Pretty Evil New England: True Stories of Violent Vixens and Murderous Matriarchs

by Sue Coletta

For four centuries, New England has been a cradle of crime and murder—from the Salem witch trials to the modern-day mafia. Nineteenth century New England was the hunting ground of five female serial Jane Toppan, Lydia Sherman, Nellie Webb, Harriet E. Nason, and Sarah Jane Robinson. Female killers are often portrayed as Black Widows, Angels of Death, or Femme Fatales. But the real stories of these women are much more complex. In Pretty Evil New England, true crime author Sue Coletta tells the story of these five women, from broken childhoods, to first brushes with death, and she examines the overwhelming urges that propelled these women to take the lives of a combined total of more than one-hundred innocent victims. The murders, investigations, trials, and ultimate verdicts will stun and surprise readers as they live vicariously through the killers and the would-be victims that lived to tell their stories.

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

288 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2020

About the author

Sue Coletta is an award-winning crime writer and an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Feedspot and Expertido.org named her Murder Blog as “Best 100 Crime Blogs on the Net.” She also blogs at the Kill Zone (Writer's Digest "101 Best Websites for Writers") and Writers Helping Writers.

Sue lives with her husband in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire and writes two psychological thriller series, the Mayhem Series and Grafton County Series, and true crime/narrative nonfiction.

When Sue's not writing, she teaches a virtual course about serial killers for EdAdvance in CT and a condensed version for her fellow Sisters In Crime. She's appeared on the Emmy award-winning true crime series, Storm of Suspicion, and three episodes of A Time to Kill on Investigation Discovery (airs: summer, 2023).

Learn more about Sue and her books at: https://suecoletta.com

Reviews

[Valerity (Val) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an awesome true crime book about 5 women in the New England area, all killers. What really surprised me was that I’d never heard of any of them and I’ve been reading about this subject for 45+ years. Author Sue Coletta does a section on each of the women. You get Jane Tappan, Lydia Sherman, Nellie Webb, Harriet E. Nason, and Sarah Jane Robinson each with their own details, history, and M.O. It’s wonderfully researched and written, and I highly recommend it for true crime readers. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Sue Coletta, and the publisher.

[Sherry Fundin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find True Crime books, like Pretty Evil New England by Sue Coletta, hard to rate. Research is vital, but also, the way the book is written can make it easier or harder. Since the murders took place in the late 1800s and early 1900s, I can see why research materials would be lean. Time, fires, and many other things can contribute to that.

I love to hear the characters speak in their own words, and Sue Coletta gave them voices. I love looking into their minds, even though I know I will never understand them. Bad upbringing, nature/nurture…no excuses…whether they are sociopaths, psychopaths, or just plain evil, playing with their victims, it doesn’t matter. A choice is a choice.

Five women: Jane Toppan, Lydia Sherman, Nellie Webb, Harriet E Nason and Sarah Jane Robinson are five people you would never want to be friends with or related to them. They were responsible for more than one hundred deaths.

Males hunt, females gather, and that is how they choose their victims too.

We get the lowdown on the serial killers with their own words, interviews, court transcripts, newspapers, libraries, historical societies…Sue shared glimpses into these five women’s lives. I love learning where they came from, their childhood, their family, marriages, children, friends…

Even when they confess, there is doubt if they are telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Myself, I doubt it. I think they revel in the attention they receive.

Sue Coletta has included some medical and other related trivia from the times. I love when an author does this. For example, Mercury was a common medical treatment, but when Abraham Lincoln used it and found out for himself how harmful it is, he stopped its use.

Not all questions will be answered, but isn’t that why we read? We want to figure things out for ourselves.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Pretty Evil New England by Sue Coletta.

See more at fundimental

[Mae Clair · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Pretty Evil New England, author Sue Coletta takes a look at five 19th century female serial killers and their victims, including how these women—all who moved within genteel society without arousing suspicion—perpetrated their crimes. In some cases, the killers were highly respected individuals and often times, the victims were members of their own family. Coletta’s meticulous research provides detailed backgrounds of each killer, along with glimpses into the disturbed workings of their mind and how each sought to justify their actions. There is insanity, narcissism, and heartless manipulation, among other motivations. I found Coletta’s explanations of how female serial killers differ from their male counterparts surprisingly eye-opening.

The book is divided into sections, each devoted to a particular killer and her victims. But it isn’t just the actual crimes Coletta focuses on. She also shows us how each woman was apprehended, then places the reader in the courtroom for an in depth look at her trial, and the outcome. The subject matter, while grim in nature, is in no way gruesome to read, and Coletta’s manner of delivery is thoroughly engrossing, the writing flawless. I highly recommend Pretty Evil New England to fans of true crime, AND crime fiction and suspense novels. The author held me spellbound from cover to cover and I finished this book in two days.

I received an ARC of this book for an honest review.

[Carolyn McBride · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Sue Coletta for some time now, so I knew this book would feature her sharp writing, as always. But this book, being an account of female serial killers, was sharply researched to the point that the reader felt we actually knew these women. While I cannot understand how a woman can get away with poisoning an entire family, it was fascinating, in a morbid sort of way, to read about the women who did get away with murder. For a while.

Sue takes us back through history and peels back the layers of these women's depravity, manipulations and guiltless power and control. Their stories actually made me shudder a few times. They were not alone in their penchant for murder, but their lack of remorse certainly makes them stand out from the annals of history, brought forward by Sue's mastery with the written word.

