What is Lord John and the Hellfire Club about?

Our Outlander Book Club will start up again before you know it. We’re jumping into the world that is the Lord John Grey books.

Of course, it all starts with the first short story written. We’re going to read Lord John and the Hellfire Club first. This is available in a few places. It is available on its own on Audible if you listen in audiobook form. You can also get it in Past Poisons: An Ellis Peters Memorial Anthology of Historical Crime, or you can get it in the compilation of other Lord John short stories Lord John and the Hand of Devils.

Before we dive into the book, you’ll want to get an idea of what it’s about. This isn’t following Claire and Jamie’s story. In fact, this short story is vastly different to the main Outlander books.

Lord John and the Hellfire Club plot explained

This is more of a crime short story rather than the epic tale that Outlander is. We pick up in 1756, with Lord John Grey back from Scotland. He is getting used to the life of London again, when he ends up witnessing the murder of a recent acquaintance.

John decides that he wants to get to the bottom of the mystery. This pulls him into the world of Sir Francis Dashwood, who happens to run the Hellfire Club. Does this place have answers? It’s certainly possible.

As he delves deeper into the mystery, he comes across a familiar face from his past: George Everett. This man knows of John’s own past, and that could put John’s life at risk in more ways than one.

This short story involves another familiar character from the world of Outlander. We get to see Harry Quincy again, who was the governor of Ardsmuir before Lord John Grey while Jamie Fraser was there.

Get Lord John and the Hellfire Club on Amazon to prepare for our read-through.