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The Hellfire Club

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The Hellfire Club

By: Jake Tapper
Narrated by: Jake Tapper
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About this listen

 A young Congressman stumbles on the powerful political underworld of 1950's D.C. in this "potent thriller" (David Baldacci) and New York Times bestseller from CNN correspondent Jake Tapper.

Charlie Marder is an unlikely Congressman. Thrust into office by his family ties after his predecessor died mysteriously, Charlie is struggling to navigate the dangerous waters of 1950s Washington, DC, alongside his young wife Margaret, a zoologist with ambitions of her own. Amid the swirl of glamorous and powerful political leaders and deal makers, a mysterious fatal car accident thrusts Charlie and Margaret into an underworld of backroom deals, secret societies, and a plot that could change the course of history. When Charlie discovers a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of governance, he has to fight not only for his principles and his newfound political career...but for his life. Genre Fiction Historical Mystery Political Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Espionage Fiction

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Critic reviews

Praise for The Hellfire Club
"This is a remarkably accomplished effort, especially for a first novel, very much like a Brad Meltzer thriller: energetic and mysterious, with plenty of suspense and a general feeling of evil lurking just barely behind the scenes. Tapper brings an expert's eye to the novel, too, layering it with the kind of detailed political knowledge that only someone with his first-hand experience could bring to the story. An auspicious debut."—Booklist
"Fiction is as suspenseful as truth in Jake Tapper's The Hellfire Club"—Vanity Fair, What to Read in May
"CNN's Jake Tapper proves he has the page-turning knack in his entertaining debut novel"—Jocelyn McClurg, USA Today
"The Hellfire Club is hot summer reading"—Tampa Bay Times
"The action comes fast and furious, "House of Cards" on steroids; you'll be turning pages faster than a cable channel updates its chyron. Perfect for an airplane or the beach, The Hellfire Club is a worthy distraction from the real-life news cycle Tapper presides over."—Cynthia Dickison, Minnesota Star Tribune
"Insightful... Tapper takes readers back to a Washington remembered for being a time of distrust and potential future conflicts. Key historical figures interact with Tapper's fictional characters, and with his sources at the end of the novel showcasing his research, it almost feels like everything actually happened. It is fiction, however, well-written and worthwhile."—Jeff Ayers, The Associated Press
"[The Hellfire Club is] both an engaging and slyly timely foray into Washington politics... incorporat(ing) shades of Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as well as elements of contemporary toxic alliances."—Seattle Review of Books
"Startlingly good...a reminder that the rarest thing of all in spy novels is a writer willing to give us a character who could exist just as easily in any kind of literary fiction."—Alexander Aciman, Tablet
"[The Hellfire Club] has the best qualities of this sort of historical fiction, which include the winking perspective of the present."—Ben Smith, BuzzFeed
"An ambitious debut, a meticulously researched work of historical fiction with a byzantine plot punctuated by explosive, Dan Brown-esque twists"—Alexandra Alter, New York Times
"a splashy, swampy page-turner [that] plunges readers into the heart of '50s Washington, D.C. The book showcases Tapper's passion for American political history, rich as it is with fascinating period details, as well as his feel for a story well-told."—David Canfield, Entertainment Weekly
All stars
Most relevant
This is the best audiobook I've listen to in some time. The plot was gripping, the characters were engaging and the reading was superb. with such well known historical figures included, it was brave of the author to take that on and would have been all too easy to sound like caricatures, but that was far from the case. I may just have a new favourite author. I hope he finds the time to write many more!

Fantastic story brilliantly read

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I’ve had too many late nights listening to this. It may have taken 6 years to write, but it was worth the wait. Loved the man himself narrating. So many parallels with today’s politics, this is a fantastic debut Mr Tapper.

Perfect political thriller

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it took some time to get going and then set off at breakneck speed for the last few chapters. Enjoyed the story and the twists...

intrigue

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The path from journalist to thriller writer is well-worn and there have been some very notable successes along the way; Frederick Forsyth and Robert Harris come readily to mind. I liked "Original Sin"; Jake Tapper's account of the last days of the Biden administration, so I was intrigued to see how he would handle that same transition.
At first, I was quite impressed; the build up of 50s politics is something that rings true if you have read/listened to Robert Caro's majestic books on LBJ. But after that, the skills of a journalist and political pundit needed to hand over to those of the thriller writer, and things fell away for me. The investigations into murky dealings began to border on teenage fiction. The action scenes at the end are comic strip. The denouement takes us from Nancy Drew to Scooby Doo: "Those Pesky Kids" discover the plot and the old timer in charge of the theme park drops his disguise to become an FBI agent.
Maybe with a bit more practice, Jake can get this a bit more polished, but I am not sure I will be around to find out.

A bit too Nancy Drew and Scooby Doo for me

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