Button Man

By Joseph D'Agnese

(Note: Button Man is a short story that also appears in the larger collection, Daggyland #1, by the same author.

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New York City is the center of world fashion.

Funny thing is, the men who manufacture those gorgeous clothes are a cut above thugs.

When Frank returns from the Korean War, he lands himself a job in the Garment Center, an insular cesspool filled with graft and corruption.

If you want to keep your job, you keep your mouth shut.

Then one day, Frank’s buddy Phelan comes to town. He’s as pure as the driven snow. Incorruptible.

The fashion world is about to get a shake-up.

In this Runyonesque tale set in New York in the 1950s, innocence clashes against the reality of the gritty marketplace.

Written by a recent Derringer Award Winner, this short story first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

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“D’Agnese writes the most unusual and interesting books.”
—Bookviews

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joseph D'Agnese
• Release date: Sep 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781941410127

Joseph D'Agnese

Joseph D’Agnese is a journalist and author who has written for children and adults alike. He’s been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, Discover, and other national publications. In a career spanning more than twenty years, his work has been honored with awards in three vastly different areas—science journalism, children’s literature, and mystery fiction. His science articles have twice appeared in the anthology Best American Science Writing. His children’s book, Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci, was an honoree for the Mathical Book Prize—the first-ever prize for math-themed children’s books. One of his crime stories won the 2015 Derringer Award for short mystery fiction. Another of his stories was selected by mega-bestselling author James Patterson for inclusion in the prestigious annual anthology, Best American Mystery Stories 2015. D’Agnese’s crime fiction has appeared in Shotgun Honey, Plots with Guns, Beat to a Pulp, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. D’Agnese lives in North Carolina with his wife, the New York Times bestselling author Denise Kiernan (The Girls of Atomic City).

Book preview

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