Carol Ann Davis profiles fourteen women who used arsenic, manual strangulation, suffocation, lethal injection, multiple gunshots and stabbing to kill their victims. Each killer is the subject of a separate chapter, exploring her childhood, lifestyle and sexuality. There is analysis of the murder, the trial and the subsequent imprisonment of every woman. Ms. Davis comments on the classification of female killers, how society may underestimate dangerous women, and what it is that can turn ordinary women into killers.

CAROL ANNE DAVIS was born in Dundee, moved to Edinburgh in her twenties and now lives in the south of England. She left school at fifteen and was everything from an artist's model to an editorial assistant before going to university. Her MA degree included criminology and was followed by a postgraduate diploma in Adult and Community Education. Now a full-time writer, she is the author of four crime novels and non-fiction books including Women Who Kill and Children Who Kill.

‘Davis writes in a way that keeps the reader's interest while describing the detailed lives of 14 women who have been classified as serial killers...Recommended for all true-crime collections’ Library Journal

‘Davis writes with verve’ Publishers Weekly

‘Society doesn't like to believe that women are as capable of monstrous behavior as me ... Davis' casebook reveals that not only do women excel at murder, but they're also even better at manipulation’ Bizarre

‘In this well written, eminently readable reference work, crime writer and criminologist Carol Anne Davis tackles her subject in a way that avoids the extremes of tacky gori-ness and dry-as-dust theorizing that mars most true crime books.’ Time Out (London)

‘A chilling read and not for the faint-hearted’ Scotland on Sunday