Mob Queen

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)