I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

I was intrigued by this which is why I chose to read it
I'm so glad I did
Incredibly well researched I learned loads
Highly recommend

I have always been interested in historical true crime. Victorian Murderesses outlines seven cases from the United States and Britain. The seven women accused of murder were Sarah Drake, Mary Ann Brough, Mary Ann Cotton, Kate Bender, Kate Webster, Lizzie Borden, and Jane Toppan.

This book was well-researched and written in a concise interesting manner. I was surprised that there was no introduction or conclusion. I would have liked some indication of how these particular cases were chosen. The book does include notes, a bibliography, and an index which is very helpful.

Fascinating information on some well known murderesses and some I've never heard of. Each person was covered in enough detail to make you feel you knew their story or to whet your appetite to find out more. I had already read a book about Lisa is Borden.
An easy read

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
I love historical crime novels. This was a great one. Well researched and also about murderers (murderesses) that I had not read about before.
Great book!

A grizzly non fiction book looking at murders carried out by women from both the UK and America during the Victorian era.

I hadn't heard of any of them but they each made macabre reading.

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.

I don’t know why I don’t read more non-fiction. This collection of crimes committed by Victorian Murderesses held my attention and got my imagination running wild. The Victorian era has always fascinated me. It’s an age that we can’t quite grasp our heads around. The medicine, the way of life, the clothing, and the evil deeds that women committed had me in a trance. The belief at that time was that women couldn’t commit violent acts, they were motherly, and caring and if driven to act then it was through the means of poisoning – that was a woman’s method. How wrong they were!

Each of these dastardly evil women is given their own chapter and I liked the mix of UK and US geography. The writing was brilliant, and the research dedicated to each woman shone through like the light at the end of the tunnel.

There is nothing demure about these women. They know what they want, and they go out and take it. By poison and physical means. I didn’t feel any remorse for any of these women, their plight felt far stretched and a mere excuse to get off with the crime that they’d been accused of. Killing children, patients and husbands didn’t seem like a very sensible thing to do in the circumstances but many of them got away with it for so long because detection skills especially regarding women weren’t what they are in the 21st century.

The story of Jane Toppan struck a chord. She was born to Irish immigrants in 1857 and experienced a troubled childhood which concluded with her mother dying of Tuberculosis. Some of her actions could be attributed to her start in life, but many children have hard childhoods and don’t go on to murder all of their patients whilst supposedly nursing them back to health. She was always difficult, always creating friction between her fellow students and her teachers. She’d do anything to make herself look good and them bad. It was a testament to her character early on. Training as a nurse is when her sadism really took root. She discovered through medicine that she could make people extremely ill. She experimented with Morphine and Atropine to get the desired effects. She’d get them knocking on the door and death and bring them back with atropine time and time again. She relished in the effects it caused the body until she decided it was time for them to die. Jane Toppan was an evil woman.

I did however feel that some of the stories dragged on and could have benefited from being a bit more concise. I felt there was a fair bit of filler contained within the stories and unfortunately I felt myself skim-reading through some of the stories. It’s a shame because I enjoyed the vast majority of the book.

Hey! What method did you use? Oh I chose poison. What are you in for? Oh poisoning. You over there what did you do? Umm poisoned
Well you get the idea
I’m exaggerating a tad but that is always what I think of in this period.
Thank you to the publishers, author, and NG for my free copy in exchange for my review

The true stories of these seven women and their crimes breaks all preconceived notions of women who murder. The time frame is the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries when women were considered too weak and timid to commit murder, but indeed they did. Conventions said that if women did commit murder, it would be with poison, six out of seven of these women used violent means. And a woman would never harm her children, sadly that was untrue too. The stories are horrifyingly real.
Debbie Blake has done an excellent job of presenting these women and their crimes in such a manner that you want to know more. Maybe there should be another book. I'd certainly read it.

Insightful and interesting. An interesting account of Victorian murderesses that will interest any true crime or history fan. This book was so entertaining and informative!

I am a big fan of true crime. These stories are true crime from a totally different era. Life was nothing like it is today so you get a real peek into what life was like back in this time and guess what! I'm not surprised that women turned into murderesses!
Great storytelling!

Some of these cases were familiar, some not. A chapter for each case, clearly told in a straightforward manner with all the facts. No histrionics but good research told in an interesting manner. A relatively short book which was a bit disappointing. Thanks to Netgalley.

This book was exceptionally well written, highlighting the lives and crimes of seven notorious female murderers in both Britain and in the United States. Some names were familiar, others were brand new to me, but I greatly enjoyed reading this before bed as a little Halloween-time spooky time. Definitely check this out if you are fans of history and true crime!

