straub is one of the most confusing writers that I have ever read (barring Hawthorne of course) because there are times when you just don't understand why he says what he says or what he means. However, the book did have its flashes of genius. The plot was varied and unexpected which was refreshing. The weaving in of the book Night Journey into the plot was inventive. But Straub dashes his genius with an over-the-top writing style that can get a little tedious to get through. While he seems to be getting better as an author he needs a good editor to tell him how to clean a novel up.