Thou Savage Woman: Female Killers in Early Modern Britain: Female Killers in Early Modern Britain

by Blessin Adams

'Popular history at its best' Spectator

'Boisterous… replete with stabbings, bashing and thumping' Daily Mail

'A cocktail of brutal, tragic, and fascinating true crime from the era of the Tudors and Stuarts. This dark history at its best, narrated with empathy and precision' Gareth Russell

LADY KILLERS AND FEMME FATALES – STORIES OF MURDER MOST FOUL – HAVE GRIPPED PUBLIC IMAGINATION FOR CENTURIES

Early Modern Britain was awash with pamphlets, ballads, woodcuts broadcasting bloodthirsty tales of traitorous wives, greedy mistresses, cunning female poisoning lacing the supper with deadly substances; of child killers and spiteful witches, stories of women wholly and unnaturally wicked. These were printed or sung, tacked the walls of alehouses, sold in the streets for pennies and read voraciously to thrill all. But why? When the vast majority of murders then (and now) are committed by men.

In this bold, page-turning new history, former police officer and historian Blessin Adams tells stories of women whose violent crimes shattered the narrow confines of their gender – and whose notoriety revealed a society that was at once repulsed by and attracted to murderous female rebellion. Based on detailed research in court archives, each chapter explores murders that thrilled and terrified the British public; the crimes that caused the most concern and provoked the most debate. Women in this period killed rarely, and when they did it was usually within the context of extreme provocation or domestic violence. Adams has the ability of the best crime novelists in recreating the setting in which each case occurred as well as the motivations of each perpetrator.

Thou Savage Woman reminds us that women in the past had voices, that they sought to control their bodies and their environments and that they also had the capacity for committing acts of unspeakable violence.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, True Crime, Audiobook, Crime, Feminism, Historical

Audible Audio

Published February 13, 2025

About the author

Blessin Adams traded police work investigating today’s crime in the Norfolk Constabulary for academia, tracing the lives and deaths of people in early modern England. Blessin received her doctorate following research in early modern English law and literature at the University of East Anglia. As a fan of true crime she is fascinated by historical stories of murder and justice. She lives in Norfolk with her husband and two dogs, and is a beekeeper in her spare time.

Blessin's first book, Great and Horrible News, is currently available to order, and she is writing a second book due to be published in 2024.

She has also written a chapter titled 'Notebooks, Play and Legal Education at Middle Temple' in Mapping the Early Modern Inns of Court: Law, Literature and Identity, edited by Jackie Watson and Emma Rhatigan, due to be published by Palgrave.

Reviews

[lucy is reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains a mixture of cases of female ‘murderers’ across the early modern period. I don’t think that they all needed to be included, particularly the cases that dealt with witchcraft (since no actual murder took place). It felt strange to have the cases of Alice Arden of Faversham (who was instrumental in murdering her husband) and Joan Peterson (who did not kill anyone) together in a book that’s meant to be about female killers and the fascination the country had with them.

While an interesting read, this book falls short due to its lack of purpose. I felt like it didn’t have a particular purpose, other than just recalling a mixture of actual female murderers, and others that didn’t commit a ‘real’ crime. I was left wondering to the contribution of this book in the field of history. Was it trying to suggest that early modern women did had the capacity to be violent murderer, but were mainly pushed into this action by the societal structure around them? This doesn’t fit all of the cases, since the witchcraft ones were nothing like the petty treason ones.

Without a clear sense of direction, this book just contributes to the long term fascination in female killers, ironically drawing attention to their crimes and replicating the very same thing the pamphleteers did by offering little critical examination of the historical significance of their ‘crimes’, beyond their gender.

This brings me to the second problem with this book. I felt like Adam’s didn’t offer enough analysis of the source material used to build the play by play of these women’s stories. Many true crime pamphlets were heavily embellished in order to sell more, and confessions could be made under threats of torture (sleep deprivation, lack of food, watched constantly). I feel like there could have been much more of an exploration into the complexities of using this kind of primary source material, particularly with the often second-hand nature of the information it contains. This isn’t to take away from the murders committed, nor the part that each woman played in them. Only that I wished there was more discussion on the complications certain sources give.

My final thought is that this book fell short of being a true historical analysis of why female killers were so popular in print culture, because it lacked a sense of direction, some contextual evidence, and not enough discussion on the primary sources.

Thank you to the publisher for this arc. All thoughts are my own.

Publishes on; 13th February

[maddi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the concept of this book and the topic it covers, however, there were a few woman "murderers" in here that I had to ask why are they here?!

I felt that there wasn't enough detail for each section. Adams could have taken out the chapter about the Pendle Witches for example (where the women did not actually commit a murder) and lengthen the information on some of the other stories. Having said this I've read long novels on single crimes and the facts are endless, so where do you draw the line? But a bit more research and history into each story would have made it more enjoyable.

Overall I will try Adams' other book as I like the topics she picks and she is a great audio narrator too.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

This book was interesting but I was engaged by the storytelling for each woman, but I feel a little underwhelmed overall. I feel like I'm missing the 'why' of it all - although it does show the misogyny faced by some of these women in these circumstances (whether they're actually killers or not), these doesn't feel too well illustrated. In the case of some chapters, the women are accused of witchcraft and face unjust death penalties, whereas other chapters the misogyny women faced at the time seem to have little to do with it. Maybe this book will appeal to true crime fans who like a gruesome story, but I wanted the book to have more of a thesis or a point.

Thank you to Netgalley and William Collins for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

[em · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this! As far as non fiction books go, I thought it was entertaining and easy to understand. The chapters were divided well and I found the stories and the women interesting. Adams added just enough personality into the writing without it becoming overbearing or distracting from the facts. Certain parts were very gory and detailed but that was to be expected from a book on this topic. A really interesting and engaging non-fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for kindly providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. #ThouSavageWoman #NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[By Book and Bone (Sally) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blessin Adams takes us on a journey through several true crime incidents, examining the lead up and fallout of each. Primarily, these crimes are carried out by women and generally involve at least one very gruesome murder.

While I did enjoy Thou Savage Woman, I always appreciate the background and reasons for a violent crime, I found that this book was a little unfocused in areas. For one story, there doesn't seem to have been any crimes committed by a woman. We are just told of one very mentally ill man and his crimes. We follow his horribly abuses towards some women, that he has decided are witches. That took up a good chunk of the book and really did not fit.

Overall, it's worth the read but maybe skip that chapter... There are better books that explore the witch trials.

[Emma Boylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and horrific!

[Booksopi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me an early copy of Thou Savage Woman.

In the conclusion of the book, the author states: “I often found myself caught between sympathy and horror”. I feel like this statement covers pretty much perfectly how I felt when reading this book. I would just add enraged, and it would sum it up perfectly.

It is a non-fiction telling the stories of women who were tried and sentenced to death for crimes they either committed or not. The author describes perfectly the context at the time: political, economic-as it plays a great role in the stories- but also in terms of the law and what was deemed acceptable or not.
The treatment of women at that time was horrible and the prejudices around them even more.
It was a great non-fiction book that made me learn more about the perception of women at that time from society, the types of crimes that would be committed and accused them of, but also the role of novels and the ‘press’ in it.
The fact that there are 8 stories that take you each half an hour to read is also great as it enables you to take your time reading it without fear of forgetting what happened before as you can read them independently.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️

If you love true crime and early modern British history then this is the book for you.

Blessings Adams covers topics such as witchcraft to poisoning to physical violence. Some of it is pretty gruesome (SA / rape / violence) so it might be triggering for some.

Even though this book is about early modern Britain, I kept thinking of the similarities to this day and age, which Adams also mentions towards the end. Esp. the obsession with true crime and the general shock when murderers are women, rather than men. I also found it extremely interesting that people paid close attention to the behaviour of women when faced with tragedy. If they don‘t react as suspected everyone‘s automatically suspicious. Nothing much has changed since then (think the Amanda Knox case).

Adams wrote about some extremely nasty individuals, but also about some women who were unjustly executed (where the „evidence“ was a rumour). I was glad to see that she showed both.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Collins for providing me with a digital review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following on from her earlier book, Great and Horrible News, Adams continues her investigation of crime and justice in early modern Britain, but this time concentrating on female murderers. She goes into detail of eight cases, each chosen to highlight an aspect or aspects of the reasons women murdered, how they were perceived by the public and how they were treated by the courts. Her style is relaxed – not academic – and some of the stories read almost like mini-thrillers. While she doesn’t try to exonerate the women entirely (except in a couple of cases about witchcraft), she makes it clear that she feels misogyny and the patriarchal legal system played a large part in the crimes and punishments of these women. Adams omits discussion of infanticide in this book because she covered it fairly extensively in the earlier book.

It comes as no surprise that, in several of the cases, the ‘victim’ was the husband. Adams discusses how women had no legal recourse against a violent husband – both marital rape and wife-beating were legal, even if they might be frowned upon. In the case of Mary Hobry, for example, Mary earned her living as a skilled midwife. Her husband was a drunken wastrel, often leaving her and then returning to live off her meagre earnings. He regularly beat her violently. Mary tried to run away and hide and even saw a priest to ask for a formal separation, but all to no avail. One night, after her husband had raped and beaten her, she strangled him while he lay in a drunken stupor. Like all the convicted women in the book, she was executed.

Adams also looks at ‘professional’ murderers. She tell the story of a woman who had sex with a boyfriend who then deserted her. This ruined her reputation and she was thrown out of her job onto the streets, where she became a prostitute. But she then partnered with a man, and would use her womanly wiles to lure men to lonely places where her partner would kill them and rob them. Again, Adams doesn’t minimise the true murderous intent of these crimes, but by showing Bess’ background, she elicits sympathy for her descent into criminality. She also points out that the boyfriend who deserted her would have suffered little or no adverse social repercussions.

She uses a couple of cases to discuss witchcraft, and the reasons why women were so often accused of being witches. In one case, the accuser was mad and felt he was being persecuted by witches. Adams shows that, somewhat surprisingly, the authorities did not take his accusations seriously for a long time – the rage against witches was not so strong in England at that time, she suggests, as in Scotland and some parts of Europe. The other case was more calculated – an inheritance battle where some disinherited relatives felt that an accusation of witchcraft might get the will overturned. In both cases, while Adams is clear that none of the accused women were even pretending to be witches, their fate was ultimately sealed.

Another case involves a woman who murdered several people, often for very little reason. We would call her a serial killer, but Adams points out that this was not a concept recognised at that time. Serial killers were simply murderers who had murdered a lot of people.

Adams uses the news sheets of the day to show the public reaction to all these cases. Women were not expected to be violent, and therefore the public reaction to women murderers was disproportionate. No consideration was given to the fact that women had no legal power and very few rights, and that sometimes murder was a means of self-defence against a violent man. The system was stacked in favour of men, and in particular, of men of good social standing. Murder of the head of a household was considered ‘petty treason’, and women who committed this crime were burned alive. Men convicted of the same offence were hanged. Adams says that often the executioner would strangle the woman to unconsciousness with a noose before lighting the fire beneath her – kindness shows itself in strange ways!

Burning alive for murdering your violent spouse might sound pretty barbaric, but not as barbaric as the punishment for poisoning him, as laid down in one of dear Henry VIII’s laws – boiling alive. Happily, this punishment didn’t stay on the statute book for too long.

Adams concludes by comparing then to now. She suggests that the public horror at the idea of female murderers hasn’t changed much. Misogyny means that women who murder after rape or domestic violence are still reviled. I’m not sure that I agree with that – I think both public and courts treat a woman who murders an abusive partner with rather more sympathy these days, while still recognising that it is a crime. She shocked me, however, by pointing out that the percentage of successful rape convictions has not changed between then and now. And finally she makes the oddly feminist point that women are just as capable of violence as men, even if fewer of them resort to it.

Overall I found it an interesting read, although it began to feel a little repetitive towards the end. As now, the motive for women murdering was often a response to male violence, and the women always ended up on the scaffold or the pyre. Personally, I felt that Adams should have omitted one of the husband murders and instead have included an example of infanticide – not everyone will have read the earlier book, and even those of us who have won’t have remembered all the details. But this is a small criticism of a book that does a valuable job in showing how far we have come, and perhaps of reminding us of how far we still have to go, in achieving a fairer, more equal justice system.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, William Collins via NetGalley.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[LJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 stars

Blessin Adams writes exactly the niche I'm looking for and I love her for that

[Nerys Mellor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting read.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

An interesting look at gendered crime in Early Modern Britain (mostly just England). Many examples, and some surface level discussion of the primary sources (pamphlets etc). I would have liked some more discussion of the sources and a deeper dive into the social and political circumstances surrounding the crimes, but I appreciate that this is intended for a wide audience and I had a lot of the background knowledge already.

Adams is appropriately sympathetic of the conditions these women were living in, and the unfairness of their treatment by society, the justice system and religion, while at the same time acknowledging that several of the victims were innocent - alas, it is not just wicked husbands and cruel employers who get murdered, but children, family, and sometimes innocent neighbours. The conclusion was decent but I felt it could have been more embedded. Yes, many things about the way female killers are treated today are not so different, but this idea was not brought up until the conclusion.

