Button Man (2018) is a historical thriller by Andrew Gross.
I should read more historical fiction. This book is very good.
The novel is a departure from his early contemporary “suburban thrillers” and is based partly on his own family history in New York City’s garment industry.
Plot Summary
The story follows three brothers—Morris, Sol, and Harry Rabishevsky—growing up in poverty on New York’s Lower East Side in the 1920s and 1930s.
- Morris: The driven youngest brother, he apprentices in a clothing factory at age twelve and eventually builds a successful garment business, Raab Brothers, with Sol.
- Sol: The bookish brother who becomes an accountant and manages the business’s finances.
- Harry: The troubled middle brother who falls into the world of organized crime, eventually working as a “button man” (hitman or enforcer) for the notorious mobster Louis “Lepke” Buchalter.
The brothers’ lives collide when Buchalter and the Jewish mob—including real historical figures like Dutch Schultz and Jacob Shapiro—attempt to take over the garment unions through violent shakedowns.
Morris must decide whether to yield to the mob’s demands or risk everything by assisting Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey in bringing them down.
Rick McCharles 