Mob queen

Bledsoe presents another gripping historical organized-crime novel (after The Forty Elephants, 2022), this time set in 1930s Chicago and based on real-life mob queen Virginia Hill. Coming from Georgia, Virginia didn't have plans to become part of the Mafia, much less to rise in the ranks so quickly. Her friend Madeline disappeared working for the Mafia, and Virginia knows she needs to prove herself to get answers. She uses her feminine wiles to seduce power figures within the crime world and risks her very life to find out what happened to her friend. As in her previous work, Bledsoe grips the reader with the depiction of women in organized crime, the friendships they build, and the dangerous missions they are assigned. Mob Queen includes quite a bit of spicy romance, though readers (and Virginia) will wonder if it is with the right man. Delving into the resilience and ambition of women in a dangerous world run by men, this novel is a must for crime fans and historical fans alike.

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. (June)

This second historical novel from Bledsoe (after The Forty Elephants) is based on the real life of Virginia Hill (1916--66), a gangster moll turned gangster in her own right. Virginia is barely getting by as a waitress in 1930s Chicago when one of her close friends gets involved with the mob and then vanishes. Desperate to uncover her friend's fate, Virginia begins working for the "Chicago Outfit" as a courier and quickly realizes how far her talents for manipulation and deceit can take her. As she embraces a new mob lifestyle, which offers both wealth and intoxicating power, Virginia is also drawn into a volatile sexual affair with the notorious gangster Bugsy Siegel that soon threatens everything she has worked for. Bledsoe glosses over most of the details of Virginia's involvement with the Chicago Outfit's day-to-day business and focuses instead on her shifting relationships--both professional and emotional--with various men, telling Virginia's story as that of an abused daughter and wife who seizes the power of her mob role as an irresistible opportunity to turn the tables on the violent men of the world. VERDICT Will appeal most to readers looking for gritty historical fiction about a resilient woman unsure who she can trust in a glitzy but treacherous world with life-and-death stakes.--Mara Bandy Fass