Hellfire: A Novel

If you are a John Saul reader, you don't need a review. You already know how good he is. If you are not a reader already, then get this book and get started. You will be hooked like the rest of us already are.

This was the second book I read by John Saul. In my opinion he is a genius. He knows how to get in your head and play with your emotions, and he has earned my respect, not that he needs it. Some of his newer works seem to repeat the story in some form, so it's better to buy anything he wrote up to The Second Child. Check out The Unwanted too.

Carolyn Rogers marries her childhood flame, the rich Philip Sturgess. The last male heir in the Massachusetts town's local nobility, Philip Sturgess is an impressive man. Unlike his forebears including his aged mother Abigail and 12-year-old spoiled daughter, Tracy, Philip is a kind and reasonable man. He is not too different in temperament and interest from Carolyn's first husband, Alan Rogers, whom she divorced.Twelve-year-old Beth Rogers is miserable at Hilltop, the Sturgess home. Tracy treats her shabbily, humiliates her and does whatever she can to make Beth's life miserable. Beth seeks solace in her old friends who lived on Cherry Street ("where we were happy") and the times she spends with her father. A gentle, intelligent man, Alderman Rogers is involved in a project with Philip Sturgess. Both men want to reopen an old shoe mill with an incindiary history. One century earlier in 1886, several child workers perished in a fire in the old mill. Questionable incidents surrounding the mill crop up; its history looms large. Alderman Rogers, a town alderman as well as an architect/builder has taken on the project at Philip Sturgess' request.Like Michelle from "Comes the Blind Fury," Beth believes she has made contact with a child who died a century earlier in the fire. Like Michelle, Beth is 12 and believes in the supernatural.Strange things happen in the mill. Two boys die in similar circumstances several decades apart; the place reeks of fire. Questions around the old mill are not resolved and the story concludes in a blast of heat.Sympathetic characters, a spooky plot and a heated resolution all make for a compelling story.

Ive read about all of Sauls books except a couple, and this is one of his best. The characters are very real, and the suspense picks up the further you read into the book! Ive read this book twice, and its even better the second time.

John Saul is a fantastic writer and uses many different types of suspense to make his writings much more interesting. He uses the methods of keeping the reader on the edge, guessing, and fear/excitement.- M. Ratliff, BDH