Karen Chisholm
REVIEW
DEADLY AUSTRALIAN WOMEN - Kay Saunders
Reviewed By
Monday, July 8, 2013
It's discomforting to read these sorts of books. They are the stories of women who have murdered and whilst some of these women were undoubtedly guilty, the tales of the desperate, the poor, abused and betrayed make it hard not to look rather critically at society "norms" and behaviours. Perhaps that's what's important about these sorts of books.
BOOK DETAILS
BOOK INFORMATION
BLURB
Do women kill? Yes they do, but often for very different reasons from men ...
Meet the women who have murdered - they′ve killed children, husbands, lovers, relatives and friends. They include the desperate, the poor, the abused, the sexually betrayed, and the downright callous. In some cases they were motivated by fear of society′s disapproval, in others they acted to save themselves from violence.
Among their number were early backyard abortionists like Madame Olga and Madame Harper; poisoners like Caroline Grills and Yvonne Fletcher; women who committed infanticide like Keli Lane; women who formed lovers′ pacts to murder their husbands; and women whose troubled lives on the margins, like transgendered Eugenia Falleni/Harry Crawford, led them almost inevitably to crime.