The Story of Chicago May

"A biography with narrative muscle and thrilling historical relevance." -Kirkus Reviews

Legend says that May Duignan was tall with red-gold hair and big blue eyes, and that she was compellingly attractive to men. At 19, she stole her family’s savings and ran away from home in rural Ireland to America, where she worked as a confidence trickster, a thief, a showgirl, and a prostitute, notorious as much for her violence as for her diamond rings. The tabloids dubbed her “The Queen of the Underworld.” Reaching across decades for points of connection, Nuala O’Faolain, the bestselling author of Almost There and My Dream of You, brings sympathetic scrutiny to the understanding of an outlaw experience like no other.