She Devils: True Stories of the World's Most Notorious Female Serial Killers

by Anne McDuff

Very few women kill. When they do, it is often the tragic outcome of domestic abuse, drug addiction, or mental illness. It is rare for women to kill for pleasure, yet a few of that breed emerge in each generation. At the turn of the last century, with no adoption agencies to protect them, Annie Walters killed unwanted newborns. Ninety years later, Aileen Wuornos sold herself on the highways of Florida, a well-known hunting ground for men looking for prostitutes, until she became the hunter. Rose West exploited lonely girls from nearby children's homes, and Myra Hindley took sickening advantage of the blind trust of Britain in the 1960s where children were safe to walk the streets alone. Beverley Allit and Marybeth Tinning thought that, as a nurse and a mother, the deaths of the children in their care would be seen as tragic accidents. And Karla Homolka exploited a different prejudice. She was prefect, pretty, and so caring as a veterinary nurse. No one ever imagined she could be a sexual predator and killer.

Genres: True Crime

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2009

Reviews

[Jill H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book consists of 10 short stories of some of the most notorious female serial killers in recent history, mostly in the UK. Some we have heard of and some we have not but it makes for a fairly interesting although disturbing read. It appears, however, that the author did not use a proofreader/editor to correct the obvious grammatical errors and other glitches that appeared throughout the text. That is one of the things that usually totally puts me off a book but I kept at it only to learn a little more about some of these very twisted women. It is fairly graphic and the section on Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, the Moor Murderers, is truly heartrending. There is a bit too much pseudo-psychology here as the author searches for reasons for the actions of these killers. It is a very quick read and might be worth reading if you are interested in true crime and can get past the errors of language rules and sentence structure.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was very interesting, and I enjoyed reading about the cases and the interesting facts. What got me was not only the amount of grammatical errors (like missing commas and lower case letters at the beginning of sentences) but also the author's attempt to theorize the deeper meanings and motivations of female serial killers. She took the time to consult experts in that area, but was not consistent in using those sources. And in the last entry it was pretty much her waxing eloquent about female serial killers and trying to be darkly poetic about the life and kills of Juana Barrazza (or however you spell it lol). I get that not much is known about this woman because she has still refused to say much, and is always known for being quiet, but still. Just...omit that entry in this book or something. Ha. So 3 stars.

[Asilef · Rating 3 out of 5]

The spelling and grammar in this book are atrocious. Like another reviewer said, I wonder if anyone bothered to edit? It doesn't look like it.
She Devils was pretty good though. I've been reading a lot of true crime books lately, and a lot of them are written really poorly, like high schoolers wrote them. This book wasn't like that (aside from the grammar, of course). I was intrigued throughout the whole book, and really liked that each story delved into the childhood history of each woman.

[Lisa Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, but it really annoyed me the amount of poor grammer and miss spelling in it. No one was proof read this book, the editing is awful. There is no reason for poor English. It ruined my enjoyment.

[Shona · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was factual and interesting but the writing was often flat. It could have benefited from a copy editor with an eye for detail. There were several type setting mistakes that were vexing