Hell Gate by Elizabeth Massie is totally unlike anything else I've read in 2013. Original in concept and execution. At times terrifying. And a fascinating look at Coney Island in the early 1900s.The story of Suzanne Heath, a child of wealth and privilege, who has a gift. The gift to see events from a touch. A gift her mother is convinced is of the devil. So much so, she sends her to Madame Harlow's School for Young Ladies where she becomes part of the Morgans a group of girls with similar talent...

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. The story moved along quite slowly at times but the pay off was well worth it at the end.The author has brought two great characters to life in Suzanne and Cittie, both were well fleshed out and their friendship gives us insight into the racial issues of that time. One of the stand out aspects of this dark tale, was the historical references and attention to detail. This really brought the story to life and created a vivid picture of life

I would have to describe this book as a Historical Murder Mystery set at the beginning of the 1900's. The story is set around a girl named Suzanne who has psychic powers and her friend Cittie. First starts out with a group of girls with supernatural abilities and something happens. And then moves on to Lunar Park in Coney Island. Then murders happen and Suzanne tries to help solve buy using her special talent. Don't want to get into to much detail and ruin the story for someone. It took me a whi...

Forced out of her home and into a prestigious school for young ladies because of her “unnatural abilities”, Suzanne finds a group of girls with similar gifts that get together to try and hone their special skills in order to get stronger – The Order of Morgans. When one of the group gets too power hungry for the small time clairvoyants, events happen and tragedy strikes. Years later Suzanne, now a ticket taker at a local attraction, is drawn into a murder type mystery that is somehow connected t...

There's a lot to like in Hell Gate. The premise is inventive, especially once you finish the book and have the whole picture. All of the characters are interesting, if not likable (by design, I assume). And, perhaps most striking of all, Massie's sense of place, the detail she gives to the setting, is phenomenal. For the most part, I typically gloss over setting details, only absorbing enough to say "ok, our protagonist is in a store/dark alley/abandoned building/what have you." Massie, however,...

In her novel Hell Gate, Elizabeth Massie tells a riveting story that defies the boundaries in many ways. In fact, it took me a while to decide what genre to list for it. The fact that it is set in 1909 on Coney Island might make it Historical Fiction. The murders and police investigation might indicate a Mystery or Police Procedural. The fact that the main character has "the sight" brings in an element of the Paranormal genre. In the end, it was the overall feeling of a good Horror story that wo...

Another great Darkfuse release.For a full review, go to http://www.examiner.com/review/hell-g... and follow me on Twitter @josenher

This is the story of Suzanne, born with the ability to 'see' things about others, she is sent to school far away by her God-fearing mother. Many years later and she has made a new life for herself on Coney Island. She is asked to help solve some particularly gruesome murders by the local police Inspector, having helped his daughter previously. This will set off a chain of events that will lead to a confrontation she could only have imagined in her nightmares.The first half of this went quite slo...

Coney Island is a great setting for fantasy and horror novels, particularly as it existed during the early twentieth century. Massie does a splendid job of invoking both the time period and the setting to great effect. Recommended!

In my opinion, what stands out the most in this novel set in the early 1900's is Elizabeth Massie's vivid descriptions and accurate dialogue. The entire atmosphere comes alive as your mind is absorbing her words, leading you down the same streets, hearing the same sounds, smelling the same aromas that her characters are. This story is so detailed and the time period so well-researched, that it's all too easy to lose track of the world around you as you step back into the not so distant past, and...

This dark historical fiction works very well on a number of levels. First, the story is complex. The author deftly handles flashbacks and plot structure with ease. You have different threads involving Suzanne, as a child with a deranged mother, as a teen in a girls’ boarding school, and then as a young adult working a dead end job on Coney Island. Intertwined these settings are paranormal incidents, a rash of serial murders, and an unidentifiable evil lurking ever present just out of view. The a...

What a fantastic story. A woman with supernatural talents wakes up with amnesia and must solve a mystery. The setting in the early 1900s was fantastic and the carney atmosphere of Coney Island was enchanting.wow.The ending was very suprising although I found the explanation to be a bit rushed.My favorite Dark Fuse offering to date.

The turn of the century was not the bucolic picture some people paint as Elizabeth Massie shows us as her story unfolds at Coney Island. Religious fervor, legal heroin use, unchecked child abuse, and murderers plying their skills with little fear of new fangled fingerprint technology.This is the story of a woman with psychic skills. Her mother believes her to have sold her soul to the devil so sends her off to boarding school never to be seen again.Elizabeth drew me into this tale and made me se...

4 AND 1/2 STARSI read Elizabeth Massie before and was not surprised this time to find Hell Gate to be one of my favorite books of the year. Her book, Sineater, was one of the best debut horror novels of any author in the genre. Massie's strength is her authentic and believable characters that populate her richly described locations. Always unpredictable, Hell Gate immediately pulls the reader into a world of dark evil hiding under the bright lights of Coney Island's early 20th century boardwalk

Suzanne Heath, a ticket seller at Coney Island in 1909, has the gift and curse of clairvoyant powers. The father of a friend she works with is a policeman investigating the murders of people with their faces caved in and asks Suzanne to help out with her supernatural skills.While reading I kept thinking in shades of Stephen King's The Dead Zone. Only Suzanne is Johnny Smith and she isn't as effective with her powers as Johnny (more on that shortly). Suzanne's visions seem more accurate and stron...

Brilliant!I thought I had figured out how this book was going to end about 3/4 of the way through only to be proven wrong. Very wrong. Great story and brilliant way of telling it

Suzanne has powersthat work at will.She's trying to find a fella that likes to kill.She's clairvoyant and can see things true.Other times she gets nothing...boo-hoo.She digs Cittie, but has to keep it cool.Back then colored folk didn't mix the gene pool.The sentences were kind of lumbering,dragging me along.I was constantly distracted,not lulled by this book's song.Where was the horror?Where was the fear?I thought to myself, "it's here, it's here!"I was wrong. You may well like it.I wasn't a fan...

Unwilling to part with the magical world of Coney Island circa early 1900s after reading the amazing epic Dreamland, I chose this book mostly for its setting, although I do like Massie as an author and was curious to see what she's been up to since her awesome southern gothic horrors from the now defunct leisure horror line. Happy to see she's still a very good writer who knows how to create characters the reader cares about and a story one can't puts down, in this case a young woman ticket take...

Suzanne Heath is a troubled young woman with a dark and disturbing past. Having been badly beaten and left for dead there was a time when she could not even remember her own name, and only survived thanks to the kindness of the students and staff of the Hudson Colored Waifs’ Asylum, where she became known as Rachel for lack of another name. After more than two years of taking refuge and working at the asylum, Suzanne begins to have strange visions and realises that she has an unusual gift – to s...

Well written novel of murder centered on a young woman with paranormal powers and placed amid the amusement parks of early 1900's Coney Island. Interesting characters. Another extraordinary read from DarkFuse. I highly recommend this book.