Rothstein

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What to expect

The model for Meyer Wolfsheim from The Great Gatsby and Guys and Dolls' Nathan Detroit, Arnold Rothstein was an underworld genius, racketeer, rumrunner, political fixer, and criminal mastermind who, as F. Scott Fitzgerald observed, played "with the faith of fifteen million people with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe."

David Piertrusza unearths the canny way Rothstein fixed the 1919 World Series and unravels the mystery of Arnold Rothstein’s murder in November 1928 in a Times Square hotel room.

Transporting listeners onto Jazz Age Broadway with its thugs, bookies, denizens of the race tracks, showgirls, political movers and shakers, and stars of the Golden Age of sports, this is a biography of the godfather of organized crime in America, who reigned supreme when the fast buck ruled and violence stalked the streets of Gotham.

Critics Review

  • “No other narrator could lend as much substance to this gripping account as Gardner; his gruff, straightforward baritone voice has an in-your-face quality, perfect for the subject matter.”

    Booklist (audio review)

  • “Dazzling! Rothstein is nonstop fiery journalism, finely researched and colorfully written, read with truly impressive panache by the inimitable Grover Gardner. Gardner tears into the material with vigor and intelligence, a knowing insider’s edge, and a smirk in each syllable. His style here is reminiscent of period radio announcers, conjuring vivid images of the streets and denizens of old New York in every breath…A must listen, must own audiobook. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”

    AudioFile

  • “Pietrusza does a terrific job capturing Rothstein’s colorful career.”

    New York Times Book Review

  • “Puts real flesh on the story of how the new machinery of mass entertainment…created and brought together the culture of celebrity, politics, big-time sports, stock market fortunes, and organized crime in the 1920s.”

    Washington Post Book World

  • “Colorful biography…True crime, evil doings, and monumental double-crossing by the Irish, the Italians, the Jews, and the Machine in a savory account of the legendary bad old days.”

    Kirkus Reviews

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