the forty elephants 💎
by Erin Bledsoe

plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
ending: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
dialogue: ⭐️⭐️
ease of reading: ⭐️⭐️
overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars)

when I heard that this book was about an all-female criminal gang in 1920’s london, you know I had to read it.

this one started out really well and I was captivated by the plot and characters. it became quite slow towards the middle and I definitely think some chapters could have been shortened. nonetheless, alice is an extremely interesting character and you’ll find yourself rooting for her the whole time.

the dialogue felt a unnatural at times and I found myself rereading some lines, but this is erin bledsoe’s debut novel so maybe i’ll notice some development in her future work.

this is a great feminist read and is even more inspiring because it is based on the true story of alice diamond! after reading this one, I recommend looking her up!

although I haven’t seen the show, i’ve heard many people compare this book to peaky blinders so if you liked the show, check this book out!

thank you to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for this arc!

I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick read full of intrigue, scheming, and survival. I was pushed to do some further research on Alice Diamond and even though this was a fictional representation of her story; I feel that it was amazingly accurate. I thoroughly enjoyed all the plot twists and action that took place. If you like historical fiction, I would recommend this book!

As a prime skeptic with regard to most women’s historical fiction (why do they ALL focus on World War II? Why are they all so romance-heavy?) I was so pleasantly surprised by this gem of a novel about the Forty Elephants gang.

Part heist novel and part historical drama, this is a sort of Gangs of New York meets Oceans Eleven, but in London and with the ultimate heist target being…a department store. Which is, at least for me, just about the most fun premise ever for a book.

I also really loved the protagonist (as well as most of the supplemental characters) and the fact that the book is unapologetically revenge-driven. Our heroine pulls no punches (literally or figuratively) which is not only far more realistic than most depictions of fictionalized criminal-heroes, it also flies in the face of the ever-obnoxious “girls should be nice” pit that many authors (and readers!) fall into with heroines in crime novels.

A smart, fun, and unique offering. Highly recommend.

"We are not special. We are successful because we stay in the shadows."

This book was inspired by the true story of Alice Diamond, "Diamond Annie," and her all-female gang of pickpockets in 1920's London. Historical fiction with a strong female protagonist is right up my alley. I should have loved this book, but I did not. The story was fast paced, but it was too dark for me, and I was unable form any connections to the characters.

Thank you, Blackstone Publishing and Net Galley for the copy of this book.

The Forty Elephants by Erin Bledsoe a historical fiction novel based on the life of Alice Diamond and the notorious Forty Elephants gang. Alice Diamond a strong and independent woman in 1920's London who to protect her family reluctantly joins the shoplifting gang of woman called the Forty Elephants. Stealing from the wealthiest stores in London gives Alice a rush like never before and that rush comes at a cost, but is she willing to pay the price? Personally, I never have heard of Alice Diamond or the Forty Elephants so I was intrigued about this story. I feel that fans of Kate Quinn, Fiona Davis, or Jennifer Robson would enjoy being immersed in the world of the Forty Elephants. Thank you to Negalley and Blackstone Publishing for the DRC, all opinions are my own!

This wasn't an OMG amazing read, fine for collections where Water For Elephants is Still circulating but passable for most collections

Alice Diamond and her family live in a dangerous, crime-ridden neighborhood called the Mint. Her father runs things but then is imprisoned and her brother ends up owing a large debt. To get them out of hot water, Alice joins an all-female crime gang of "collectors" (shoplifters) called the Forty Elephants. This was an interesting story based on a real-life woman I had never heard. The author does an excellent job describing the gritty post-WWI atmosphere of London's poverty-stricken areas. Alice was undoubtedly a strong, tough woman, but I had a hard time really cheering her on in her criminal endeavors.

The Forty Elephants

by Erin Bledsoe

Pub Date 23 Aug 2022 | Blackstone Publishing

Historical Fiction | Women's Fiction

Thoughts: If you love historical fiction, then you'll enjoy this one. The author does a great job bringing London in the 1920s to the pages through style, clothing, family dynamics, as well as sexism.

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. Inspired by the true story of Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants this story follows Diamond trying to survive the Mint- the gritty neighbourhood her family has run for generations. When her father goes to jail again, and her brother finds himself in trouble, Alice has to find a way to protect those she loves. Recruited by Mary Carr, Alice decides to break her father’s rules of no gangs and joins the Elephants in attempt to save her family. With a taste of success, it’s not long before Alice wants to prove she can do more. 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.

Thank you Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the eARC in exchangefor my honest review.

I absolutely loved this book! The characters, the writing, the era—it was all right up my alley and a time in history I had not read about in a long, long time. And talk about strong women? This book has that in spades. Thoroughly enjoyed.

This book is set during the Roaring Twenties (my favorite era) in London. Alice and her all female gang was exciting and gave me an excellent story to read. Highly recommended.

This story takes place in London England in the 1920's and is based on a real person, Alice Diamond, who was the leader of a gang of females that 'collected' goods (collected is another word for steal). Alice Diamond is the head of her family while her father is in prison, she's tasked with looking after the Mint a neighborhood her family has controlled for a long time. She meets an old friend who talks her into joining the Forty Elephants gang run by Mary Carr, something that Alice doesn't usually do, she usually works alone and doesn't take orders from others. The first part of the book is the setup, Alice integrates herself into the gang and shows her prowess at collecting, impressing Mary along the way. Alice also works as a maid for a wealthy man who she intends to steal from, but she feels sorry for his wife who he regularly abuses. The second part of the book slows down, Alice is organizing the big score, one that she thinks will set her and the gang up for a long while. I enjoyed the historical aspects of this book, the author really brings to life the 1920's, the period dress and how women were expected to marry and bear children anything different was frowned upon. I would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Blackstone Publishing for the ARC.

I was in a reading slump before i read this and this helped a lot with that. it was very atmospheric and the tagline 'peaky blinders meets oceans 8' was on point

Forty Elephants was one of the biggest and most feared all-female gangs in the London Underworld. During a time when women were expected to stay quiet and do as they were told, the women in the Forty Elephants followed no rules.

Inspired by the true story of Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants this story follows Diamond trying to survive the Mint- the gritty neighbourhood her family has run for generations. When her father goes to jail again, and her brother finds himself in trouble, Alice has to find a way to protect those she loves. Recruited by Mary Carr, Alice decides to break her father’s rules of no gangs and joins the Elephants in attempt to save her family. With a taste of success, it’s not long before Alice wants to prove she can do more.

This book is what I love most about Historical Fiction; learning more about a time period in History while also enjoying a great story. I loved Alice. She is so determined and driven to protect her family at all costs. Alice is not only fighting against those who are trying to harm her family – but also fighting to find herself- she wants to be strong and not care for those she must hurt on her path to save her family, but she can’t help the connects she is making with others. The author did a great job at showing the struggles of women during the time period—trying to push outside the box of what was expected of them.

Character development was fantastic, added to a great pace and there is a story you can’t put down.

Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this fantastic book.

This is a story about women and power and how three particular women chose to, or were forced to, wield their power in a man’s world that dictated a place for women that none of them were willing to confine themselves to.

There are three women at the heart of this story; Kate Meyrick, the Nightclub Queen, Mary Carr, Queen of the Forty Elephants, and Alice Diamond, the de facto crime boss of The Mint, a notorious working-class AND criminal-class section of London.

The Forty Elephants were real, as were Kate Meyrick, Mary Carr and Alice Diamond. Meyrick was a female nightclub owner at a time when “ladies” at least were not supposed to frequent nightclubs – let alone own them. But in the early 1920s when this book takes place, a lot of the old rules had been buried in poorly marked graves on the continent along with a generation of England’s young men.

As this story begins, Mary Carr is the current boss of the Forty Elephants, a notorious all-girl gang of shoplifters who were the darling of the tabloids, the bane of the police, and the plague of locusts that ravaged new department stores like Selfridge’s as well as the homes and persons of people with more money than the sense not to flaunt it with easily pocketable items in public.


Alice Diamond in 1926
But this is Alice Diamond’s story, while Meyrick and Carr are both her mirrors and the stepping stones she uses to reach a pinnacle of criminal success that women were not supposed to even aspire to, let alone succeed at reaching.

It’s not a pretty story – but it is a fascinating one. All the better for being steeped in history.

Escape Rating B+: What made this such an interesting story is the way that it is Alice Diamond’s coming-into-power story in a realm that we don’t often see women conquer and that we’re not really supposed to celebrate when anyone does.

What made Alice special, at least according to this fictionalized account, was that the power she grasped and wielded wasn’t done the way that women traditionally held that kind of power. That is at least part of the purpose of Meyrick and Carr in Alice’s story. Both of them chose, or got shoved into, or submitted to the kind of power that they wielded in organizations that were female dominated, specifically by them, but were ultimately controlled by men either overtly or covertly.

They looked dominant but that was an illusion. In reality, they still operated in a man’s world and kept a woman’s place in it.

Alice takes the reins, first of The Mint and eventually of the Forty Elephants, of power as simply power. She never accepts anything less than a true partnership – or an honest war – with any of the male-dominated gangs. She works with them but not for them and never in a subservient position.

Which also means she wields control like they do and does the same kind of dirty jobs they do. Up to and including murder.

So the idea of the Forty Elephants may seem lighthearted as well as light-fingered, but even this fictionalized version of it is anything but. Still, it’s a fascinating portrait of the gangster as a young woman coming into her own and bringing other women up with her. It’s dark and gritty and occasionally gruesome but very compelling – possibly because of all of the above – and I’m glad I read it.

(Reading this has also sent me down lots of lovely internet rabbit holes, not just about the Forty Elephants but also about the TV series Peaky Blinders which I’m now extremely tempted to watch!)

Back to books – Alice Diamond is such an interesting character that this is not the only book about her on the horizon. Now that I’ve finished The Forty Elephants I’m very curious to see how Alice is portrayed in Queen of Thieves by Beezy Marsh, coming out in January.

Based on Alice Diamond and her Forty Elephants gang, this is a wonderful read. London in the 1920s sees Alice scrambling to survive, protecting her sister, brother and mother in a man's world of brutal gangs and violence. Survival depends on her brains as well as brawn, and Alice finds herself challenged to lead her gang and be fair to them all. Excellent read and recommended.

Delving into the seedy history of London after WWI Bledsoe brings us the fictionalized true story of Alice Diamond-a scrappy girl from the wrong part of town who uses her sticky fingers and street smarts to take on the world and save her family.

I wasn’t fully prepared for how gritty this story would be, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. The world of organized crime is always brutal, but seeing the reality from the perspective of a woman trying to survive that life was even more desperate. Alice is not so much forced to do the unspeakable to succeed, but takes it on as her duty, embodying the tough decisions that must be made day in and day out. At the same time, she also has to balance her heart, an enemy and necessity all at once.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

The Forty Elephants by Erin Bledsoe

9781665019897

348 Pages
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Release Date: August 23, 2022

Fiction, Historical Fiction, 1920s, British, Shoplifting, Gangs

Alice Diamond is the head of her family while her father is in jail. The Diamonds have always overseen the Mint area and take care of the families that live there. She is a collector, another name for pickpocket and learned from her father. Her brother, Tommy, is a safe cracker. When he is caught after breaking into the safe of a rival family’s gang, Alice must make things right. Her friend Maggie is back in town and is a part of the Forty Elephants, a gang of women collectors. An opportunity arises where Alice can score big and settle all the outstanding debts but if she fails, she will lose everything.

The book has a fast pace, the characters are very developed, and it is written in the first-person point of view. There are several businesswomen along with Alice and Maggie. I enjoy reading books with strong women and this book is full of them. If you like strong women characters, you will enjoy this book.

Looking for a suspenseful historical mystery set in London in the early 20th century? The Forty Elephants is a great choice.

Alice has led a rough life. She is a thief, because that is how her family survives. Her dad is in prison, her brother is mostly useless, and she is a very good thief. As the book begins, she is working in the 43 Club at night, taking careless patrons' wallets, purses and jewelry, and as a lady's maid in the daytime, with the intent to rob the house.

One night, one of the club patrons is her old friend Maggie. She is now working with The Forty Elephants gang, a group of women thieves. She's tries to entice Alice to join them, but Alice wants nothing to do with gangs. But once her brother is returned to their flat, beaten to a pulp, and owing a huge amount of money, she has no choice.

Alice is a fabulous character - even though she's doing illegal things, you can't help but cheer for her. The book discusses the cycle of poverty and crime that is virtually impossible to escape from, domestic abuse, and the power of female entrepreneurship in spite of overwhelming odds.

Bledsoe has written a thrilling book that mystery lovers will enjoy. Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

I only got 8% of the way through The Forty Elephants but I'm hooked! This is a book that I want to enjoy reading the hard copy version so I stopped before I got in too deep.

The writing style and prose sucked me right in and I felt like I was in early 20th century London. I felt an immediate connection with the characters and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of this fantastic book! Bonus points for an utterly gorgeous cover!

It's going to be a looooong 2 weeks until I can dive back in!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. I had this one in my lineup to read for a bit, and now I'm kicking myself for not jumping in sooner! Bledsoe paints a gritty, engaging, vibrant life of Alice Diamond. There were enough name drops throughout the book that I would pause to look up some people to see if they were real or fictitious, and I was pleased how the author stuck to the biggest truths of Diamond's life. The biggest change is a SPOILER so I won't drop it, but I'm curious why the author chose that twist instead of the real life way the thing went. Maybe it just made for a better story, overall.
I loved the bravery, ruthlessness, hard vulnerability of Alice. Yes-she was a criminal, a murder, a thief, but-she strikes me as a Robin Hood with brass knuckles in a sort of way. I really, really enjoyed this book, and it was so engaging I was sucked in from the first page. I tore through it once I got started, and I recommend this to anyone who lives history, England, gangs, and a good story.