Theo Emery

Author of Hellfire Boys

The Spy Walter T. Scheele

  • German chemist, spy and saboteur Walter T. Scheele was the lynchpin for a ship-bomb plot in 1915 that put incendiary bombs aboard Europe-bound ships. Scheele's chemical bombs were designed to explode mid-voyage and set fire to the ships' cargoes. After the plot was discovered, Scheele was indicted in 1916 and fled to Cuba, where he went underground for two years under an assumed name.
"Though squarely a crackling history, “Hellfire Boys” is also a relevant primer on the past 100 years and on a kind of total warmaking that continues to haunt us — sometimes from another hemisphere, sometimes in our own back yard....Emery’s reporting is vast and meticulous, and his storytelling is focused and clean."

―WASHINGTON POST

2017-12-29T03:11:48+00:00

―WASHINGTON POST

"Though squarely a crackling history, “Hellfire Boys” is also a relevant primer on the past 100 years and on a kind of total warmaking that continues to haunt us — sometimes from another hemisphere, sometimes in our own back yard....Emery’s reporting is vast and meticulous, and his storytelling is focused and clean."
"Moving crisply between stateside turf wars and battlefront combat, this well-written and well-researched slice of history will appeal to virtually any history or war buff." (Starred review)

―LIBRARY JOURNAL

2017-11-03T23:34:11+00:00

―LIBRARY JOURNAL

"Moving crisply between stateside turf wars and battlefront combat, this well-written and well-researched slice of history will appeal to virtually any history or war buff." (Starred review)
"Refusing to allow our modern revulsion of chemical weapons (however well-founded) to shape his extraordinary narrative, Emery—like all good historians—is determined to let the era of his subject speak for itself."

―HAMPTON SIDES, New York Times bestselling author of In the Kingdom of Ice, Ghost Soldiers, Hellhound on His Trail, and Blood and Thunder

2017-10-09T20:38:16+00:00

―HAMPTON SIDES, New York Times bestselling author of In the Kingdom of Ice, Ghost Soldiers, Hellhound on His Trail, and Blood and Thunder

"Refusing to allow our modern revulsion of chemical weapons (however well-founded) to shape his extraordinary narrative, Emery—like all good historians—is determined to let the era of his subject speak for itself."
"A fascinating and deeply researched account of how America reinvented its military—and itself—in its first modern global war. Theo Emery combines science, history, and character-driven drama to illuminate some of the darkest aspects of our national past."

―BEVERLY GAGE, author of The Day Wall Street Exploded and Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University

2017-10-09T20:37:06+00:00

―BEVERLY GAGE, author of The Day Wall Street Exploded and Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University

"A fascinating and deeply researched account of how America reinvented its military—and itself—in its first modern global war. Theo Emery combines science, history, and character-driven drama to illuminate some of the darkest aspects of our national past."
"Even military buffs will learn from this intensely researched, often unnerving account.... Readers will share Emery's lack of nostalgia for this half-forgotten weapon, but they will admire this satisfying combination of technical background, battlefield fireworks, biographies of colorful major figures, and personal anecdotes from individual soldiers."

―KIRKUS

2017-10-09T20:36:29+00:00

―KIRKUS

"Even military buffs will learn from this intensely researched, often unnerving account.... Readers will share Emery's lack of nostalgia for this half-forgotten weapon, but they will admire this satisfying combination of technical background, battlefield fireworks, biographies of colorful major figures, and personal anecdotes from individual soldiers."
"Journalist Emery offers a useful and absorbing reminder that, a century earlier, it was a different weapon of mass destruction that terrified both soldiers and civilians... This is a timely and often unsettling examination of a previously well-hidden government program."

―BOOKLIST

2017-10-09T20:36:05+00:00

―BOOKLIST

"Journalist Emery offers a useful and absorbing reminder that, a century earlier, it was a different weapon of mass destruction that terrified both soldiers and civilians... This is a timely and often unsettling examination of a previously well-hidden government program."