Jolie découverte !
un livre qui ne laisse pas indifférent
J'avais déjà entendu parler de deux de ces histoires.
C'est même fou d'imaginer que l'une d'entre elle se résoud 131 ans plus tard !
C'est très bien écrit même si certains passages peuvent sembler tirer en longueur
c'est même effarant de voir que l'on peut tuer sans éveiller les soupçons
En tout cas ce livre ne laisse pas indifférent à tous niveaux (meurtres, les raisons, enquêtes, justice...); on est obligé de se demander si nous aurions juger ces femmes de la même manière que leur pères(le jury)

Nice discovery!
a book that leaves no one indifferent
I had heard of two of these stories before.
It's even crazy to imagine that one of them resolves 131 years later!
It's very well written even if some passages may seem long.
it's even frightening to see that one can kill without arousing suspicion
In any case this book does not leave indifferent at all levels (murders, reasons, investigations, justice...); we have to wonder if we would have judged these women in the same way as their fathers (the jury)

Seven stories of British and American Women who committed murder in the Victorian era. Fascinating read.

These are true stories to keep you awake at night! Real life accounts of Victorian murderesses you have probably never heard of before. Not for the faint hearted these include the court records, police reports, newspaper articles letters etc. I hope the printed version will include photos and copies of letters etc as that would really add to the interest for me.

This was an interesting selection of well-researched true-life stories of Victorian female murderers. I particularly enjoyed the back stories of the women providing context for their crimes.
However, the book lacked any kind of framework and the stories just became reports of facts. The book needed a narrative - a point. Some reflection to provide the reader with a journey to go on through new considerations or understanding. Without this the book was a bit weak, sadly.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

*thank you to Netgalley, Pen & Sword and Debbie Blake for granting my wish to receive this book in exchange for an honest review*


4 stars.

First, let me start by saying I really like that cover! We are constantly told to not judge a book by it's cover but I can't help it. If a cover jumps out to me, I want to see what it's about. Though saying that, if I hear that a story is really good but the cover is rather not, then I have no problem ignoring it and reading the book.

But let's get back to this one. I'm a sucker for all things Victorian so when Netgalley approved my 'wish' for this, I was smiling for ages. I wasn't disappointed either. I liked the layout of the ebook version, and yes, for me that's also important and I'm not sorry for it. There is nothing more distracting as an ebook with no margins or paragraphs. (Why people, why would you do that to a book!) Anywho, I knew of only one of the females in this book, Lizzie Borden. The others I hadn't known about. The stories were quite interesting and some parts I couldn't wrap my mind around and others, I could. (I don't know if that's a good thing or not so I'll ignore that fact.)

I think if you are like me and have an interest in all things Victorian Era, you will probably enjoy this. Or maybe you have a fascination with murder...? (Hey, no judgement) I would recommend it.

My goodness!

This book is absolutely intriguing! My mouth fell open quite a few times while reading it. I could not believe these women were, in my opinion, hell unleashed on earth. Yes, all their stories were shocking but what made it utterly horrific was the fact that you were very aware that THESE STORIES WERE ALL TRUE! Not fictional! I think I got a few white hairs because of it. They sliced and diced and poisoned as if it was a normal, everyday occurrence and what left me most horrified was that some of them murdered little babies and children without so much as blink of the eye. They were determined to get what they wanted and did not care about who stood in their way. I was very disturbed by this but somehow, I could not stop reading the book. I entered a realm that I never do in my reading world. I am glad I read this book as it opened my eyes to horror of what people can do without any remorse.

This was a fantastic read right before Hallowe'en. It's up there with "Carmilla" which I recently read and reviewed. The writing and tone and true stories all worked together in unison.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC! I HIGHLY recommend "Victorian Murderesses." This book has an anticipated release date of October 30, 2022.

5/5

This work explores the stories of seven women who lived during the 19th to early 20th centuries in England and America who had a penchant for taking the lives of those who got in their way. Their motivations often revolved around money, though others wanted revenge or may have just enjoyed the feeling of taking a life. From well-known names such as Lizzie Borden to more obscure ones, these women showed no hesitation in killing.

I enjoyed this read and it reminded me of the podcast “Female Criminals.” Each chapter was a self-contained retelling of one of the women’s murders, including discussions on events leading to the murders, motivations, and the events at court following their incarceration. The author included many historical documents, ranging from letters written by the killers to court transcripts. There were also a good number of footnotes included with explanations and references, which I highly appreciated.

I do think the work would benefit from a prologue and epilogue to bring the stories together rather than just jumping straight into chapter one and ending abruptly after chapter seven. I would have liked to see a little bit of analysis included in these sections, rather than it just being a presentation about the murderers. And at times, it was difficult to tell when the author switched between primary sources and back to her narration. In some places this was due to formatting while in others it was because of missing punctuation.

Overall, this was a fascinating, quick read that contained interesting insights into some of the most notorious murderesses of the Victorian Era in England and America. I recommend this work to readers interested in true crime and this period of history. My thanks to NetGalley and Pen and Sword for allowing me to read and review this work, which will be published on 30 October 2022.

If your easily disturbed then this isn’t for you, it’s a great and insightful book for those who love true crime. The only problem I found was that my copy was all the same it made reading slightly hard especially the letter that merged with the rest they include other than that it was fantastic and brought the history to life.
This book seems to be well researched and a gripping read, the stories may be short but they hold a massive punch.
Thank you to Netgalley/Debbie Blake/Pen&sword for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.