In the early 1900s, Mary Mallon was an Irish immigrant cook who carried disease with her, inadvertently killing those she fed with her delicious meals. Tracked down by George A. Soper, Typhoid Mary was sent to live out her days on North Brother Island, an asylum for the sick and ill, off the coast of Manhattan. Fast-forward many years after Mary's death, and Karalee, the great-granddaughter of Soper, is boating on the East River with four of her friends when they decide to investigate the abandoned buildings on the infamous island. What ensues in Dana I. Wolff's first novel is a classic tale of physical and psychological horror and suspense as the group of college students and one professor meander through the derelict wards and overgrown grounds. High on pot and alcohol, their senses both heightened and subdued, they ponder why there's a viable garden in the greenhouse and who the homeless woman is who agrees to cook them dinner, while ignoring possible clues as to what's really transpired on this neglected piece of property.
The Prisoner of Hell Gate expertly weaves the history of Mary Mallon's life with the devastating 1904 fire and shipwreck of the passenger steamboat General Slocum off the island, and the antics of the five newcomers to the place. The ending is startling and almost too abrupt, but it neatly resolves the novel. And although some of the characters' actions are predictable, this element is easily overlooked as one gets swept along in the rapid current of unfolding events. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer