I've enjoyed reading and listening in tandem. This book is a thrilling take on women in the criminal underbelly of post-WWI London in the roaring 20s. Maybe women can have it all, as long as they’re willing to steal it. A real cat-and-mouse hunt is going on in this story as notorious Diamond Annie Queen of the Forty Elephants, an all-woman crime syndicate in England, looks to up the ante for her girls while outsmarting her nemesis Officer Lillian Wyles.

Lillian Wyles isn’t just the first female detective in Scotland Yard but one of the best detectives. She is itching to land a big score to earn respect from the men at work and make real headway for women in police work. Written with Diamond Annie and Lillian’s POV plus a few other key characters, we get one page-turning, fast-paced, gritty yet tender story culminating into a gratifying finish.

My thoughts: This story is based on two real women in English history that I didn’t know about, and I found that fascinating. This story is a mix of pink-collar crime, women empowerment, taking you on a tour of the gritty and glamorous underworld in the roaring twenties. These women are molded by their circumstances and how they have been treated. Heather does a fantastic job of weaving a rich and compelling tale of these women and bringing you into their world. You feel for them even when they are on the wrong side of the law. The narrator in the audiobook was fantastic for transporting me to the world Webb created. You can’t go wrong with any format for this book! If you are looking for feminists-forward historical fiction, then pick this one up! Fans of shows like Peaky Blinders and writers like Rys Bowen, Madeleine Martin, and Kate Quinn will enjoy this book.

I LOVE THIS! This will make a wonderful book club read with plenty of discussion points. It had me hooked quickly! So good.

Another five star read by Heather Webb. She takes you deep into 1920's London and into the female gang of Forty Elephants. You can certainly tell that the author has done extensive research into the gang and the time period. I was drawn into the story from the first page. I didn't like some of the characters as people but they were human and you see the motivation behind their actions. The scenery was well drawn and the characters well developed. I felt at time that I was walking the streets of London with them. The story is told from multiple points of view but all were masterfully intertwined. Very highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks/Landmark for a chance to read an early copy of this book. All thoughts and comments in this review are entirely my own.

Queens of London is Heather Webb's new novel. I knew it was one I wanted to read when I discovered that Webb took inspiration from actual historical events. She's woven fact and fiction into Queens of London.

Who are the Queens you ask? "Diamond Annie" is the Queen of the all women's criminal gang,Forty Elephants. The opening prologue gives you a good idea of how tough these women are. And what they are capable of. The book is set in 1925, post WWI. Money is short and this is how the gang makes their ends meet - and a little bit more. Much more is what they want...

Hot on Annie's heels is Detective Lilian Wyles - a woman who has who has fought her way into the male dominated Scotland Yard. There are two other characters who play pivotal roles in Queens of London - a clerk in a department store and a young woman named Hari. I had my favorite, but each woman has their own story. Oh, there's a great little dog as well. Each of the four women is given a point of view with their own chapters.

There's also lots of action in the book that will keep the reader reading 'just one more chapter'.

Queens of London explores women's roles in this time frame. All four women - on both sides of the law - want nothing more than to just have a say in how they're treated and the expectations piled on them. Society and mores of the timeframe dictates an opposite model from what they want. As the book progresses, the reader can see the writing on the wall...

This was a first read of Webb for me and I have to say I really enjoyed this latest book.

Hira is a young girl orphaned in London whose only friend is her stray dog, Biscuit. Her parents died of cholera in India, and her cruel unfeeling uncle planned to send her to a lousy boarding school, so she ran away and tried her luck on the streets. Despite her sheltered upbringing, Hira has some instinctive street smarts, and she finds herself in with the notorious women's gang Forty Elephants. A tug of war ensues for Hira, between Alice, leader of the Forty Elephants; Lilian, an ambitious Inspector; and Dorothy, a local shopgirl whose affection for Hira stems from a loss in her own life.

Heather Webb bases her story on the real-life London gang, Forty Elephants. The story touches on many other issues besides crime and punishment: domestic abuse, women's rights, women in the workplace, racism, and society's failure to adequately care for orphaned children. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the 1920s, London, women's issues, crime history, and orphans. I love how the author's note at the end explains what in the book is fact or fiction.

I went into this book blind and didn’t know it was historical fiction, but it hooked me right away! I loved the different POVs of Alice and Lilian, two strong women at odds. I also liked the addition of the POVs of more women who were connected to Alice and Lilian, and I especially loved reading about Hira (and Biscuit the dog of course; I would die for him). All of the criminal planning and police pursuit were so interesting to read about, and it made me curious about the actual history of Diamond Annie and the Forty Elephants. At the end of the book, I was happy to see that the author included some information about what was fact in the book and what was fiction.

Thank you to Sourcebooks for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I first read about Alice Diamond in Beezy Marsh’s Queen of Thieves. Being able to view the same character through Webb’s lens in Queens of London, set 20 years prior, was fantastic. The interwoven stories of Hira, a 10 year old orphan, Dorothy, a store clerk, Lillian, a police officer and of course, Alice Diamond showed the gritty reality of women taking very different approaches of survival in 1920s London.

I highly recommend Queens of London to both fans of historical fiction and to those who love reading stories about strong females. I was captivated from start to finish! A huge congratulations to author Heather Webb on another atmospheric, completely transportive read!

From the moment I started reading this historical fiction, I cannot put it down. The all-women cast - Alice, queen of the Forty Elephants, Hira the orphan, Lilian the policewoman and Dorothy, the beautiful saleslady, are all incredibly strong women, though they have different goals in life. Alice may be a gang leader, but you see her kindness and humanity too at times. Lilian is a brave policewoman at a time that people are raising their eyebrows at the thought of women working in the police force. Dorothy is talented, but often mistaken as dumb just because she’s beautiful. And Hira is a lovely child that connects the three women, and though unaware, teaches them valuable lessons in life.

I went into this blind, so I didn’t know the Forty Elephants were a real all-female shoplifting syndicate in the 19th century. How interesting! I love how the author was able to weave together facts and fiction to come up with this thrilling and at times, heartwarming story. I hope we get a sequel? I would love to know what happens to all of them after!

Thank you Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for access to this arc.

First let me say that as of right now, based on reviews I’ve read, my viewpoint is very much in the minority regarding this book. The cover and the blurb promised me a great book set among female thieves in 1920s London being chased by a wonderful female detective. That isn’t what I got.

The pace needed to be faster. The writing was serviceable but not dazzling. There is a huge degree of grimness in the lives of these characters but mainly I wanted some competence from these women. It is almost painful for Alice to be described as ruthless and “a brilliant mastermind” only to repeatedly see that she isn’t. Lilian seems to spend all her time basically doing nothing useful despite being “one of the best detectives on the force.” Dorothy is sweet but the people in her life really haven’t been lying to her about her intelligence. Hira just wants to survive so I’ll accept this eleven year old doing whatever it takes despite most of that going against her moral code. I made it to the 82% mark and thought, no, I don’t care to continue any further. So I’m DNFing it this close to the finish line. It does have a beautiful cover though …

The talented author has chosen a fresh non-WWII era (1920s) and topic (a real life criminal network of women in England) to base this absorbing historical fiction novel on. I had not heard before of the two main characters: brilliant criminal Alice Diamond, Queen of the Forty Elephants, nor of her nemesis, Officer Lilian Wyles of Scotland Yard.

Beautifully written and utterly gripping, I could not put this fantastic tale down. Highly recommended for histfic fans who love compelling stories about famous women, even those on the wrong side of the law.

(Book for review courtesy of NetGalley)

Sourcebooks Landmark ~ February 6


Alice Diamond was a real person ; officer Lillian Wyles was not. Author Heather Webb uses the scant facts available about The Forty Elephants crime gang to tell a story about how life is not fair to women regardless of class, race, or profession. Lillian Wyles is a police officer in 1920s London. She's assigned women's work - things like enforcing hem lines, looking for street urchins, but never murder or hard crime. Lillian is put on guard at a department store frequented by The Forty Elephants, an all female theft/crime ring.



Alice Diamond was a bad ass bitch. She and her Forty Elephants dominated crime in the Elephant and Castle section of London. The women are feared and respected by male gangs. But these women took to gang life to support men who abuse them, to feed children they never wanted to have in the first place. Society never gave them a chance to succeed. Crime offers them both personal and financial support.



Two women from opposing forces seek respect. Lillian knows bringing Diamond Annie to justice will elevate her status in the police. And he knows under her rule her girls have money and support. Neither Annie nor Lillian will cede ground to the other. Webb employs the scant information about The Forty Elephants to propel her story, but the inclusion of the facts never seems expository. Webb's clear straightforward prose indicates this story of women's inequality is one she's eager to tell.

Fictional account of Alice Diamond, aka Diamond Annie, queen of the Forty Elephants, a shoplifting ring that was active post-WWI. This was fascinating and fun and starred other actual people, such as Lilian Wiles, female Scotland Yard inspector. Lilian is trying to make a big score of arresting Alice and her gang so that she can keep her job and perhaps stop working the "security" beat. Alice will do anything to keep her title, even if she longs for a better way of life. Real events make up this amazing piece of historical fiction. I loved getting to know these women!

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Landmark Sourcebooks for this e-arc.*

3.75 raised to 4

This story follows four females. Alice Diamond, head of the notorious Forty Elephants female gang, protector and enforcer. Lillian Wyles, inspector at Scotland Yard, fighting an uphill battle on chauvinism and desperately needing a high profile arrest to prove herself. Hira Wickham, a sweet child fleeing an abusive uncle and taking matters into her own hands. Dorothy McBride, store clerk looking for a husband and finding strength in herself.

While I enjoyed these carefully crafted storylines and characters, I had a hard time initially getting into it. Once I focused on each character and let go of trying to figure out how it all tied together, the story took off. I enjoyed all the characters, each stayed true to who they were. The secondary characters, especially a favorite faithful sidekick Biscuit, were just as endearing. This is a sad look into the choices females of a certain class had in the 1920’s to survive. Webb painted a vivid picture of four different women and their growth, strengths and weaknesses. I enjoyed how each woman, in her own way, found their self worth without it revolving around a man.

Thanks to NetGalley and SourceLandmark for this ARC. This is my honest opinion.

Well done historical fiction based in fact. Set in London just after WWI, the Queens of London is all about found family and female empowerment (albeit in crime). Alice - AKA Diamond Annie- runs the Forty Elephants shoplifting ring that steals frequently from the shop where Dorothy works and which is the target of Lilian, the rare female police officer of the period. Then there's 10 year old Hira, who has run away from boarding school. These four are on a sort of collision course. It's nicely atmospheric and both the characters and the storytelling are engaging. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read.

Some of my regular readers will know that a while back, I spent a week in Ireland with Heather Webb and Eliza Knight. During our week, Heather told me about this book, and I have to say that I was a tiny bit wary, because I had recently read two novels about Alice Diamond (aka Diamond Annie). One by Breezy Marsh called “The Queen of Thieves,” and another called “The Forty Elephants” by Erin Bledsoe. Both of these books were good, but neither of them totally wowed me. From our conversations, I realize that all three of these books look at different parts of Alice Diamond’s life. This book focuses more on Alice’s later years when she was at the height, although nearing the end, of her criminal career with her gang. So, without much overlap between them, I was assured that I’d get a slightly different Alice than I’d read about before.

But the thing is, this book isn’t just about Alice. There are three other female characters in this book as well. One of them – Lilian Wyles seems to share the spotlight with Alice, and like Alice, was a real person. While Alice wasn’t the first leader of a female gang of thieves, albeit the most famous (or infamous) of them all, Lilian was a true trailblazer in her field. Wyles was one of the first female police officers of Scotland Yard, and became the first woman to reach the rank of Chief Inspector. The two others – a young, orphaned girl named Hira and a shopgirl named Dorothy – play slightly smaller, but necessary pivotal, roles. I’m guessing that writing a novel with this many significant characters can’t be easy, especially when there is also a slew of minor characters filling out the cast. Admittedly, I worried about that for a bit (my dyslexia can make it hard for me to keep lots of names straight), but thankfully, that only troubled me very slightly, and only at the beginning of reading this novel.

More importantly was if I was able to sympathize or empathize with these characters? Since I already knew about Alice, I was glad to see that Webb portrayed her as someone both tough, and someone who felt she had few choices in her world, and would have been happier if she’d been able to avoid a life of crime. I won’t say I admired Alice, but I did care about her. Of course, I worried about both Hira and Dorothy, and I liked them both well enough. However, it was Lilian that I truly fell in love with (and I was a good girl and only looked her up AFTER I finished reading this book). She’s my favorite type of person to read about in historical fiction novels; a woman we know little to nothing about, who did amazing things with her life, and was far ahead of her time. It makes me believe that women really could do a better job than men in running this crazy world!

Okay, philosophy aside, I think Webb has a real winner here. Not only was this book vividly written, with passages that bordered on poetry, but the story was so well laid out, and with such intense action scenes, that it was practically unputdownable. And yes, she got me to cry. Mind you, it wasn’t about Alice or Hira (who were the obvious choices throughout most of the book), and not even about the death of one character (who didn’t deserve to die), but rather about Lilian. I’d say more but… sorry, no spoilers, so if you want to know what brought tears to my eyes, you’ll just have to read this novel! Therefore, I can unequivocally recommend this novel and give it a rating of a full five out of five stars.

In London in 1925, Alice Diamond, AKA "Diamond Annie," is elected the Queen of the Forty Elephants, an all-girl gang. and the first female crime syndicate. Alice is ambitious, tough as nails, and a brilliant mastermind, with a plan to create a dynasty the likes of which no one has ever seen. Alice demands absolute loyalty from her "family". but she also takes really good care of her "girls". Unfortunately for Alice, Officer Lilian Wyles of Scotland Yard. is tired of being assigned "women's work" and is determined to prove herself as a detective & make a name for herself, so she has her sights set on capturing Alice and the rest of the Forty Elephants.

I was initially drawn to this book because of the cover and the premise. I had never heard of Diamond Annie or the Forty Elephants before and was intrigued with the idea of the first female crime syndicate, especially when that same syndicate was being taken down by one of the first female detectives of Scotland Yard. Think about it..... female empowerment on both sides of the law.! I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author did an excellent job bringing all of the characters to life. I felt like I was actually there watching it all unfold. If you are a fan of historical fiction, or even just love a story with a strong female protagonist, then you definitely need to check this out!

QUEENS OF LONDON by Heather Webb is a fascinating historical novel depicting the dark criminal underbelly of London just after World War I. It tells of a famous all-female shoplifting gang, The Forty Elephants, led by the Queen, Alice Diamond, AKA “Diamond Annie. It is also the story of Officer Lilian Wyles, one of the first female detectives at Scotland Yard. She longs to work on the big cases, but instead gets assigned work considered more appropriate for women. Taking down Diamond Annie and her dynasty would give Lilian the chance to prove herself as good, if not better, than her male colleagues and gain their respect. This is a story of sisterhood, justice and loyalty with strong female characters and plenty of action and intrigue. I found myself transported to London in 1925 by the vivid descriptions. It is clear how well-researched this story is. Don’t miss the informative Author’s Note at the end to see which characters are based on real-life people and which are fictional. I enjoyed this engrossing and exciting story and highly recommend it. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review an early copy.

It's London in 1925; the town is still resetting from the Great War and a group of savvy, young women are becoming a well oiled all-female crime syndicate called The Forty Elephants. Lead by Alice Diamond, or "Diamond Annie" as dubbed by the papers, the group is getting prepped for a big job. One that will allow them to live the high life for awhile and afford some security for the group. However, Lilian Wyles, the first female detective at Scotland Yard, id not about to let this scenario play out under watch.

In Queens of London, Heather Webb creates a historical fiction novel with facts but also with an intriguing and action filled plot. She allows the readers to get a real feel for the streets of London post WWI. Illustrating equally the wealth of some and the scarcity of others.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the opportunity to read this novel.

** Book Review ** Out Feb 6

I have been lucky to have already read some great reads this year and The Queens of London is certainly one of them.

This historical fiction novel by the talented Heather Webb is based on the true story of an all-female shoplifting crime ring, the Forty Elephants, in London, England, in the 1920s.

We see the story unfold through the eyes of Alice, the tough, conflicted leader of the ring, Hira, a loveable orphaned 10 year old girl, Dorothy, a young, underestimated department saleswoman, and Lilian, a female police woman with Scotland Yard, which was quite rare in that time period. This is a story of found family, loyalty, justice and what it means, desperation, discrimination, poverty, and female empowerment. The characters were well developed and there were parts of each of them that I could relate to.

The author says in her Author’s Note that she could see the story like a movie reel playing behind her eyes and that is exactly how I felt reading this novel. The writing was easy to read, flowed well, and was very descriptive and the pacing was smooth and even. I felt like I was in the world created by the author. Wonderful fiction like this is why I love to read. Highly recommend!

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and Netgalley for this complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

Review to be posted to IG on Feb 5.

This is a fast paced book. It’s about four women trying to live and survive in London. All four different and from opposite sides of life.
I liked all four but especially liked Hira. She was strong and smart. She really stole the story, I think.
It’s another really good book by this author.