Can you have a non fiction spoiler? Well - A few of the case studies were not actually killers - Adams does explain this choice in the conclusion, but personally I don't know if it was effective. It did highlight facts about the belief and justice systems, and the misogyny of the time period, but could this have been shown with actually guilty women, since that's the theme of the book? I think so.

Audiobook is read by Adams herself. Well produced and well read.

[Monika Armet · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, we are presented with women from the early modern British era, who commited crimes, some more horrific than others.

There is a story of Elizabeth Evans who left for London in 1630 to work in service, but ended up working as a prostitute. An encounter with a man nicknamed ‘Country Tom’, a petty thief, resulted with the two of them killing rich-looking men and pilfering their belongings.

Then, there is the story of Alice Arden who was having an affair, and with the help of her lover, she plotted the demise of her husband.

This book features a shocking story of Mary Hobry, a French midwife, who was brutally abused by her husband, Denis. After one of many beatings, she couldn’t stand it any longer and she killed him. However, she cut up his body and disposed of all the parts. Mary’s story has moved me the most. She was a woman who couldn’t see a way out of her husband’s abuse. At that time, a woman belonged to her husband, and he could treat her as he saw fit.

Then, there are stories of women who were persecuted and (unlawfully) accused of witchcraft. Back in the day, any sign of difference wasn’t seen as a good thing. Overly eager men were scared of women who were different, who had cats, who knew herbal medicine.

Overall, it is a great book, perfect for all history buffs.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Much like my horror fanatic family, I am the only non true crime fan in an immediate environment of true crime lovers. Therefore, my interest in this book veered more towards the early modern socio-cultural practices/ideas of condemnation, absolution and the spectacularised accounts of public punishments. What this book did deliver where informative accounts of gendered scrutiny and punishment, particularly the invasive procedures performed on female criminals before their deaths and/or the scathing lack of public-remorse over the suffering of female victims. The chapters don't seek to justify the crimes of the women it speaks about, but it does seek to reveal the rampant sexual assault and domestic violence endured that often provoked these women to retaliate.

However, that seemed to be as far as any commentary went. Some of the chapters / topics were a bit repetitive, which meant instead of further unpacking the construction of female killers in early modern society and why these fixations on chastity and virtue were so entangled in the law, we moved on to similar stories that seemed somewhat surface level. This book did a fantastic job in highlighting unlawful practices and the processes of persecution, but it would have been great to delve deeper and sit with the women of these cases for a bit longer.

I did appreciate the conclusion where Adams correlates the handling of sexual assault cases in early modern England to present England to show our disappointing lack of development.

[Aqsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fortunate to see Blessin Adams discuss her book at the Queen’s Park book festival earlier this year. As well as the novelty of her being a former police officer turned author, the extract she read was brutal but had me curious for more.

I really enjoyed the book - her writing is engaging, as well as her tone and her cadence (I listened to the audiobook version). I’ve seen some observations that the chapters on prosecution of witchcraft did not fit the female killer narrative but I respectfully disagree on taking it so literally, because it fits the ongoing theme of an immense fear of female autonomy, especially in older women who were “neither maids, nor mothers”. It was also the chapter I found the most interesting, due to the almost comical (until it became tragic) pursuit of four women or “witches” by a total buffoon.

I appreciate that there are examples both of women who suffered under vile circumstances and could see no other course of action, and those who were much more cold blooded. In some ways the latter is more interesting, as even several hundred years later it can be hard to reconcile a mother, daughter or wife in a traditional carer role as a killer, and perhaps the public backlash is all the more brutal for it.

[Charlotte Millar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really well researched and informative look at life for women who didn’t toe the line in the 1500/1600s. As someone reigniting a keen interest in this particular period of history I found it fascinating to read about not just female killers but the general view on, and treatment of, women of that time.
Whilst there are several accounts of women committing heinous crimes there are also paragraphs on “witchcraft” and lots of detail about general hierarchical treatment which was really insightful and has definitely given me lots of knowledge to take away from it.
I would definitely recommend if you’re interested in general life in early modern history & have already recommended this one to friends and family!

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Informative and accessible, Thou Savage Woman tells the stories of several female murders from the Tudor and Stuart periods.

Adams certainly paints a vivid picture of the era, particularly the hardship of living at a time when one was unfortunate enough to be neither nobility nor royalty. Adams has a personable writing style, peppering the tales with anecdotes from similar criminal cases, but never straying too far off track.

Overall, I liked this book a lot. It was clearly well researched, although I came away not so much horrified by the crimes themselves but by the circumstances surrounding them - which was kind of the point, I suppose.

With thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

[Hayley Groom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read!

A thoroughly researched book, delving into the history of ‘criminal’ women. This ranged from the ones doing the murdering, whether that be with (what I would interpret) as just cause or not and those ones accused (usually witchcraft).

It’s not a nice read, the history of women usually isn’t. But fascinating nonetheless.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher
3.5/5 ⭐️

[Katharine Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook. Interesting listen to historic female murderers who all receive the ultimate punishment, horrifically. Three stars as the narration did rile me in that most sentences ended in an octave higher!

[Charley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The middle drags, but the rest is great. These old stories Ring all too true still today! We might not burn witches at the stake, but many of these stories have an element of truth that persists to this present time!

[Kristiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Thou Savage Woman by Blessin Adams was a book I finished reading wanting more. It is fairly short for the range of content that could have been covered, but this does mean Adams' writing is rich, well-researched and contextualised within the Early Modern period. The chapters focus both on women who killed for gain, others who killed for freedom, and many who were convicted for crimes they didn't commit at all, thanks to the increase in witchcraft trials under King James I.

This is what I enjoyed so much about Adams' writing - each woman is humanised within the context, demonstrating how crimes committed by women were, and continue to be, sensationalised by the public and the media because of how at odds a woman with agency is with patriarchal norms. Adams provides superb historical and social commentary that continues in its relevance today.

[Eitakbackwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty fun listen (got the audiobook from the library), it’s about some cases of female murders/murder accessories in early modern Britain. Was engaging and entertaining and just wild how the courts made their decisions based on absolutely no evidence sometimes. Like if a corpse bled in the presence of a person the courts would be like ‘yep they did it, the corpse is telling us so’ - wild times. It also really paints life in England viscerally and grotesque. Quite enjoyed that.

[G ✨🫶🏻 · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
Very repetitive and a lot of speculation around cases that we have little to no evidence of. An interesting concept for a book somewhat weakened by the overgeneralised conclusions.

[Lady Fancifull · Rating 3 out of 5]

Repetitive in language and analysis in each section : in need of editing

This was probably inevitable in some ways : many women accused of witchcraft, for example, were so accused because they were a bit outspoken, stroppy, opinionated, and/or old and plain. Women in the period ‘the early modern period’ as Adams endlessly calls it – had limited options to be ‘acceptable’ and certainly being a bit ornery and opinionated was not one.

Females were also subjugated to ‘honour and obey’ their husbands, and if those husbands were brutal and unpleasant, and prone to violence, there was little justice available. Rape within marriage, for example, did not exist as a crime. Some women turned to murder as the only escape. Some women were also unpleasant and violent, just as some men were. Then, as now, there was more salacious interest in badly behaved women because women were ‘supposed’ to be nice and nurturing.

The conclusions, after each account of each woman’s ‘crime and punishment’ inevitably were repeats of previous accounts.

The annoying repetitions in the work were linguistic/stylistic. As Adams was writing about a specific period, and established that she was writing about ‘the early modern period’ there was no need to be constantly reflecting ‘in the early modern period’. Likewise, there were so many times when the repletion of a person’s name could have been replaced by him, her, he or she. I was surprised no editor had suggested such tidying.

I did however appreciate the ‘epilogue’ where Adams concludes that, for all the fact we no longer boil miscreants in cauldrons, burn them alive or hang them, all as entertainment and public spectacle, we still seem salaciously keen to be a baying excitable mob doing the equivalent of throwing refuse at people in stocks, hidden behind anonymity on social media platforms.

Laws may have changed for how miscreants – perceived or actual are dealt with, but we can’t really congratulate ourselves too far that we have advanced. Lynch mob mentality is still easily aroused

[SL Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book focuses on women who were accused of murder in Britain during the early modern period. Each chapter is about a different case, which makes the book easy to dip in and out of if you're looking for a quick shot of history. Some of the cases are moderately famous, such as Alice Arden, while others are more obscure. There is a fair variety of accused women, from teenage servants to elderly beggars. Each chapter gives a little context of their life and circumstances, and that of their alleged victim.

Some of the murders are blatant and gruesome, while for others it's less clear whether the accused women are guilty, and some are clear miscarriages of justice. Adams relates the events to the broader treatment of women and society's view of their place.

