Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

When Barker and Llewelyn are hired to find a girl from the upper classes who has gone missing in the East End, they assume her kidnapping is the work of white slavers. But when they discover five girls have been murdered in Bethnal Green, taunting letters begin to arrive in Craig's Court from a killer calling himself Mr. Miacca.

Barker fears that Miacca might be part of the Hellfire Club, a group of powerful, hedonistic aristocrats performing Satanic rituals. He must track the fiend to his hideout, while Llewelyn confronts the man who put him in prison.

Dodging muckrakers, navigating the murky Thames under cover of darkness, and infiltrating London's most powerful secret society, The Hellfire Conspiracy is another wild ride that "brings to life a London roiling with secret leagues, deadly organizations, and hidden clubs" (Ron Bernas, Detroit Free Press).

Average Customer Rating:

Peter Rabbit steals the book

Customer Rating:

As usual with Will Thomas's series, plot follows place and Thomas demonstrates how a good writer can use his librarian skills to soak up and then show us London in the 1880's. It has been three weeks since I finished "The Hellfire Conspiracy" and I couldn't name the killer -- but I remember the characters who didn't kill but who add the zest and flavor. As usual, LLewelyn falls in love too easily (this time with the future author of the Peter Rabbit stories) and Barker is a pistol.

LOVE THIS BOOK!	Customer Rating:
I've read every book in this terrific series! Very well researched and historically accurate with intriguing unique characters. My only regret is that Mr. Thomas can't write faster!!

Didn't live up to previous books in series

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I've read the first 3 novels in this series and have enjoyed them. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for The Hellfire Conspiracy. It seems that Barker has lost his "voice" and there was too much focus on Llewelyn and his "romance". While the historical setting and facts were interesting, the topic of a serial killer of young girls seemed primarily chosen for its sensational value. The story feels too slow, plodding and disjointed in the beginning and wraps up too rapidly. It also seems that Thomas is a bit too pleased with himself and his inclusion of real people in his stories--and the actual story suffers for it. Well, at least he has cured me of this series. Now, I will get more done!

Well crafted historical mystery

Customer Rating:

Will Thomas's "The Hellfire Conspiracy" is set in Victorian London in the late 1800's and is conceived in similar fashion to Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes adventures. Story narrator young Welshman Thomas Llewelyn and his employer and mentor Cyrus Barker are private enquiry agents commisssioned by a distraught Major DeVere of the Royal Horseguards. DeVere's young daughter Gwendolyn has gone missing during a visit accompanying her mother to the seamy, lower class neighborhood of Bethnal Green. The mother Hyapatia is a volunteer at the Charity Organization Society designed to provide aid to the underprivileged denizens of the downtrodden area. Barker and Llewelyn soon learn after consorting with Scotland Yard Inspector Swanson that a rash of serial murders of young girls have plagued the area. The unfortunate victims had been strangled after being ravished, their bodies tossed into the murky waters of the Thames. Barker and Llewelyn receive a series of notes from a mysterious Mr. Miacca, a children's literature bogeyman, claiming resposibility and taunting them. The enquiry agents unwittingly have stumbled into a political firestorm. It seems that local socialists are pushing for legislation raising the age of consent for young women from 13 to 16 years of age. Members of the upper crust long involved in licentious behavior have made a habit of procuring mistresses from among the poor needy inhabitants of the more distressed areas of London, like Bethnal Green. Such legislation favored by a wide array of characters with socialist beliefs, are the bane of the upper class. While setting up surveillance across from the Charity Organization Society, which seems to be the center of all the criminal activity, Barker and Llewelyn are being thwarted in their investigative efforts owing to a lack of cooperation from the police. Thomas has an aptitude for descriptively creating the historical settings of his plots which are populated by a wide variety of charcaters, giving his novels a true feeling that they were penned back in the days of Victorian England.

Atartling Thriller	Customer Rating:
Will Thomas's unique characters kept my attention throughout, and kept me guessing as to possible outcomes. With each book Thomas adds depth to his key characters and introduces new characters to grab the reader's interest. Together the characters, setting and plot draw the reader into a terrific adventure.