An intriguing look into the lesser known world of female serial killers, which is often overshadowed by their male counterparts. It examines the psychological social and cultural factors behind these women's crimes. It sheds light on women such as Belle Gunnes and Nannie Doss. It focuses on stories and perspectives we rarely hear about and delivers an unsettling but compelling insight to the minds of these murderers. Something for true crime enthusiasts who are looking for something different and looking into the darker corners of human behaviour

I thought this book was so fascinating and provided really great insight into the differences between the mind of a female serial killer and a male serial killer. Since the media is so focused on the portrayal of male serial killers, it was really interesting to see the trends in the way that women kill and why they kill.

The research parameters were very well laid out and explained clearly so that one could understand the differences between types of psychologists, the ability to diagnose, and what the measurement metrics were to define a serial killer (both male and female)

This book was eye opening to the psychology behind women killers. They aren't as suspected as readily because they are women, mothers, wives, but they can be more deadly or more evil than their male counterparts. Interesting read, and I'm still thinking about some of these cases and shaking my head.

Normally I like true crime, however this book just wasn’t my cup of tea. I couldn’t get through it, it felt very factual which is good, it just wasn’t gripping. So I didn’t finish it myself.

I so rarely get to read academic texts about psychology, but this was such a fascinating look at the lives and minds of female serial killers with an ethical approach to true crime. it was a bit dry at times - something the book acknowledges - but i was able to find an audiobook on Scribd that made it as digestible as a podcast.

I ran into some personal issues and was unable to read the book or write a review....my apologies to the publisher.

I am a big fan of research on various topics within the criminal justice system and this is a book that can be handy for many in the field. We have all read and seen many documentaries on male serial killers, but the phenom surrounding woman killers, nonetheless, women serial killers, is a topic that doesn't garner too much attention. Here, the author draws on similarities between the genders but also describes the differences and motives that compel each gender to pursue their prey in the way that they do. This is not a book I would recommend if you are looking for a leisurely read and do not enjoy the topic because some of the material may be too much for the reader. But if this area is in your niche and/or you have experience or work in this area, then this is a book that you absolutely need,

This was a very interesting look into the differences between female and male serial killers. I really am glad I read it.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed with this ARC.

I enjoy reading true crime, as well as research, and very few books have covered female killers, so i was very excited to read this. However, I just didn’t enjoy it and overall didn’t get much out of it.

The author presents some statics, but extrapolates information based on her thinking as an evolutionary psychologist. There were some things I questioned, as I felt her conclusion was too simple and not rooted in fact. There was also a lot of talk about male serial killers, especially Gacy.

I did like, however, the short stories about the perpetrators and the variety of serial killers the author covered.

Thanks to NetGalley for the the ARC in exchange for a fair an honest review. This was a fascinating read. Usually we get a lot of male serial killer books and what makes them tick and not many that delve into female serial killers, their motivations and how they differ from male serial killers.
The author's extensive research draws intriguing parallels and differences between male and female serial killers, taking into account personal, social, economic, and traumatic contexts.
Whilst a lot of the well known serial killers both female and male were discussed, as to be expected, the book also raised some other female serial killer cases that I was not familiar with. It was very interesting to learn more of the different motivations that drive both male and female serial killers and also the different methods of killing that each sex more frequently employs. A fascinating read. A must have to add to your True Crime TBR. #justasdeadlythepsychologyoffemaleserialkillers #marissaaharrison #netgalley #goodreads #litsy #thestorygraph #tea_sipping_bookworm #bookqueen #bookstagram #truecrime

This book.

Okay. I'm a huge true crime afficionado. Gotta have my daily dose in the form of podcasts, YouTube videos, and/or the written word. The vast majority of the material covered across all these forms of media and among the various creators offering it has certain patterns. Most killers are (cis) men, and most victims are (cis) women or children. Mostly in the English spheres these people are all white and Western.

So, I was very excited to read a text about "female" serial killers or FSK, especially an academic one. And it was fascinating, even when it was enfuriating.

The author is an evolutionary psychologist. Now, I don't have the space to go into it, but that subset of scholarship has experienced a lot of criticism from all fronts. Unfortunately, two major criticisms–lack of falsifiability and bias due to modern sociocultural norms–raise their heads over and over in this text. Moreover, the author makes a ton of leaps in logic, generalizes from very little evidence, extrapolates findings from other areas, etc. She leans heavily on scientificese, e.g., "To be scientifically fair ..." in short, rather poor scholarship overall.

The author's basic premise is that FSKs and their "male" counterparts, MSKs, are fundamentally different. Hm! In short, her argument is that FSKs are in it for the money and MSKs are in it for the (sexual) gratification. She has a little note about sex and gender, but it seems to be more of an aside to preclude us pesky naysayers. Here's a quote that wraps it up: "women and men have different behavioral tendencies due to evolved psychological processes, largely based on differences in reproduction." Just a statement, not a fact. She further muddies the waters with terms like "biopsychosocial." She frequently bends over backwards attempting to make her binary point, even while she contradicts herself at several junctions. Yes, there's more than a flavour of biological essentialism going on here.

When we go into the details, we get a slightly different story. Aileen Wuornos, for instance, was abused as a child and "learned violence as a coping skill," i.e., traumagenic development. Others had mental health and/or drug dependency issues (and I write these with great hesitation, but they are factors that she notes). But over half of FSKs had "hedonistic" objectives, including for entertainment, for the thrill of it, to protect their own interests, and even for personal comfort. I'm not quite sure how we end up with the "money vs. malice" dichotomy, but we do.

