Fleeing an abusive father in Ireland, peasant-girl, May Sharpe chases her dream of a new glamorous life.
Arriving penniless in 1919’s America, beautiful May is charmed by successful con-man, Eddie. With her new lover’s guidance, teenage May becomes the city’s ‘Queen of Crooks’.
Joe, a tenacious local cop, has fallen for the beautiful, feisty May and is determined to save her from herself. In the midst of her glitzy life, he urges May to make a decision; a decision which would threaten, not only her new-found fame and fortune, but, her young life…
Inspired by a true story.
I am an award-winning British screenwriter, who was on the first writing team of the BBC’s EASTENDERS, and won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best TV serial for CORONATION STREET. I was Head of Development at Cloud 9 Screen Entertainment Group, producing seven major television series, including ‘Swiss Family Robinson’ starring Richard ‘John Boy’ Thomas, and ‘Twist in the Tale’, featuring William Shatner. I was co-creator of the UK Channel Five teen-cult drama series ‘THE TRIBE’, which ran for five series.
I have written two novels, CHICAGO MAY and BIRTH OF THE MALL RATS [an intro to the TV series THE TRIBE].
CHICAGO MAY is the first book of a two-part series.
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My thoughts: this was interesting, a slice of historical fiction inspired by a true story, set during the early 20th century. May is an Irish girl, running away from her abusive father and she heads to New York, full of hope.
Unfortunately she falls in with ‘Society’ Eddie, a small time crook and his gang. He soon has her robbing men and shoplifting. But there’s an honest soul, Joe Perski, looking out for her. He’s a cop, but he doesn’t really want May to go to prison, he’s after bigger fish – Eddie. If May helps him perhaps they can both be free.
May, like so many other impressionable young women falls for Eddie’s flash, but he has a very dark side and once she sees it, things have to change. She’s very brave in how she goes about getting things sorted, she puts her life on the line and she’s lucky she’s so clever, it could all go wrong at any moment, but she’s planned for that.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 