Book Review: Hell Gate

by Linda Fairstein

Hell Gate marks the 12 installment of Linda Fairstein's ADA Alex Cooper series, where Alex enters the world of human trafficking, historic homes, New York politics and sex slavery rings. In some ways, Fairstein follows a pattern. A crime occurs (rape with possibly murder added). Detectives and forensics investigates. Jeopardy questions are answered. People interfere with Alex's love life. Roadblocks are hit. Mike dazzles with historical knowledge. Alex almost dies. The guy is caught. For such a brilliant character she stumbles into potentially lethal peril on a frequent basis. While it can be a great plot device, it gets annoying when authors take intelligent female characters with non-dangerous jobs and continually put their lives at risk. At some point, shouldn't the characters learn? Not that it will stop me from reading her books (2020 note it did). They are beautifully written and researched. The background Fairstein provides (through Mike) on historic mansions in New York is very detailed.

Concerning the tension between Alex and Mike, it came across as more annoying in this book and he was sending her mixed messages as usual. What Fairstein will be able to do with this, I don't know. It has been an underlying issue throughout the series. If they give in to it, everything will change, and generally, when that happens in a series or show, things go askew. Sometimes it is successful, but inevitably, the focus will change to looking at marriage and family, which I find annoying. Side note: It's not marriage and kids I find annoying but the way mystery novelists that do this change their strong female leads like it’s the only option. The tension seems like it cannot go on in this same manner though. We'll see what the next installment will bring on this front.

BIS Rating: 3 nightlights

IndieBound: Hell Gate by Linda Fairstein

BIS Rating system:
1 nightlight = put it down and didn't care to pick it back up
2 nightlights = finished the book
3 nightlights = enjoyed the book but probably wouldn't re-read it
4 nightlights = had a hard time putting the book down
5 nightlights = stayed up way too late to finish instead of going to bed

(originally published 3 May 2010)