The author relies on small samples and a lot of extrapolation. The tables comparing FSKs and MSKs at the end are telling. Apparently almost all serial killers are from the US! Who woulda thunk it? She also writes about class but not a peep about race/ethnicity. I won't go into the details, but take a look and you might find a meta-level theme when it comes to the selection of these factors: the bias of the author at play.

For some reason, we also get the author's thoughts on other irrelevant matters. At one point she writes that "consuming true crime media may literally be addictive." Receipts, please. She also dismisses major problems like the infodemic, writing that "some people feel" that misinformation is everywhere and a real problem. Actually, her colleagues working in that area have shown conclusively that it is, with a lot of data from around the globe, over time and across sites, through a variety of research methods–unlike her. To be fair, she acknowledges and even seems surprised at how little she had to go on, to the extent of having to write so much about MSKs (and there was really too much on that front): "Within a book aimed at telling the stories of female serial killers, I certainly did not set out to write so much on John Wayne Gacy." Well, we certainly didn't expect to read so much about him, either!

What I really got out of this text was a moment for self-reflection as a true crime enthusiast. At one point, the author talks about how cases are too often treated commodities and even a certain brand of entertainment. She quotes Erika Magan: "True crime keeps the pain alive." And also Maggie Larson, with true crime programs that go too far being "the ultimate sense of entitlement to others' lives." This brought to mind the podcaster in Kirsten Miller's <a href=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59030015-the-change>The Change</a>. Again, I find myself unnerved but also appreciating the current shift towards victim-centric true crime coverage, especially in creator spaces. Some podcasts, notably <a href=https://canadiantruecrime.ca/>Canadian True Crime</a>, go out of the way to check in with victims and families and communities, not only centring their experiences and perspectives but also driving for informed consent or nothing.

In the end, I find myself disappointed and a bit disturbed—and not because of the murders and murderers.

I always tend to gravitate more towards true crime books focused on women so I didn't hesitate to request this book. The first half of the book, although very academic heavy, was still very interesting and I learned new things about the women murderers that I was already familiar with along with some new faces as well. The book takes a complete left turn at the halfway point when the author focuses on male murderers, even though in the beginning of the book she does state that so much as has been written about male serial killers and not enough about women. So it was pretty baffling to me why half of the book was focused on men instead of maybe giving more examples of women behaving badly, whether they were defined as serial killers or not. The male killers that she focused on were already the big names such as Ed Gein and BTK. Why did we need chapters on the them at all? I would have loved more of a longer focus on the women and maybe fleshing out their stories longer if necessary. Pretty disappointed about the direction of the book but it seems the research is solid.

I enjoyed this title! It's been a HUGE hit at my library! I look forward to reading more from this author!

5 stars out of 5!!

DNF
The book was off to a promising start, but a tedious and long read. Not quite 40% im the author starts talking about male serial killers and lost me. Ths isn't what I was looking for in this particular book
The author's writing style is also very informal, which one one hand is nice because it makes it easier to understand what she's talking about, but on the other hand her train of thought seems to jump from place to place...like this section about the male serial killers to illustrate the difference between male and female serial killers...but the sections on the maleserial killers are much longer and her point could have been illustrated in the first example aboht John Wayne Gacy. I like the idea behind this book, but from what I read it wasn't well excuted.

Female serial killers are not new - but talking about them hasn't been as prevalent as some of their male counterparts. This was an amazing book, laying out some of the female serial killers. I was familiar with many, but there were a few that I wasn't aware of.

Great overall, and enjoyable! For those who enjoy true crime, this will be a good read.

Serial Killer are often a sort of pop murderes but there's not a lot of books about female SK nor books that talks about the crimes and the culprit without turning them in sort of antihero.
A well written and informative book.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

This was a fascinating and well-researched read. Most of the female serial killers I was familiar with prior to reading this book weren't from the US and often worked in teams with a man, so this book shone the light on crimes committed by women alone in the US that I hadn't previously heard of. I appreciated the multi-faceted approach toward the history of FSKs and their differences from MSKs. I also loved that the author repeatedly stated that she wasn't diagnosing individuals and emphasized the fact that most folks diagnosed with ASPD, have a history of trauma, or have psychopathic traits don't go on to be serial murderers. There's also a good focus on not sensationalizing the killers' crimes and instead focusing on the picture as a whole as well as the impact on victims and their families.

The only downside for me is that it's a bit data-heavy at times for my personal preference. I definitely want the information to be data-driven and to be included in the book in some way, but sometimes it was a little much and made the book dry. It felt more like a really long research paper than an engaging non-fiction book, so I wouldn't have minded some of the numbers to be included in an appendix for perusal if the reader wanted to see the standard deviations, etc.

Overall this was a very comprehensive read and I learned a lot!

I love diving into the psychology of why people do things, and I think female serial killers haven't really been explored as much as their male counterparts. If you're into psychology and the background on true crimes, this is the book for you!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC!

I am a real true crime fan and this did not disappoint. It was well written and well researched, the author also 'stayed in her lane' in the fact that she did not offer opinions on areas that she did not know about and this was really refreshing. Some of the cases I knew, however some I didn't and the book put forward a refreshing perspective. This is certainly a must read for any true crime lovers.

Interesting book on female serial killers. The author gives plenty of examples of crimes committed by women. It was the first book I read about this problem written by a respectful psychologist. Highly recommend it to people interested in this field of criminology.