At times I did find this book quite repetitive. Often Adams seems to make a point, and then rephrase the exact same point a few sentences later. I also would have preferred it if Adams was clearer with her sources. There is a detailed bibliography at the back of the book, but the chapters themselves are full of unattributed quotes.

At times, of course, a book like this is bound to be a little bleak. However, Adams has a conversational style that makes it very readable. Many of the cases were genuinely interesting and they give an insight into the lives of ordinary - and extraordinary - people. I would cautiously recommend this book to readers who have an interest in women's history, the Early modern period or general criminal history.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Becki Pearce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book on a birthday Haul as I really like true crime books especially regarding history and woman, so I knew I needed to pick this up and read. I really enjoyed it and found the stories to be interesting while also where Adams included stories of where the suspect really were innocent but due to how woman were treated it shows that even if they really had nothing to do with it, once Men believe they were involved there was no stopping them until they were arrested and in most cases of female killers were killed by hanging or fire.

I also enjoyed how Adams makes reference to how yes things may of change, where we no longer hang or burn them as witches as they believed, but female killers are still rare and when we are made aware of female killers we still see them as monsters and not female who may be sick or have been pushed to a point where no matter what help they asked they get none, so they take things to the extreme. As Adams mentioned things for Woman are still slow and when it comes into regards of abuse there is still stigma of not being believed or even if it will go to court.

I found this book powerful, while also being fun. I even want to get Adams' first book as I found her writing easy to follow and well written that made it easier to read compared to other non-fiction, true life, historical books which can feel a drag to read. If you are a fan of true crime and history I highly recommend this book.

[Mellissa Bushby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written and interesting rendition of what life was like during the time of the Tudors and the Stuarts. Mostly - especially if you were poor and female - absolutely godawful.

I will be brutally honest here, had I been there, I would no doubt have been burned alive and written about for years to come, because I would certainly have been rather free with the Belladonna. Rest assured, most of these men deserved everything they got, and then some. Being brutally beaten, raped, and having your meagre earnings taken from you, on a daily basis, sometimes all by the very same perpetrator, was a fairly common-place way of life back in the day.

Some accepted it as their lot in life, some did not. I would not have. As is so often the case with these tales, anyone who was a little different, knew the ways of nature or herbs (or liked cats), terrified the daylights out of stupid, base men. And suffered terribly for it. In varying degrees, still a problem to this day.... It must be said that while we have come a long way regarding justice and fairness, we still have quite a road to travel.

All in all, a fascinating and enjoyable romp into what life was like in early modern Britain (and believe me, if you harbour even a smidgeon of romantic fantasy regarding that period, this book will rip it from you and set it alight). Tea, anyone?

[Gayle (OutsmartYourShelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look at female killers in the Early Modern period in Britain (roughly the 16th to 18th centuries CE), where the plethora of ballads & pamphlets would have had us believe that female killers were fairly common at this point. This book examines the evidence & argues that then, as now, most murders were committed by men & that those committed by women were sensationalised. Violence was thought to be in the nature of men but against that of women so women who killed were therefore going against the natural order of things.

There are examples here of women who killed under different circumstances, from escaping domestic violence to being accused of being a witch & the penalties thereof. Women have killed for various reasons, sometimes even because they wanted to, but they have always seemed to be deemed worse than male killers in the court of public opinion.

I thought this was an informative read about an intriguing subject. Coincidentally I read a book about Alice Arden earlier this year - before that I had never heard of her & she crops up in this book too. I didn't find it quite as good a read as the author's first book & there was some repetition in the chapters but it was interesting.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Williams Collins, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly decent if slightly underwhelming read if you have any interest in this time period. This book seems to be lacking in a solid focus. It's interesting but feels more like the author tried to cover too much ground -- for example, their inclusion of witchcraft cases and the case of the cunning woman (where none of the accused had actually killed anyone) is basically an entire area of study that's separate from traditional crime and punishment. It would have been more interesting to find more traditional cases which could be used to better highlight the inequality and misogyny of the early modern legal system. There's no original angle and not much in the way of a solid narrative rhythm to actually weave the chapters together.

I have read this author's other book "Great and Terrible News" and in both cases I feel like they're fun and easy reads that lack substance so leave you a little underwhelmed. More frustrating, though, is the fact that there were small errors in both. The author also reads the audiobook and they seemed to mispronounce several words, which makes me think a firmer editorial and directorial hand was needed in both cases.