Mob Queen
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Peaky Blinders meets Ocean’s 8 in The Forty Elephants, an epic novel set in Roaring Twenties London, based on the real-life, all-female gang of the same name who specialized in crime as high art, targeting posh department stores and elites.
London in the 1920s is no place for a woman with a mind of her own. Gang wars, violence, and an unforgiving world have left pickpocket Alice Diamond scrambling to survive in The Mint, the gritty neighborhood her family has run for generations. When her father goes to jail yet again and her scam artist brother finds himself in debt to the dangerous McDonald crime syndicate, Alice takes over. Fighting for power at every turn, she struggles to protect her father’s territory and keep the people she loves safe from some of London’s most dangerous criminals.
Recruited by the enigmatic Mary Carr, Alice boldly chooses to break her father’s edict against gangs and become part of a group of notorious lady shoplifters, the Forty Elephants. Leaving The Mint behind, she and the other girls steal from the area’s poshest department stores, and for the first time in her life, Alice Diamond tastes success. But it’s not long before she wants more—no matter the cost. And when her past and present collide, there’s no escaping the girl from The Mint.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bledsoe (The Forty Elephants) serves up a dynamic portrait of historical crime figure Virginia Hill, presenting her as a formidable player in the 1930s–1940s Chicago mob despite being known primarily as the girlfriend of gangster Bugsy Siegel. At a young age, Virginia learned to look out for herself, surviving her father's physical and emotional abuse and defying his claim that she'd "never amount to anything." Her self-preservation skills prove essential as she becomes entangled in organized crime following the disappearance of her best friend, Madeline, who'd waitressed alongside Virginia at the San Carlo, the Chicago restaurant favored by Al Capone before his imprisonment. While searching for answers about Madeline's disappearance, Virginia agrees to help the mob launder money. Her success leads to an encounter with Bugsy, who becomes a love interest. Bledsoe's narrative eventually reveals the disturbing truth about Madeline's fate and presents an intriguing view into the 1946 hit on Bugsy at Virginia's California home. Bledsoe doesn't sugarcoat the barbarity of mob violence in her complex and admirable characterization of Virginia, who grows increasingly comfortable with carrying out the mob's work and finds satisfaction in her sense of agency. It's a humanizing portrait of a notorious woman.
