by Andrew Gross
People commonly ask, how does a book begin? In this case, I was literally having a beer with fellow thriller writers David Morrell and Daniel Palmer and for whatever reason I was talking about some family stories, especially the one of my grandfather in his delivery truck guarding his shipment of coats with a loaded shotgun, which I’d thought of including in a book. When I finished, David looked at me with a gleam in his eye and said, “What a great scene! You have to write it.” And for the first time it got me thinking of my grandfather’s life as something other than the subject of family lore. So thanks for the push, man. Without it, I’m not sure I ever would have made the move to do this.
In the writing of this book, several books were instrumental to getting the full flavor of life on the Lower East Side, the early garment center years, the Jewish Mob, and the plight of the Jews in America in the early 1900s:
The Rest of Us, Steven Birmingham. Syracuse University Press, 1984.
How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis. Dover Press, New York, 1971. (Originally published by Charles Scribner and Sons.)
Triangle: The Fire That Changed America, David Von Drehle. Grove, New York, 2003.
Tough Jews: Father, Sons and Gangster Dreams, Rich Cohen. Vintage, New York, 1999.
The Family, A Journey into the Heart of the Twentieth Century, David Laskin. Penguin, New York, 2013.
Fourth Street East, Jerome Weidman. Pinnacle Books, New York, 1971.
Satan’s Circus, Mike Dash. Broadway Books, New York, 2008.
Ready-Made Miracle: The Story of American-Made Fashion for the Million, Jessica Daves. Putnam, New York, 1967.
Jewish Literacy, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. William Morrow, New York, 1991.
Billy Bathgate, E. L. Doctorow. Random House, New York, 1989.
Legs, William Kennedy. Penguin, New York, 1983.
I’d also like to thank my team at Minotaur/St. Martin’s. My editor, Kelley Ragland, for rounding a lot of rough edges that I dropped in her lap into shape; Andrew Martin (for his title epiphany), Hector DeJean, Jen Enderlin, and Maggie Callan. And Simon Lipskar and Celia Taylor Mobley from Writers House. Your enduring support makes my task far easier and occasionally lets me even shine.
—AG
THE
LAST
BROTHER
Before writing his own bestselling thrillers, Andrew Gross co-authored five novels with James Patterson. His first novel, The Blue Zone, was an instant international bestseller. He currently lives in New York with his wife, Lynn, and their three children.
ALSO BY ANDREW GROSS
The Spy (also published as The Saboteur)
The One Man
One Mile Under
Everything to Lose
No Way Back
15 Seconds
Eyes Wide Open
Reckless
Don’t Look Twice
The Dark Tide
The Blue Zone
Novels by Andrew Gross and James Patterson
Judge & Jury
Lifeguard
3rd Degree
The Jester
2nd Chance
First published 2018 by Minotaur Books
First published in the UK 2018 by Macmillan
This electronic edition published 2018 by Macmillan
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
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www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5098-7840-6
Copyright © Andrew Gross 2018
Design and Art Direction by Neil Lang
Cover Images © Shutterstock
Published in the USA as Button Man
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