The Prisoner of Hell Gate
A Novel
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3,3 • Оценок: 6
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- 12,99 $
От издателя
FOUR DECADES AFTER TYPHOID MARY WENT TO HER GRAVE, FIVE CURIOUS GRADUATE STUDENTS STRUGGLE TO ESCAPE ALIVE FROM THE ABANDONED ISLAND THAT ONCE IMPRISONED HER. CONTAGION DOESN’T DIE. IT JUST WAITS.
In the Hell Gate section of New York’s East River lie the sad islands where, for centuries, people locked away what they most feared: the contagious, the disfigured, the addicted, the criminally insane.
Here infection slowly consumed the stricken. Here a desperate ship captain ran his doomed steamship aground and watched flames devour 1,500 souls. Here George A. Soper imprisoned the infamous Typhoid Mary after she spread sickness and death in Manhattan’s most privileged quarters.
George’s great-granddaughter, Karalee, and her fellow graduate students in public health know that story. But as they poke in and out of the macabre hospital rooms of abandoned North Brother Island—bantering, taking pictures, recalling history—they are missing something: Hidden evil watches over them—and plots against them.
When death visits Hell Gate, it comes to stay.
As darkness falls, the students find themselves marooned—their casual trespass having unleashed a chain of horrific events beyond anyone’s imagination.
Disease lurks among the eerie ruins where Typhoid Mary once lived and breathed. Ravenous flies swarm puddles of blood. Rot and decay cling to human skin. And spiteful ghosts haunt the living and undead.
Soon five students of history will learn more than they ever wanted to know about New York’s foul underbelly: the meaning of spine-tingling cries down the corridor, of mysterious fires, of disfiguring murder, and of an avenging presence so sinister they’d rather risk their lives than face the terror of one more night.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The legend and mystery surrounding Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary, is given a supernatural twist in Wolff's creepy but unsatisfying debut. During a pleasure cruise on the East River with friends, graduate student Karalee Soper can't resist the lure of North Brother Island, where Mary Mallon was quarantined a century ago. In fact, Karalee's great-grandfather, George A. Soper, was the one who finally captured Mary after she sickened many people with her cooking. The friends intend to explore the ruins and get off the island before dark, but they meet a woman dressed in rags named Mary, and she has other plans for them. Interspersed passages from Mary's point of view humanize a woman who was made a pariah, making it clear that Karalee's connection to her goes deep. As very bad things begin to happen to Karalee and her friends, a violent conclusion seems inevitable, but the abrupt ending means Karalee's motivations aren't explored thoroughly. This story of vengeance is atmospheric and spooky, with a pervasive sense of dread, but it could use some fleshing out.
