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The Belle of Bedford Avenue is on the New York Times list of 75 recommended books for summer

May 31st, 2019

The Bell of Bedford Avenue by Virginia A. McConnell. Kent State University PressThe New York Times has “rounded up some glorious new titles to keep any reader happy, hydrated and cool: pulse-pounding thrillers, delectable cookbooks, eerie true-crime stories to stand your hair on end.”

Amongst the hair raisers is KSUP’s The Belle of Bedford Avenue by Virginia A. McConnell.

“Everybody loves a bad girl — in crime stories, if not in life. One person who meets that description is Florence Burns, the subject of Virginia A. McConnell’s juicy biography, THE BELLE OF BEDFORD AVENUE: The Sensational Brooks-Burns Murder in Turn-of-the-Century New York. Coming of age at the turn of the 20th century, the American-born sons and daughters of immigrants were not so keen on living by the austere moral codes their parents brought over from the home countries. There were so many amusing enticements in New York City: dance halls, gin mills and roadhouses for the adventures, the amusements at Coney Island for excitement, and fast cars with darkened back seats for sex…”

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