Based on this site, critiques of this book are varied. I truly like Jake Tapper as a journalist on CNN and his book reveals a great mind. Developing a story around The Hellfire club showed imagination. This thriller is set in Washington in 1954 during the height of the threats of communism. If you study the book closely, you can easily draw parallels between what was happening then and what is currently happening in the United States. Several quotations from the book are like premonitions of things to come decades later. The plot shows total corruption in Washington. The storyline kept my attention throughout and the author’s style is good.

A fan of Tapper as a journalist, but as a novelist he falls into the familiar journalistic-trap: the detail (great in a news story) overwhelms the storytelling, leaving a decent (not spectacular) premise flat on the page. At times, too, this first novel reads as a bit of an insider's game, with names dropped just to be dropped rather than to move the plot forward in a significant (or at least entertaining) way.

I enjoyed this glimpse into 50's politics, with echoes that carry to today. I thought the story dragged a bit for the first third of the book, but the last third became a page-turner. The amount of research Jake Tapper did for this book is amazing! I used both the hard copy and CDs in completing the book. I didn't care for Tapper's narration on the CDs (kept sounding like I was watching the news, haha!), but I'd still highly recommend it to anyone who likes politics or mystery. And I'd read any historical fiction he may pen in the future.

Interesting historical era (1954) but the author is a hi-profile talking head/journalist with CNN and the anachronisms and chronological errors are off-putting to say the least. Needs a better editor.

An excellent book. It does start out a little slow as he is setting up his characters and then wham!! Politics, power and corruption move in. Powerful characters and a good mystery. His descriptions of Washington D.C. in the 50's could almost be the same city today as he describes what is happening. Then there was fear of Communism and now there is fear of immigrants. I have a much better understanding of Ike's phrase" military-industrial complex" and what he was referring to..

O.K., Tapper is not a Deaver - let's put that out first so thriller is a bit of an overstatement. However, the skilful combination of fact and fiction (and conspiracy thinking) makes you realize just how corrupt Washington is and, indeed, always has been. Fans of history will like this well-researched book.

Does this book come in large print?