Sweet Money Girl/Life and Death of a Tough Guy

Sweet Money Girl (Gold Medal Books, 1954). The story of three lives that collide one December in NYC: Hortense, the dance instructor who knows how to look out for number one; Maxie, the mamma's boy who just wants his shot at happiness; and Hugh, who wrecks it for all of them. Life and Death of a Tough Guy (Avon, 1955). Joey Kasow is a skinny Jewish kid growing up in 1920s in Hell's Kitchen. Tormented by the Irish thugs in the neighborhood, he eventually gains their begrudging respect and is allowed to join their gang, the Badgers. He knows he's got to take whatever is dished out to him to stay in the gang. He learns how to inflict pain, and he learns how to kill. But Joey can't escape his past, and falls in love with innocent Sadie Madofsky, who is a refuge from his brutal world.