HELL GATE

Fans of Linda Fairstein will delight in the snarl of clues that has Prosecutor Alexandra Cooper trying to uncover what the murder of Congressman Ethan Leighton’s extracurricular girlfriend has to do with the wreck of a boatload of human cargo from Ukraine. Barbara Rosenblat has a field day with Alex’s street-smart sidekick, Detective Mike Chapman, and a slew of other New York characters, especially as they deliver great gobbets of the history of Gracie and Jumel mansions, Hell Gate, and much else as the plot rockets Mike and Alex around Manhattan. Best of all, Rosenblat masterfully controls the pace, infusing simple sentences with warning, tension, terror, or relief as the story requires. Forget movies; with a narrator like this, who needs visuals or soundtracks? B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2010]