Amazon.com description: Product Description: The Hat begins with the brief, chilling murder of the godfather of the Jewish bootlegging world. The killer disappears without a trace and then in flashback we meet Kate Brady who has just been fired from her job at Shapiro's Bakery. With an alcoholic mother and the joblessness of The Great Depression, Kate has little hope for a future until she meets the magnetic bootlegger Ben Gold. After an intense courtship, they marry. Ben's hit man, Sam Ginzberg, and his handsome and decent bookkeeper, Bobby Keane, witness Kate and Ben's wedding. The charged love affair between Bobby and Kate, and their struggle to escape Ben, leads to a startling denouement. Amid the drama of Prohibition, The Great Depression and the birth of the Mafia, the novel ends in suspense, surprise and revelation.