Hell gate
(Book)

"New Yrok City government has always been filled with political intrigue, lurid scandal, and the behind-the-scenes deals that keep the city moving. In 'Hell Gate', Alex finds her attention torn between investigating a shipwreck -- one that has contraband cargo, and the political sex scandal of a promising New York congressman now fallen from grace. When Alex discovers that a woman from the wreck and the congressman's lover are connected in a way that simply can't be coincidence -- and that might indicate a link to a 'snakehead,' the leader of a human trafficking operation -- it strikes her that these cases aren't as unrelated as they seem. It soon becomes clear that the entire political landscape of New York City could hang in the balance of her investigation. As Alex looks on at the nameless victims in the morgue, she realizes she's staring at the present-day face of New York's long, dark tradidion of human trafficking -- a tradition that began hundreds of years ago with slave trade from Africa, and continues as a multimillion-dollar industry that will stop at no cost, even if that cost is Alex's life." Book cover.