Over the past decade, Linda Fairstein has come up with one of the most winning formulas in crime fiction — mixing present and past in New York, with novels centered on historic sites in the city.
The former head of the D.A.’s Sex Crimes Unit has taken us inside the main branch of the New York Public Library, backstage at the Metropolitan Opera House and off to the strangely isolated Roosevelt Island.
Fairstein’s novels have all focused on a protagonist who fits her like a glove — assistant D.A. Alex Cooper — but the writer has deepened the 12 novels with stories that tie into the city’s history.
When you visit a place that Fairstein has written about extensively — such as Bryant Park behind the library — you see it in an entirely new way.
Book number 12, “Hell Gate,” is being published by Dutton on Tuesday and it is another winner.
Fairstein juggles a few seemingly unrelated plotlines — starting with a shipwreck off Rockaway that strands dozens of illegal immigrants and a DUI incident on the FDR involving a rising politician — that come together in the final chapters.
The book explores the current wave of political sex scandals with a brilliant new twist — an escort service that not only provides the companion but a historic place in which to make whoopee.
“Hell Gate” zeroes in on the official home of the New York City mayor — Gracie Mansion — which in recent years has not been the actual place where the mayors have resided.
A body is found in the well on the grounds of Gracie Mansion — the victim is tied to the congressman involved in the car accident — and we are off on one of Fairstein’s juiciest storylines. (Hell Gate is the area of the East River adjacent to Gracie Mansion which is believed to be one of the most treacherous waterways in the region.)
New York is such an endlessly fascinating metropolis — with so many historic sites — that it is unlikely that Fairstein will ever run out of good material.
