The Forty Elephants
A Library Journal Editor’s Pick of Historical Fiction
A LifeSavvy Pick of the Month
A BookNation Pick by Jen
A Rap Sheet Pick for Summer Reading
A Hasty Book List Pick of the Month
Chosen a Best Book by The Mary Sue to Support Women's Wrongs
A BookRiot Pick of New Releases
A WGCU Gulf Coast Life Book Club Pick
Shortlisted for the ALA Reading List Award
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.
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Praise