Victorian London comes to vivid life in this riveting heist novel about an all-female thieving gang and one young woman’s heroic plan to escape a life of crime.
Karen Odden received her PhD in English from New York University and taught Victorian literature at UW-Milwaukee. She is the author of five crime novels set in 1870s London, including her award-winning USA Today bestselling debut, “A Lady in the Smoke.” A transplant from New York, Odden lives in Arizona with her family. On Tuesday, June 2nd, she will be at The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale for a book signing.
Author Karen Odden joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss her novel.
The thieving ring in Odden’s novel is based on a real all-female gang. She stumbled upon this inspiration for her novel in a bar in London with her daughter.
“I walked in and there’s all of these pictures of beautiful women, and I thought, this is odd. And there was a QR code on the table, and I, I’m like Pavlov’s dog with these things. I click and sure enough it tells the whole story about the 40 Elephants who in their hay day sort of 1920s and 1930s were these beautiful flapper girls. But, who had their roots in 1870s in elephant and castle,” Odden said.
The novel is set during a time where women did not have legal power or independence. Odden shared how the women in her book did not align to the status quo of the time.
“But for young women who were orphans and poor and not married, they actually had a lot of agency. They could run around and do all kinds of things, and so this thieving ring in Elephant Castle offered a certain amount of protection,” Odden said.
More than just highlighting the escapades of this thieving ring, Odden wanted to shine a light on the relationships between women.
“When I first started writing the book. I realized I wanted to write about women and relationships and loyalty. Loyalty between sisters, between thieves, between friends. How it’s different in different cases. So while it is a mystery, it is a heist novel. Sort of the emotional arc of it is all about women and friendships,” Odden said.
