Customer Reviews

Hell's Gate: A Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This one should have zero starts, if possible. I remember Stephen Frey as a decent writer--no Connelly or James Lee Burke, or even Sandford--but if you bought the paperback versions of his books you didn't feel cheated and were at least mildly entertained. His last two--Forced Out was another have just been terrible...silly plots, unbelievable coincidences holding story lines together, and shallow, selfish, and ridiculously stupid characters. What's really amazing is his endings, or lack thereof. It's as if he when tires of writing anymore, he uses any device or contrivance, kills off any character that would require a more thoughtful and believable ending, and just stops the story. I was foolish enough to pay the Kindle $9.99 price for Hell's Gate. It should have been titled "What the hell?" No more Frey for me.

In the end Frey's latest thriller was disappointing. You can't lay out this detailed a plot with a multitude of possible villains and possible good guys and then wrap up the ending in 4 pages. Yes, the answers all fit neatly at the end but your villains are on the loose, the FBI hasn't captured anyone and a lot of good people have perished. Where is the satisfaction in that??
Stephen Bank

Lame plot, unbelievable characters, and a hurry up finish. It must be getting easier to publish a book nowadays.

BTW... no, the people in Montana are not like this.

I haven't read any of Frey's other books and "Hell's Gate" isn't going to be the impetus to make me run out and find any of those back copies.

There were some parts I enjoyed: the beginning trial scenes for one and I especially LOVED the "sit down and talk" divorce settlement talk (did NOT see that coming). I liked the geographical info about Montana and the fishing scenes.

But the fire fighting scenes were truncated and choppy; not very believable at all. The "romantic" scenes were laughable.

I'm glad I didn't pay full price for this but it was far from the worst book I've ever read.

When you start this book, also start a diagram of the character connections, because there are too many to keep track of otherwise. Then the whole book seems to end in a few pages, and you won't know what happened to everyone.

Also, the fire-fighting seemed ridiculous. Every time they fought a fire, they were surprised that it spread, and killed or nearly killed. For all his smarts, the lead fire-fighter never puts out a fire.

As I was reading this book, I kept asking myself whether it was a three-star or four-star read. A long list of possible culprits in the setting of Montana forest fires kept my interest, and, for the most part, I found the main characters likable. The "Boardroom" scene involving the main character was particularly interesting. My main objection to the book (before I got to the end) was the nearly romance novel nature of the love interests of the "leading men."

However, when I got to the end, I truly saw my real objection to the book. The complicated plot and multiple layers of the deeds of nefarious villains gets stripped away in a matter of several explanatory pages that was entirely disappointing. A truly disappointing conclusion to a less than stellar book.

It's summer. Hot, dry, windy and Montana is burning. Hunter Lee, at the suggestion of his brother Strat, has left New York City, a failed marriage and an extremely successful junior partnership at a prestigious law firm behind and moved to Fort Mason, Montana. Hunter and his brother attempt to uncover the identity of who is behind the recent mega-fires that are destroying homes, thousands of acres of timber, farms, livestock and now human fatalities. Suspense builds throughout Stephen Frey's latest novel, Hell's Gate; the fires continue to burn while Hunter and Strat discover that even small towns are filled with incendiary secrets.

A few years ago, I was up in Montana visiting the in-laws, and my mom-in-law mentioned a friend of hers had just recently started up a company that supplies the wildfire and smokejumpers with meals, cots, showers and bathrooms. I remember thinking that a really shady, disreputable type could possibly use this type of contract with the Forest Service to really line their pockets if they figured out a way to start the fires. And that is part of the premise of Hell's Gate. When the author thought of how much money independent air cargo companies get paid to shuttle firefighters around the west during fire season, and how much food services get paid, he came to the same conclusion I did. It wouldn't be all that difficult to arrange a lot of fires and make lots of money. The question in this novel is who is doing this. Add to the air cargo company and food service company, a railroad who has just been hit with a 40 million dollar payout from a lawsuit, a timber mill going out of business from the lack of trees, a powerful Senator, unfaithful wife, vindictive business partner and you just have a whopper of a story.

I don't know if Stephen Frey has spent a lot of time in Montana or simply researches the heck out of his books, but I can tell you, having lived there for the first 30 years of my life, he just nails it.

Many of the towns in the novel are fictional, but I know the area he sets them in, and he portrays it very well. The mountains, trees, fly-fishing, grizzly bears, the bars and café's, the vastness of the state are captured superbly. When the wildfires explode, I swear I could almost smell the smoke.

I liked this book. A lot. I want to go fishing. I want a big ole greasy cheeseburger in a dump that makes great food. I want to drink a cold beer on a hot afternoon while the smell of fresh cut hay fills the air. (And I don't even like beer.) I want to stand next to the Mission Falls, see a bear cross the road in front of me, hear the horrifyingly scary sound of a mountain lion screaming late one night up in the hills. (Sounds like a woman getting murdered...I swear it does...) I want to see that pesky herd of deer that invade my mom-in-law's front yard every evening and eat the flowers. *sigh....I think I'm heading north soon...I'm feeling the need for a little Montana....

Oh...almost forgot...the story was awesome. I didn't figure out the who, what and why until the author revealed it, and how great is that??!!

`Nuff said, click on the button and git yerself a copy....its derned good readin'.

I have bought and read every book written by Stephen Frey. Before this book I have usually enjoyed his books. Even when slightly disappointed , I have not felt cheated. I feel cheated by this one. Do not waste your money. I will never read another book he writes.

Awesomely bad in every respect ... the hands-down winner for 'The worst novel I have read', and that includes some stinkers. Even ends with a character name typo on the final page (if you can make it that far). Avoid!

Not the best book I have ever read but it held my interest. It is written as a 'who dun it' and lines the cast of characters up nicely. There are really no surprises, a little light sex, and some detail on firefighting. I would not buy another book by this author.