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Nonfiction Typhoid Mary and pungent stew THE PRISONER OF HELL GATE By Dana I. Wolff 212 pp. Picador Reviewed by Dennis C. Rizzo Dana Wolff is a pseudonym; something adopted to hide a real identity. The Prisoner of Hell Gate might also be considered a pseudonym. The book's eerie premise is well-conceived and then hidden in an undergrowth of information dump and affected events. At 212 pages this really should be a novella and might work better as a short story or expanded to a full-length piece. I read it in about two hours. That said, The Prisoner of Hell Gate has hidden merits. The East River in New York City is a place long associated with the disposition of unwanted members of society, whether via prisons, asylums, or mob hits. It is on North Brother Island that Wolff strands her characters. The now-abandoned island hosted one of New York's most notorious asylums and was also the scene of one of the most atrocious cruise ship disasters of the early 20 th Century. It is to...