Female Serial Killers: Up Close and Personal: Inside the Minds of Revenge Killers, Sexual Predators, Black Widows and Angels of Death

by Christopher Berry-Dee

Dive into the disturbed psyches of some of histories most notorious female serial killers with interviews from the detectives, husbands and victims that saw the horror firsthand.

“Don’t be fooled by me. Don’t be fooled by the face that I wear for I wear a thousand masks; masks that I’m afraid to take off and none of them are me. Pretending is an art that is second nature to me but do not be fooled. For God’s sake don’t be fooled.”
-Judy Buenoano, shortly before her death row execution

“I fell to the ground but the attack continued. I was just waiting for it to stop. There was loads and loads of blood. As I lay there, I thought, this is where I am going to die.”
-John Rogers to a trial jury, describing an attack by Joanna Dennehy

“I’m a good person inside, but when I get drunk, I just don’t know...I’ve got nothing to lose...What am I supposed to do?...It was all their fault and that’s the God’s honest truth.”
-Aileen “Lee” Carol Wuornos, inspiration for the 2003 film Monster

“She said, ‘You’d never believe about some of the things we are doing at the nursing home.’ I knew things were out of control.”
-Ken Wood, estranged husband of “Lethal Lover” Cathy May Wood

“[They] left my mother in such a distorted, dismembered and ashened state that she was identifiable only by her dental record. My life has been ripped apart at the seams...”
-Steve White, son of Virginia Susan Caudill’s murder victim

Genres: Crime, True Crime, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

Published June 14, 2022

About the author

Chris was a former Royal Marine intelligence officer. He is now a criminologist who has interviewed over 30 serial killers.

Reviews

[Katie Pedersen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
Some of this book was interesting but found a lot of the women being focused on were not “serial killers” which was quite disappointing as the book is called Female Serial Killers

[Katie Followell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pretty underwhelmed with "Female Serial Killers." For one, I felt like the majority of the book involved cases that weren't serial killers-- but one and done killers.

I think this is a good gateway book for finding interesting cases, but overall, it's not a good deep dive.

[Chandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author spent more time peddling his other books and accomplishments than speaking of things relevant to the cases. He also included a lot of cases that he spoke of for a couple sentences at most, or were one-off killers and not serial killers. I found much of the book seemed to be filler writing to make the book appear substantial but ultimately the relevant information appears to have been researched very little despite constant reminders from the author about how many years he’s spent interviewing and researching each case.

[Rachel Barron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched, sufficient detail but poorly titled.

Spoiler alert: there’s more inside than just serial killers. The author could have easily filled this with just serial killers and written another book devoted to the non-serial variety. Notably missing from this book are the likes of Madame LaLaurie and Elizabeth Bathory, both of whom were certainly of the serial variety and deadlier than men.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

It absolutely disgusts and terrifies me that some of these killers have been released from jail.

[Bob Lendzinski · Rating 2 out of 5]

As you read through this book, you get the sense that three different people collaborated to write it. One being a professional criminologist who used exquisite details to capture the brutally of several female murderers. The second being a freshman in high school who needed to fill a word count. There was a level of immaturity in the same sections that felt very professional. The third was someone who was trying to get the reader to buy his other books. Thankfully, the mentions of his other works was not pervasive throughout the entire true crime piece. There is also a lack of what was promised. The title of Female Serial Killers was a farce, as only a few serial killers were mentioned. Most of the stories involved women who, as disturbing as it is to say, only murdered one or two people, thus failing to meet the criteria of serial killer. Finally, the author, under his own admission, could not help himself and include a story of a male serial killer. He could not let the book about FEMALE killers stand on its own. Still, I finished the book to learn about the brutality of women who could not help themselves. I am doubtful of purchasing any of the author’s other works if his other works were written was such sophomoric prose.

[Lisa King · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing is garbage, pure and simple. I don’t like giving up a book halfway though but if you are looking for investigative journalism, look elsewhere. Writing “style” (if you could call it that) is grossly opinionated, wildly tangential, misogynistic, full of misused metaphors, and ridiculously sensationalized. And don’t get me started on the exclamation points with side comments that seem to have no real purpose other than the author turning the attention back to himself. Why, for the love of all that is holy, do these chapters start out talking about one person and then abruptly shift for another 2-3 pages to something or someone totally unrelated? Did his editor ever tell him his writing is horrible? And that most of the women profiled do not meet the criteria of serial killer as the author repeatedly defined?

As I said above, I don’t like to give up on a book. But I’m midpoint through and my hope that it will improve the further I go has been in vain. It is off to Goodwill, half-read. The writing is seriously that bad. But this guy is so full of himself he clearly can’t see that.

[Khelath · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were times the language in this book felt too personal for me and not what I would expect of a true crime book. Also, the title should more accurately say “Female Killers” as some of the killers don’t fit even his own definition! Still it’s an interesting read since he touches on a topic not too common

[Kristin Savery · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content was okay however I wasn't a fan of the writing style

[Mallory · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the authors style of writing but this is not a book about woman SERIAL killers. Its just about woman who have murdered.

[Michael Dewey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Words cannot describe my intense dislike of this book, and the author, but I’ll try.

First, the book is hardly about serial killers. The vast majority of the killers mentioned don’t meet the criteria, a fact which the author acknowledges, and yet doesn’t seem to care about.

Second, the author appears to be in love with two things: murder, and himself. He constantly digresses. His writing is amateurish. His fascination with the gore is gross. And his characterization of people is dehumanizing. But none of that comes close to his constant self-aggrandizing. If you want to read the drawn out ramblings of an obvious narcissist who cannot stay on point, this might be the book for you. Oh, and don’t worry- after this one, he has like a hundred more he’s written…a fact he loves to repeat throughout the book. I can only imagine they’re just as awful and cheap. It almost made this book more promotional material than anything else.

I suffered through this one, and only finished it because I’m stubborn (and I was camping and found it in a free little library). 1 star, although that’s only because it qualifies as a book…technically.