Hell Gate [Audio CD]

Linda Fairstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 2010

Unabridged CDs, 9 CDs, 11 hours

Read by TBA

"Long before sex crimes became everyday fictional fare on America's favorite cop shows, Linda Fairstein was in court and on the streets working ripped-from-the-headlines cases." (USA Today)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Multiple Audie Award–winning narrator Barbara Rosenblat brings her considerable talent to Fairstein's latest thriller featuring New York ADA Alex Cooper. When a boat carrying illegal human cargo shipwrecks off the city's coast, spilling its payload of immigrant contraband into the ocean, a body is discovered that appears to have been dead before it hit the freezing water. How this event in human smuggling will relate to a philandering congressman and what happens to his mistress is only part of the mystery that keeps Fairstein's story barreling forward. Rosenblat's appealing voice nicely handles the twists and turns of the author's narrative. She manages to balance numerous characters of varying ethnicities with ease, bringing a natural delivery to their dialogue while at the same time keeping them distinct enough from each other to allow for easy delineation between who's speaking to whom, but she never goes overboard or allows herself to fall into caricature. It's a fine performance that will keep the listener hooked to the very end. A Dutton hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 4).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

What do a boatload of illegal immigrants, a congressman, and the body of young woman who has been stabbed in the chest have in common? Not quite what you think. And that’s part of the beauty of Fairstein’s latest, which takes a fairly routine bunch of crime-fiction elements and twists them into something unexpected. As usual, readers get a taste of the city along with its political wrangling as Fairstein invests her plot with dollops of her beloved Big Apple’s architecture and history. This time it’s a trio of Federalist mansions, including Gracie Mansion (the official mayoral residence) that take center stage, with their background judiciously but intriguingly limned as each one plays into the story. Providing legal expertise is prosecutor Alexandra Cooper, who works hard to maintain the integrity of her office while maneuvering around New York’s most powerful politicos. On hand, as usual, is her sidekick-partner, the smart, argumentative cop Mike Chapman, whose teasing keeps the counselor on her toes and occasionally off balance. While Fairstein keeps lots of balls in the air here, she juggles them with aplomb. Her devoted fans will be pleased. --Stephanie Zvirin --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Audio CD: 1 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Audio; Unabridged edition (March 9, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143145320
• ISBN-13: 978-0143145325
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 5.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,014,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Linda Fairstein was chief of the Sex Crimes Unit of the district attorney's office in Manhattan for more than two decades and is America's foremost legal expert on sexual assault and domestic violence. Her Alexandra Cooper novels are international bestsellers and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. She lives with her husband in Manhattan and on Martha's Vineyard.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Getting bored with it, March 19, 2010

By 

K Mo in Omaha (Omaha, NE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hell Gate (Hardcover)

In all honesty this book was closer to 2 stars than 3 but I have to give Linda Fairstein props for her attention to detail and research. But the last three books in this series have felt more like text books about New York history than mystery novels. I enjoy knowing some detail and history if it's relevant to the story. But it seemed like every time a character asked a question about something or they entered a building we would have to go into pages upon pages of history and background which took away from the story and started to get annoying. I've followed these books for years because I enjoy the characters. Specifically the relationship/chemistry between Alex and Mike. And can Alex ever have a 'lover' who isn't rich, French, famous...etc? If she isn't going to be involved with Mike then why can't it be a 'regular' guy? Like a detective or even another lawyer? I'll read the next installment in the series but may borrow it from the library instead of purchasing it.

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good mystery in a great political thriller, March 9, 2010

By 

Carrie Dunham-LaGree "nomadreader" (Des Moines, Iowa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hell Gate (Hardcover)

Hell Gate, Linda Fairstein's twelfth novel featuring ADA Alexandra Cooper, is another ode to the history and architecture of New York City and a fascinating mystery. Fairstein has a knack for weaving multiple storylines and cases without muddling the narrative. As we all know, only ADAs on television have the luxury of having one case at a time.

The usual cast of characters is back in Hell Gate. The novel opens with the wreck of a human cargo ship and a promising New York politician crashing his car after fighting with his mistress. Sex scandals abound, yet Fairstein keeps the story from becoming salacious. As always, New York City itself is a character in the story, and the reader learns so much about the city's rich history. Some of it's tied to crimes, but much of it is there because it's fascinating.

Hell Gate borrows a few characters from the headlines. Bloomberg isn't mayor here, but he was. Paterson is the governor of New York, and Spitzer did fall from grace. There's a currency to this book that I really enjoyed. If you follow New York City and state politics, you'll enjoy quite a few snarky jabs at familiar faces, names and characters.

If you're a fan of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, you should really read Linda Fairstein. She ran the SVU at the Manhattan District Attorney's office for decades, and now she writes wonderful novels. Thankfully, she manages to write one each year, but I find I even enjoy rereading them, which is rare for mystery novels. She is one of my favorite authors.

Normally, I recommend starting with Fairstein's first novel (Final Jeopardy), but I think the political storylines in this novel might entice fans of political thrillers, and these storylines have some amount of currency to them. Yes, some of the characters may be unfamiliar to new readers, but the focus is really on the mystery and politics in this novel; there are mentions to the social lives of our favorite detectives, but even new readers will be able to follow the story. The novel does begin with a lot of characters. I've read all of Fairstein's novels, and there were a few faces popping up I could not remember. I wasn't sure if they were knew to this book or not, but Fairstein provides enough background that it doesn't really matter if you remember the characters or not. Either way, I really enjoyed it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Awkward, May 1, 2010

By 

M. S. Butch (Katonah, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hell Gate (Hardcover)

It seems as though most successful authors hit a point at which either they have no more ideas, they no longer have time to do the job well, or they just don't care any more. "Hell Gate" is the clearest indication yet that Fairstein has hit this point. As others have mentioned, there are two plot threads. One involves a Congressman whose political career may be derailed by a girlfriend (and yes, of course he's married) claiming that he tried to kill her. This hardly seems like Alex Cooper's territory. The other plot thread involves the shipwreck of a ship carrying three hundred passengers who were intended to be smuggled into the US and sold as slaves. That, at least, is within Cooper's bailiwick, although she's in the mix a little bit early -- the passengers haven't even been identified before she's interviewing them.

Unfortunately, the human trafficking plot takes a back seat to the political maneuverings, as Cooper and her cop friends more or less stumble over clues to what is really going on with the Congressman's girlfriend, and how it relates to the trafficking operation. In this volume, it's a real stretch to connect the story with a bit of New York history, and the connection of the crimes with Gracie and two other federal-era mansions is tenuous. As noted by another reader, the usual history lessons are not well integrated into the story (although, unlike that reader, I thought they were more interesting than the political plots) and really stick out.

Romance has never been Fairstein's forte. That's OK -- she should just give Cooper a boyfriend, stick him in occasionally, and forget about it. We can imagine most of the relationship. This, however, does not seem to be the direction in which she (Fairstein) is headed. Instead, she seems to be heading toward a Mike/Alex romance. DON'T DO IT, Ms. Fairstein! I, for one, would find it highly unbelievable. The fact is, I dislike Mike. I don't think it's intentional on Fairstein's part, but I find Mike's so-called "banter" to be a lot like the teasing of adolescents -- meant to seem like teasing while carrying a real bite. The things he says are often mean, and certainly unprofessional and inappropriate in a business context. Another way of looking at it is that he is trying to "claim" her in front of other parties by saying things that suggest that they are intimate (although not necessarily in a sexual way). I hate it. Alex should hate it and call him on it. Certainly no romance should happen unless he grows up a LOT.

In short, read this book if you like Cooper, but don't expect too much from it.