The Trees by Stan Weisleder

The Trees is an exciting historical novel told in “Godfather” style about a handful of guys and girls who make it out of the slums of Brooklyn after World War II and arrive in Las Vegas in time to participate in the transitions is taking place—from the introduction and subsequent demise of Howard Hughes up to the emergence of Macao as a potent force in the world of gambling. Spanning a fifty-year period that begins in 1947, the novel traces the stories of Lawrence “Mongoose” Cohen and his boyhood friends—“Ringo,” “Solly,” “Mo,” “Charlie the Man,” and “Scumbag”—from the old neighborhood until their lives converge in Las Vegas.