The Angel Makers by Patty McCracken is a fascinating look into one of history's most chilling true crime stories. McCracken does an excellent job of bringing to life the early 20th-century Hungarian women who formed a secret society to poison their abusive husbands. The book is well-researched and tells the story in a compelling way, offering insight into the complex motives and harsh realities these women faced. It's a gripping read that combines historical context with psychological depth, making it a must-read for true crime fans and history buffs alike.

A really great read with thrilling twists and turns. I never knew what to expect and it kept me Interested until the very end.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As an author of historical true crime myself (Bloody Yorkshire Series) I found this book fascinating, well written and well researched. The author is obviously passionate about the subject.

Unfortunately, as a Hungarian person myself, this was a near instant DNF for me. I'm too close to the culture to be able to read anglicized names not only for people but local drinks or food.

With thanks to the author, publishers HarperCollins UK, and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

If presented as a work of fiction it would be deemed too fantastic to be believed, yet this is a true-crime story based on real events that took place in Hungary just after World War I had ended. It tells the tale of a local midwife who conspired with other local women to commit the mass murder by arsenic poisoning of well in excess of 100 people.

While the subject matter is fascinating, I personally I found the author’s approach of jumping from one character and their storyline to an entirely. different one set months or even years in the past or future a little confusing at times, particularly given the volume of characters involved in the story. I found myself struggling to follow what was going on in a few places as a result.

No doubt this is a well-researched work of true crime non-fiction though.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest and fair review.

This is the true story of a ring of poisoners in rural Hungary in the early twentieth.century who where led by the local midwife.

I found the book to well researched and dark in places. It was interesting to learn about the culture of the villagers, and how they still followed the medieval rituals of their ancestors despite modern day being Budapest only hundred miles away. It was also interesting to read about a case I hadn't come across before it's made a great addition to my true collation and I would recommend to all true crime readers.

The true story of a poisoning ring in rural Hungary in the early twentieth.century led by the local midwife. Well researched and dark. It was interesting to learn about the culture of the villagers, were still following the medieval rituals of their ancestors despite modern day Budapest a hundred miles away. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I did like this book but i just felt like the writing was a little dry for me. I enjoyed how it tried to present the history of what happened but it just missed the mark for me. I would recommend this book but the tone might be a bit of for some.

I love historical books and the author did a great job at telling the story of the Angel Makers. Set in the early 1900s this is the story of a small village in Hungary and revolves around the village midwife. In a region of Hungary suffering from deprivation and addiction the midwife has the unenviable task of population control. With little medical access many turn to alcohol for pain control but also as water is potentially tainted drinking alcohol is common resulting in addiction. I loved the storytelling and the historical revelations. A fantastic book.

An intense and informative book into the Arsenic Trials. The author brings the little village and the various parties involved to life quite vividly. The complicated nature of some of the murders make this a tough read.

This book is the true crime story of a local midwife who leads a poisoning ring. It's a well- researched account of what happened in Nagyrev, a village not far from Budapest, where more than a hundred people died in mysterious circumstances.

'It has been a shock to find, within sixty miles of the capital [Budapest], a neighborhood which might better belong to the darkest period of the Middle Ages. It makes a strange tale in 1930.'

Patti McCracken's book begins in 1916, in a small, insular village caged in by geography and somewhat forgotten by government bureaucracy. Aunty Suzy, the official midwife, and unofficial local doctor, lives a comfortable life with her steady stream of clients. By comparison, the peasant villagers live a subsistence lifestyle which only gets harder as land is continually divided among families and, more recently, all the young men have been sent off to the Great War. However, Aunt Suzy is able to provide, 'a critical service to the poor peasant families in the village.', she reasoned, 'Midwives alone stopped mass starvation happening, be it from too many children or milkless breasts.' As her crimes continue unchecked, she only becomes bolder. In this poverty-stricken village, where both alcoholism and domestic abuse are rife and any inheritance is relied upon, poison is a solution. 'She had helped in their times of need - whether they had asked her or not, whether they had known or not...'.

'The Angel Makers' is a well-written non-fiction narrative that uses lush, descriptive language to evoke village life, its characters, and their possible motivations. However, I found McCracken's multiple-voice narration to sometimes be disorienting. Further, I felt, at times, the descriptive nature of the story sometimes bogged down the pace. Overall though, 'The Angel Makers' is a fascinating insight into how narcissistic pomposity, together with complicity, unchecked, can balloon to eye-popping proportions.

3.5 upped to 4
Even if I wasn't a fan of the style of writing I was fascinated by the story and the investigation. I think it was something happening also elsewhere even on a smaller scale: women married very young, they had to do everything their father or husband told them to do.
Abuse, violence, no way to control the number of children.
The portrait of an era more than a pure true crime.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

This is a book based on events that's actually took place and it is written almost like a fictional story which I felt helped to engage me as I read as there is lots of information to take in and I'm not a big nonfiction reader. It is a truly fascinating story!

