Four stories of Chilean murders in the twentieth century by women. This is a crime novel but she doesn’t only talk about their murder, but also their crime of breaking the mold of a traditional woman.

She analyzes the murder from multiple angles and looks at how they are portrayed in: the court transcripts, movies or books that took their inspiration from the murder, and media coverage. She looks at how the women killers are talked about in comparison to men.

This is a feminist book for sure. It is about crime but also a lot about the feminist lens of how the crimes were experienced by people living in Chile at the time. If you want more of a straight true crime book, I’d recommend something I recently read -Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks.

Funny note: There are pictures of some of the murders in the book. There was one picture of some detectives holding up an arm and leg from a dismembered man that I had to quickly move past while reading on the subway. That was a bit awkward.

Rating: ★★★★★

Book #6 in my 2023 Reading Challenge