Hitmen by Scott M. Deitche
Release Date: 5/15/2022

Hitmen tells the mostly unknown story of a gang in NYC in the 1970's and 1980's called The Purple Gang. This group of notorious killers was a branch of the mafia that started out as low ranking drug traffickers but quickly rose to be skilled and overly effective hitmen. The book goes through the origins of the gang as well as the important players and high profile murders that were suspected to be done by them.

I love mafia books so I was super excited to review this one! I had never heard of The Purple Gang so I came into this with very little background info on them. The book made it easy to follow though and did a really good job of narrating the history of The Purple Gang without overwhelming you with too much information at once. I genuinely enjoyed this one!

Thank you to @netgalley and Rowman and Littlefield for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I’ve read numerous books about the mob and have enjoyed most all of them. I’ve met “Joey” the author of two books describing his life as a hit man for the mob. Sadly this book is one I’ve had a hard time finishing.

The book gives plenty of details, as a matter of fact too many. The flurry of names one has to remember in a single page becomes frustrating to read. In addition to that the telling of the story is incredibly dry and slow paced.

I hate to say it because I love reading but I would have a hard time telling anyone that this is worth your time.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of Hitman by Scott M Deitche!

If you are interested in the mafia and want to learn more than this is a great book for you. I had never heard about the Purple Gang, so that was new information for me, but otherwise, I already knew everything that book was talking about. It was well written and if you were interested in certain individuals, you would be able to use this book as a stepping stone to start your own research.

I read a lot of books about the Mafia. I find the books fascinating. I was introduced to many of the men involved through my career with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
That being said, I cannot say that I feel the same about this particular book. It had a good premise, and started well. I was looking forward to reading it. However, I feel that it was not written well, it seemed to list name after name of mafioso, and reports of their indictments and sentences. I just did not enjoy it.

Growing up with the five families in New York, I always loved reading about them. The Purple Gang is a chapter in their history I wasn’t aware of and enjoyed learning about in Deitche’s book, Hitmen. Well written and interesting.

This gang is a newer version of the original Purple Gang in Detroit. There is a lot of history of gang members, and mobsters, and their long involvement in drugs that goes back farther than most realize. A murderous true crime read that lists all the players in the front of the book. The Purple Gang is something I hadn’t read about before, so I enjoyed learning about these violent men. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.