Rating: 
Summary: Once Upon a Time, There Was a Story With All the Answers...
Review: ...and someone was willing to kill, to keep them unknown.When women start dropping dead in Nora Chancel's wealthy neighborhood, she eventually is suspected of having something to do with it. She's barely under arrest, however, when someone with a worse rap-sheet than she could ever hope to achieve (even if she was guilty, which she isn't) abducts her at gunpoint to make his own escape from the police station. Her abductor, a charming, handsome cad named Dick Dart, is a truly despicable fellow for whom no depravity is too low, and Nora has a nasty time ahead of her... This is probably Straub's most unpleasant book, though it is quite good. As usual, it wears out its welcome by going on far too long, and it suffers slightly from dramatic contrivance which weakens its more than usually shaky credibility. The worst thing about it is the skin-crawlingly voyeuristic time Nora is forced to spend with Dart - put simply, Straub writes a very realistic rape scene. The action is steady and interesting, and the plot is the least convoluted Straub has written. The whole thing is pretty straightforward. A typically strong, satisfying Straub read, but be forewarned that it is gruesomely descriptive.
Rating: 
Summary: Hellacious Mess
Review: First off, I should say that "Shadowlands" and "Ghost Story" were two of my first forays into horror and that Peter Straub has always been near the top of my list of favorite horror writers. But... I found this book a tough read, with a confusing opening and cartoonish characters. It only becomes interesting with the introduction of Dick Dart who energizes things around page 160. But this leads to one of the fundamental flaws of this book. As described in other reviews, the main character, Nora, is raped by Dart in a vividly written scene. Yet even though Nora starts the book still unable to cope with her being raped during military duty decades earlier, she doesn't even spend ONE PAGE dealing with this new assault. It is with the characters that Straub lets us down here. Why Nora cares about anything but killing Dart is a mystery. And Straub doesn't seem to really know what to do with Dart himself, smart and one step ahead of everyone for most of the book. He provides two small glimpses at an Achille's heel, but doesn't really follow up on it. Nora's husband is possibly the character who gets the worst treatment. The reader never really gets a grip on who this person is. The story itself concerns the origins of a beloved fantasy trilogy. Think Lord of the Rings. And yet, as seen through the eyes of Nora, Straub doesn't encourage us to have the same good feelings toward this book that many characters have. The followers of the books are given full geek/nerd treatment for the most part, which undermines the reader caring about who ultimately wrote these classics.
Rating: 
Summary: Straub's masterwork
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Dishonesty Among Publishers, Authors, Editors and Lawyers.
Review: On one level this book is about dishonesty among publishers, authors, editors and lawyers. It is also about strong-willed fathers whose destructive acts affect succeeding generations. There are many different strands to the book, even one dealing with ultra-secret societies at Yale. Peter Straub is able to weave these pieces together with extra-ordinary skill and the result is a riveting story.
Rating:
Summary: Exhilirating and Enjoyable
Review: Peter Straub is a fantastic writer, and THe Hellfire Club is a wonderful book. It belongs most to the thriller category, and his subtle use of language dwarfs that of thriller authors Patterson and Harris. Frim page one, Straub weaves an intricate plot that has echoes of everything from The Magnificent Ambersons (the dysfunctional publishing magnate and family) to The Stepford Wives (the "perfect" suburb of Westerholm). Add in splendid characterizations (no character is two dimensional, no matter how small) and the creepiest serial killer I've ever read in a novel (it's true, he looks just like everyone else...no Buffalo Bill/Hannibal Lecter stuff here), and you've got a thinking man's thriller. Is it a literary mystery disguised at a thriller? OR a thriller disguised as a literary mystery? You be the judge. I found it to be simply excellent. 4 1/2 stars out of five; five being reserved for books like Cat's Cradle or Ulysses...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent. Not Straub's best novel, but my favourite.
Review: Peter Straub is far and away my favourite author, and this - while not his best novel - is my favourite one. I've just recently finished reading it for a third time, and I absolutely adore it. There's so much to savour. I have so many favourite parts - the history behind "Night Journey" (which is obviously reminiscent of "The Lord of the Rings") like Paddi Mann and The Hellfire Club of the title, Dick Dart's wonderfully twisted campness, Daisy freaking out at Nora's opinions of her sprawling novel (the Poison family are very funny!), the brief but intense flashbacks to Nora's Vietnam experiences, the story of Katherine Mannheim, Davey being reduced to a child by his father, the excellent finale in Shorelands, and ... oh, so much more! One of my friends thought Dick Dart was too unbelievable to be scary, but I disagree. His over-the-topness certainly makes him scarier and a change from the usual brooding, boring sociopaths in most other novels of the same themes. I highly recommend this excellent novel. If you've read Straub before, you'll love it. If you've never read him before, it makes the perfect introduction to his world.
Rating:
Summary: I Love Nora
Review: Peter Straub, like Stephen King, to my mind, is at his best when he is not doing straight horror. Case in point: "The Hellfire Club", which has at its center, one Nora Chancel. I love Nora because she is a survivor, a pure heroine. In a story of good and evil, she is kidnapped, abused, sexually tormented, and yet, strangely coddled, in a perverse sort of way, by one of the darkest sick-os ever to drop out of Straub's pen. This is the story of a story ("Night Journey") - who wrote it, who didn't, who stole it, who killed for it. Tie in one Dick Dart, a serial killer who was born in the darkest recesses of Straub's imagination and we are, as Bette Davis would say, "in for a bumpy ride". For Straub has created a villan who is the most sadistic, vile, malevolent creature this side of Hannibal Lector. Every time he said "Nora-pie", chills ran up my spine and I heard, in my mind, "Hello Clarice". Don't get me wrong, this is a horror story, but it is about the horror within our own souls. It's a page-turner and you have to love Nora. I did. To paraphrase a song done by the late Artie Shaw, I had it bad and that ain't good. But "The Hellfire Club", that's good. Plenty good indeed.
Rating:
Summary: HELLFIRE AND KITTEN'S BRITCHES
Review: Straub, who has written two of my favorite books--"Ghost Story" and "Floating Dragon" is at his top literary form in this book. Although not one of his best, it is a superlative story filled with many twists and unusual characters. No synopsis; it's already out there. A good book, though.
Rating:
Summary: exelent
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. I have established a habit of reading it once a year (since 1997), and every year I look forward to get started. The writing is superb. The story is exelent and the mixing of the subplots are done with admireable skills. All major characters feel so alive and the interaction between them are truly believable. You will never forget Mr. Dart, funny and evil at the same time. Or the brave Nora for that mather. Mr Straub, You have created a masterpiece!
Rating: 
Summary: Zero Stars
Review: This is truely one of the worst books I've read. It's very slow, banal, and has no point. Very disappointing after reading great books like Ghost Story, The Throat, and Koko by the same author. Even avid Straub fans will be not want to waste their time reading this one.
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