The Men of the Hellfire Club Were Thus Bound Together Forever

~The Hellfire Club~
Charlie & Margaret Marder Mysteries
Book 1
By Jake Tapper
Amazon ~ Powell's

Charlie Marder is a World War II veteran and popular academic. He's also an unlikely congressman, thrust into office by his power-broker father's connections. Idealistic and determined, Charlie wants to use his new position for good. He quickly learns, however, that in 1950s Washington, little is as it seems. Struggling to navigate the treacherous waters alongside real-life figures such as President Dwight Eisenhower, Senator John F. Kennedy, and Roy Cohn, Charlie is confronted by a world in the throes of McCarthyism, where no one trusts anyone. His education in the compromising and occasionally illegal ways of Washington makes him question his own ethical compass and the morality of men he admires, including his father.

Alongside his pregnant wife, Margaret, a zoologist with ambitions of her own, Charlie struggles to do what is right while learning more about the mysterious circumstances of his predecessor's death. Amid the swirl of glamorous and powerful politicians and businessmen, a fatal car accident plunges Charlie and Margaret into an underworld of dark bargains, secret societies, and a conspiracy that could change the course of history. When Charlie learns too much, he has to fight not only for his principles and his newfound political career...but for his life.


I saw this one when Tapper was doing the rounds on Late Night (I believe he was on both Colbert's and Meyer's shows) and decided to pick it up. Actually, he was doing the rounds for the sequel, The Devil May Dance, which sounded like an interesting depiction of the Kennedy's and their possible mob ties, so I figured I'd need to read its predecessor. I don't read much historical fiction these days, and even less centered around USA politics, so it was a bit of a gamble for me. In the end, I think I came out about even.

The book starts out with a scene that immediately set me against its main character. When a guy seems to have killed a girl and immediately goes to cover it up, that tends to put me off liking someone. But then we get the lead-up to, and further exploration of the event and it becomes clear that things aren't what they seem. Unfortunately, it takes 50% of the book to get there.

I came around to liking Charlie, the smart but politically naive main character who's just now getting settled into Congress. He's definitely too pure for the system he's been dumped into and quickly finds himself drowning in the seedy underbelly that is/was* American politics. You even understand his plight with covering up the girl's murder, not wanting one horrible thing to cancel out all the good things he has and could still do—I'm not saying it's right, but it's at least understandable. A bit of an idealist, a dreamer, he's far from stupid and catches on quickly. I would have liked a bit more agency in his mystery solving, but I suppose having a good support team is a skill unto itself.

Speaking of, I definitely preferred Margaret to Charlie. The cover describes her as "pregnant [and] with ambitions of her own," but that doesn't even scratch the surface. Witty, intelligent, passionate, cool-headed, logical, she could easily have carried a book of her own. In fact, she's the one who has both breakout Aha! moments after Charlie recounts all his troubles to her. And I was thrilled to see her acknowledged in the end when someone outright states that she possesses much more intelligence than her husband. I hope/trust that she'll continue to play a prominent role in the next installment(s) in the series.

But Margaret isn't the only stand-out character in this book, for there's a cast of dozens. Obviously you're going to remember the cameos by the big names like Eisenhower, Jack Kennedy, and McCarthy, but there are plenty of fictional players that will stick in your memory. Like Isaiah Street and Chris MacLachlan, two fellow veterans and early allies Charlie makes as he starts to maneuver through Congress's tricky waters. Or Davis LaMontagne and Estes Kefauver, who each do their best to take Charlie under their wing. Though I can't say I know all of who is real or imagined (Kefauver turned out to be a real Senator), I found the large cast helped paint the picture of life and politics back in the 1950s, and that every one had a purpose to the story.

