The Queen

Named one of the New York Times' 14 books to watch out for in May Slate editor Josh Levin's masterful account of the life and crimes of America's original welfare queen is "an invaluable work of nonfiction." (David Grann, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon) On the South Side of Chicago in 1974, Linda Taylor reported a phony burglary, concocting a lie about stolen furs and jewelry. The detective who checked it out soon discovered she was a welfare cheat who drove a Cadillac to collect ill-gotten government checks. And that was just the beginning: Taylor, it turned out, was also a kidnapper, and possibly a murderer. A desperately ill teacher, a combat-traumatized Marine, an elderly woman hungry for companionship-after Taylor came into their lives, all three ended up dead under suspicious circumstances. But nobody-not the journalists who touted...