Mary kay Mcbrayer

Author of
Madame Queen: The Life and Crimes of Harlem’s Underground Racketeer, Stephanie St. Clair
(Park Row, 2025)
America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster (Mango, 2020)

Mary Kay McBrayer received her MFA in non-fiction creative writing from Georgia College & State University. Her writing has appeared in Oxford American, Narratively, Mental Floss, New/Lines Magazine, FANGORIA, Architectural Digest, and elsewhere. She co-hosts Everything Trying to Kill You, the comedy podcast that analyzes your favorite horror movies from the perspectives of women of color. She’s also the writer and co-host of the feminist podcast, Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told.

Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / marykaymcbrayer.com / Represented by Kayla Lightner

Madame Queen: The Life and Crimes of Harlem’s Underground Racketeer, Stephanie St. Clair (Park Row, 2025)

The astonishing little-known history of Harlem racketeer Madame Stephanie St. Clair, one of the only female crime bosses and a Black, self-made businesswoman in early twentieth-century New York.

In her heyday, Stephanie St. Clair went by many names, but one was best known by all: Madame Queen. The undeniable queen of the Harlem numbers game, St. Clair redefined what it meant to be a woman of means. After immigrating to America from the West Indies, St. Clair would go on to manage one of the largest policy banks in all of Harlem by 1923. She knew the power of reputation, and even though her business was illegal gambling, she ran it like any other respectable entrepreneur. Because first and foremost, Madame Queen was a lady.

But that didn’t stop her from doing what needed to be done to survive. St. Clair learned how to navigate the complex male-dominated world of crime syndicates, all at a time when Tammany Hall and mafia groups like the Combination were trying to rule New York. With her tenacity and intellectual prowess, she never backed down. Madame Queen was a complicated figure, but she prioritized the people of Harlem above all else, investing her wealth back into the neighborhood and speaking out against police corruption and racial discrimination.

St. Clair was a trailblazer, unafraid to challenge societal norms. But for far too long she’s been a footnote in more infamous characters’ stories, like Bumpy Johnson, Dutch Schultz and Lucky Luciano. Now, in this masterful portrayal of a woman who defied the odds at all costs, she finally gets her due.

America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster (Mango, 2020)

America’s First Female Serial Killer novelizes the true story of first-generation Irish-American nurse Jane Toppan, born as Honora Kelley. Although all the facts are intact, books about her life and her crimes are all facts and no story. Jane Toppan was absolutely a monster, but she did not start out that way. When Jane was a young child, her father abandoned her and her sister to the Boston Female Asylum. From there, Jane was indentured to a wealthy family who changed her name, never adopted her, wrote her out of the will, and essentially taught her how to hate herself. Jilted at the altar, Jane became a nurse and took control of her life, and the lives of her victims.