Queen of Thieves by Beezy Marsh
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 352 pages
Start Date: March 22, 2023
End Date: March 27, 2023
My Ratings
Overall: ★★★★
Character Development: ★★★★★
Ending: ★★★★
Spice Level: 🌶
Suspense Level:
Tear Jerk-ability: 💧
Pace: Steady
Recommend: Yes!
Triggers:
Summary In My Words
Alice Diamond is the queen of the Forty Thieves; a prominent girl gang during post war times in London. She takes in a helpless teenager, Nell Hart, who has found herself in some trouble.... unwed and pregnant. The promise of a better life allures Nell to join Alice as one of her hoisters, shoplifting for the gangster queen. Nell finds she is actually good at it....maybe too good. On one of Nell's work trips, someone tips off the police to Nell's shoplifting and she is arrested. When Alice leaves Nell to serve time in prison, instead of pulling her strings to save Nell, Nell vows to get even. Who will prevail as the war in gangster land finally ends?
My Thoughts - Contains Spoilers, Continue at Your Own Risk
I really liked this! I thought the character development was really good, detailed yet kept the story moving. Each chapter tells the story from a different perspective, between Alice and Nell. Even though it is a historical fiction, I feel like it had a sense of suspense to it that really had me turning pages. I think that Beezy Marsh does a really great job in capturing your attention from the beginning and holding it during the entire book. Sometimes I find historical fiction books to be slow to start, or sort of die down in the middle section of the book, but Queen of Thieves didn't do that for me.
Alice herself is seemed almost twisted, in a way, which I found fascinating. I think you have to have a little bit of that kind of mentality if you are going to be a suscessful gangster, much less the leader of a prominent gang. I found Alice's behavior somewhat savage when it came to Nell; the way she doted on Nell initially, gaining Nell's trust, being sweet with her when Nell gets released from prison, then just ruthlessly blackmailing her to do her dirty work. The way Alice set herself up for Nell's return to the gang, paying Nell's father's gambling debt, helping Nell's mother, getting dirt on Nell's friend, Iris, just captured me.
I also really liked Nells character. Sometimes characters, like Nell, can come off weak and whiny to me, but Nell definitely didn't, even from the beginning. I feel like even though she joined the forty thieves out of disparity, she wasn't going to take being mistreated or walked on. Maybe she gained that attitude in prison as she sort of grew into her own, but Nell was not about to be intimidated by the power Alice Diamond had.
Overall I would really recommend this book, even if historical fiction isn't your usual genre of book. I really liked that in the end; Nell knew who she was and what she wanted to pursue. I liked her loyalty to Jimmy, even though it seemed that she had plenty of interest from more promising suitors. I also liked how Alice and Billy's story ended....because I feel like in reality the feud between them seemed realistic and believable. It definitely left me wanting to google Alice Diamond and read more about her and her story.
I'm Curious
How did you feel about Nell in her situation? Could you see yourself joining a gang given the allure of it's promise, considering the circumstances?
Do you feel like you would've stuck by Jimmy as he went to prison? Do you feel like part of the allure Nell had to Jimmy even after he sort of did her dirty initially was because he also was wrapped up in gangland?
Did you get the sense that Ruby may not have been Jimmy's? Did you feel like there was a chance that Billy could've been Ruby's biological father?
What did you think of Molly? Why do you think she hated Nell so much?
Do you think the grudge Alice had against her brother was ultimately her downfall? Or do you feel like it was really Nell who took Alice down?
Next Book: The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
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