The author investigates the mind of the woman who commits murder. Although they may find it deeply disturbing, many people have a morbid fascination with the notion that women - givers of life - are capable of ruthlessly taking it. Indeed, throughout history the view seems to have prevailed that women are not inclined to commit violent crimes. But Pistorius shows that this is not in fact the case. She examines more than 50 documented cases of South African female killers, categorised according to the nature of their crimes - e.g. love triangles, battered women, poisoners - and she develops a new hypothesis to explain the psychology of that rare woman, the female serial killer.