But one place the large cast hurt the book was in its fight scene: eight people all crammed in one room took me reading through three times before I could parse it out. Now, in fairness, I was up late, mere hours before the book had to go back to the library, and was listening to it at 2x speed on audiobook (replayed at normal speed the second time) along with the eBook on my tablet, so there's a very strong possibility that my brain just wasn't able to keep up with the action at that point. But, in revisiting the text the next day to read it through a third time, I still had to go through it diligently, going back through paragraphs again and again, in order to finally get a clear picture of the fight.

I think most of my confusion was caused by a couple factors: the names used, and the illogical actions of one character. First, the names. The setting of the fight contains a number of historical figures' statues littering the area. Add in these names to the eight people already participating, and there is suddenly a lot more to keep track of as characters duck behind, topple over, and otherwise use these named statues. It also didn't help (especially in listening) that some of the characters' names share similar phonemes (such as "är" or "ē"). Then there's the one character who I kept trying to place in the action, because surely he must be doing something, but discovered that he was actually pretty superfluous. He kept "going" to do things, but never actually did anything during the bulk of the fight. The scene probably could have used another mapping out to make sure everyone was accounted for...

On the subject of the book's politics, it should be no surprise that I'm a bit of a lefty in the political sphere, so it was both gratifying and depressing reading about how politics are/were* conducted in this book. Not just with the McCarthy trials, but with simply getting budgets, bills, and other initiatives 'supported'. The system doesn't seem to allow for morals, just an ongoing line of favors passing back and forth into infinity. Step out of line once and you're forever ostracized. And seeing so many parallels to today's system makes me less than hopeful that change is possible, even if we vote in "good eggs" with new ideas. Not exactly a fun summer read.

Overall, I think I enjoyed this book, but it didn't always make it easy on me. I appreciated the historical research, the mystery/thriller vibe, and the intelligence of the characters leading me through it, but I don't know if I want to return to such a downer of a mood. Yes, I know McCarthyism does eventually fall, but the parallels that run through the political climate of the 50s and today, and the seemingly unconquerable corruption at its heart, make the feigned happy ending just seem hollow and hopeless. I do plan on picking up the sequel, but a good break between then and now is in order. If you have any interest in politics or USA history, and don't mind a little conspiracy-thriller thrown into the mix, then you might check out The Hellfire Club and see if you might learn a thing or two. Just be sure to keep your wits about you, or have a super-smart partner close at hand.


*I use "is/was" and "are/were" because the political system described is partly what is depicted in the story, and partly historical truth. Or at least historical theory.

Read by Jake Tapper
Unabridged Length: 10 Hours
Listened at 2x Speed

It's not every day you find an audiobook read by the book's author, but here we are. Tapper did a better job with the huge cast of character voices than I expected him to, what with him being a "serious newscaster" and all. While I probably wouldn't be able to identify each voice on its own, save for a few of the more distinct impressions of famous historical figures (the Kennedy's definitely stood out), it was easy to differentiate between various participants in conversations in the moment. And while his range of female voices wasn't large, it was passable for the notably smaller list of characters.

The one fight scene in the book was particularly hard to follow in the audio. Granted, I was extremely tired when trying to finish the book, but I did have to rewind and listen at half my usual speed (the regular play speed), and I still ended up missing things. Between having eight people involved, constantly switching between two or three scuffles, and a couple of those combatants having very similar-sounding names, I had to use the text on its own just to parse out what happened. Sure, I found out who won, but the play-by-play was too jumbled to follow solely over audio.

I also noticed a few places where the text was changed between the audiobook and ebook. Nothing hugely important, just a couple words here and there, but they were definitely intentional changes. For example, one was referencing the location of a scene, mentioning landmarks which changed from "the Tidal Basin" in the ebook to "the ______ River" in the audio. Not sure one was edited/corrected after the other, or if the audio simply changed some things for the sake of reading out loud. Just something I always find interesting.

Overall, a good audio production. I'd recommend having a copy of the text to reference, especially for the aforementioned fight scene, as the names and dates can get a little hard to remember (though that may just be me staying up too late). Then again, if you're just listening for pleasure (and not review/critique) it would probably work fine on its own.