I was very excited to read this as it is such a fascinating story. However, I found the writing/storytelling very disjointed. She writes in minute detail about a particular day or event, and then suddenly skips forward several weeks or months without warning. The writing style is good, but the labouring of the minutae makes it feel implausible as a non-fiction book. Sorry, I really wanted to love this book!

'The Angel Makers' chronicles , in startling detail , the true story of a group of women in 1920s Hungary who began a poisoning ring, led by the local midwife.

This book is not simply a recitation of the facts of the various cases; rather, it is written more in the style of a fictional novel, a choice that makes the story all the more chilling and brutal but also more easily understood by readers who may not regularly choose nonfiction books.

During this era, women living in poorer villages had limited options when it came to their lives and were often dominated by the men around them. They were subject to their fathers' rule for most of their life and were then essentially sold to a neighbor as a wife, expected to live meekly and accept any kind of abuse their husbands might mete out - a somewhat socially accepted action.

Therefore, the women in the book resorted to drastic measures to escape abuse, poverty, and the drawn-out agony of watching their babies wither away. Others chose poison because it would benefit them financially or because their daily lives would be easier with their husband/father/father-in-law permanently removed. To those women , there were the few women saw poisoning as a career, selling arsenic to their neighbors when 'issues' needed handling. It is challenging to categorize all of these women as murderers or any similar title since some were themselves victims, desperate to improve their circumstances and create safer homes for themselves and their children.

The way the arsenic was produced is an intriguing area to read up on, and the 1980s follow-up story is even more frightening than the 1920s original - an fascinating parallel to look upon after the previous chapters.

This well-researched and well-written book is fascinating, and the format is enjoyable. It is amazing to see how the author was able to bring to life the intertwined stories of the village and the women who inhabited it, an area of history which many readers may have never discovered otherwise.

The true story of a poisoning ring in a village in 1920's Hungary, started by the local midwife who called herself an 'Angel Maker'.
The victims were predominantly the men of the village but also included babies who couldn't be fed due to the mother's lack of milk or poverty.

This isn't a book of facts, it's written like a fictional novel and that actually makes it seem even colder and brutal.
For the Women in this era, especially in a poor village between the World Wars, the World was a small one and their lives were completely dominated by the Men around them. They were ruled by their Fathers and then effectively sold to a neighbour as a wife and from that point they were supposed to live meekly and take whatever kind of abuse their husbands meted out to them for the rest of their lives.
Some of the Women in this book took drastic action to escape physical and sexual abuse, poverty and having to watch their babies starve. Some of the Women poisoned because it benefited them financially or their day tod ay lives would be easier with their husband/father/father-in-law dead.
A couple of the Women poisoned as a career, thinking nothing of selling Arsenic to their neighbours and did so with no conscience at all.
So, it's difficult to condemn all of these Women under the same banner of Murderer when some were victims, desperate to improve their circumstances and make their homes safer for themselves and their children.
The way the Arsenic was made was fascinating and the follow up story from the 1980's was actually scarier to me than the 1920's!

A really well researched and written book, I enjoyed the format and I am surprised that I had never heard of this village or the Women up until now.

An Astounding Piece..
A true crime telling of the mysterious deaths of over one husband sixty people in Nagyrev, Hungary, exposed in 1929. A group of killers that later became known as The Angel Makers - a most unlikely group of serial killers, of murderesses - for whom home made arsenic was the weapon of choice. A richly detailed, atmospheric and evocative account, bursting with the deep, dark history of the time and place. Written with great empathy and often hugely emotional, distressing and disturbing. An astounding piece.

The Angel Makers by Patti McCracken is a true crime story that reads like a Stephen King novel. The midwife in the small farming town of Nagyrev in Hungary in the 1920's was a character known locally as Auntie Suzy. As well as being a midwife Auntie Suzy had a few sidelines, general medicine, the occasional bit of veterinary work and ,along with a group of other local women.........mass murder. By the time the authorities investigated Auntie Suzy and her homicidal sisterhood ,acting on an anonymous tip off, they had racked up a rather impressive body count of over 160.
This is no dry telling of dark deeds, Patti McCracken's book borders on a novelisation and there's almost a Gothic horror element to stories of Auntie Suzy and her cohort almost casually disposing of those they have decided should not be allowed to live with as much thought and regret as if they were swatting a fly.
The book covers the crimes,the eventual investigation,the worldwide reporting and the eventual fates of those involved in all 3. There's also an unexpected postscript.
I really enjoyed this book,a harrowing and informative read enhanced by Patti McCracken's writing style which brings to life the hardships of rural post-WW1 Nagyrev with it's dark and deadly secrets.

Not for me as a reader. I think the story is engrossing. However, I struggled with the writing style. Which impacted my enjoyment. I would still recommend as the subject matter was fascinating.