If true crime is your thing, get this book. You won't be disappointed.

Thanks go to Sue and her publisher, and NetGalley, for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Judith Barrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s been a while since I read a non fiction book. Whilst I generally enjoy the genre, it’s usually more to gain knowledge on a certain subject, to read about a particular topic or person. And then move on.
Sue Coletta‘s Pretty Evil New England is a book that will stay in my mind for a long time. I should say at this point, although I never give spoilers when reviewing fiction, I have, below, given some details of each of the five women, the murders and the resulta of the trials
It is obvious from the beginning that the author has researched these stories extensively. Her attention to detail is remarkable. Not only in that she brings these women to life for the reader, not only in that are their crimes are revealed, but the background story of each one gives an insight to the way their characters were formed. Which, in a way, gives the reasons, why it was almost inevitable, that they. became murderers.
The author gives a voice to each of the woman. It’s quite chilling to hear the way they saw the world and their victims. The reasons they say why they chose their victims are varied; suffice it to say, it only shows how evil they were.
The book is divided into five sections, dealing with each woman: Jane Toppan, truly frightening in the caring facade she presented to society for so long. Wicked in her careless reasoning for the deeds she carried out – for the way she discarded the deaths of some. Reading between the lines of the author’s writing, I thought Lydia Sherman was a a sociopath with little empathy for those around her. Again, a woman with veneer of compassion in public life that hides her true vicious character. Nellie Webb was a conundrum; well educated and religious, she stood trial as a poisoner but was not convicted ( though many doubted her innocence) Afterwards, together with her husband, she vanished. Her grave was never found. Sarah Jane Robinson, in debt and desperate for the payment from insurance policies, nevertheless, gave the appearance of a compassionate woman.who gathered her own and others’ families around her but she was a woman who claimed to have dreams of loved ones dying. And then they did. After the trial, she lived the rest of her life in solitary confinement. Harriet Nason was a solitary person by choice, viewed by many in the community with distrust. Although shown through the author’s research to be almost certainly the murderer of four people, she was found not guilty.
For me, Sue Coletta’s writing style keeps the reader enthralled. Her attention to detail is impeccable; she presents the court transcripts, newspaper articles, the interviews with the women against the background of the era at the time, and reveals the society they lived in.
I must give a mention to the illustrations and photographs. Excellently portrayed and placed to add a grim reality to the text.
And I loved the cover.
This is a non fiction book that will fascinate any reader who loves both fictional and real life crime. Thoroughly recommended.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Pretty Evil New England.

I don't read much nonfiction but I know female serial killers take a backseat in history as opposed to their male counterparts and should be given their due.

When I saw the premise to Pretty Evil New England, I knew I had to request it and was pleased when it was approved.

This is an ideal book to curl up with in October; it's not scary, but it's a fascinating read into the past when women were expected to be homemakers, mothers, and not much else, and the women featured in these pages were anything but!

The author has done copious research, digging into archives and courtroom documents and transcripts to bring to life five of the most notorious female serial killers.

And these women are just from New England!

This was a shocking and, at times, a dry read especially when courtroom transcripts took the place of a narrative, but I was engrossed and kept flipping the pages.

This definitely isn't for anyone but if you enjoy nonfiction crime about female serial killers, you should consider picking up Pretty Evil New England.

[Roberta Cheadle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been interested in true stories about people behind ghost stories. Most myths and legends about ghostly sightings involve a person who has died badly at the hands of a third party, although a few are suicides. It seem that people who die as a result of murder are generally believed to become vengeful and become trapped in the spirit world due to a desire for revenge on their murderer.

Recently, I have turned my attention from the murdered to the murderer and I have been reading a few true story style books about serial killers and child murderers. I am particularly interestedin the psychology of people who kill.

When I saw this book, Pretty Evil New England, it fitted exactly into latest reading craze and I was most interested to read the histories of these five women who all murdered continuously and without any remorse.

All of the stories in this book were detailed and well researched and I thought there were a couple of very interesting revelations about the nature of female serial killers crimes. All of them murdered their nearest and dearest including husbands and children. The unmarried women and those without children killed relatives and close friends. I thought that was very intriguing. What kind of a woman kills her own child or son-in-law?

Another interesting fact was that they all used some sort of poison, mainly arsenic, which causes a painful and horrible death. Imagine watching your own daughter suffering from cramps, vomiting and dehydrations as they suffer a horrible death. It was also amazing that none of the attending doctors initially realised the deaths of the victims were due to poisoning. It does seems rather unobservant and surprising, even in those days. I wondered if men's erroneous concept of all women as homemakers and caregivers was responsible for this lack of vision.

As I read the book, the similarities in the illnesses of the victims became very apparent. Many of the women killed a number of people living in the same house or within the same family, which increased their risk of being caught significantly. If your husband or husbands and your children all die, that is bound to raise suspicion. I can only assume that having got away with murder a few times, these women became over confident and this led to their down falls.

This book covered information that interested me greatly, but it is a non-fiction book and some of the content is a bit dry, especially the detail around the court scenes. The last story also jumped between two different cases which, although there were some similarities, were not connected in any way. Moving between the cases made following the two separate stories confusing for me and, as there was no connecting thread at the end, I didn't understand why the author chose to write this section in that manner.

This book us a fascinating read and lovers of true crime and historical serial killers will enjoy it.

[Staci Troilo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s More Chilling Because It’s True

I read Sue Coletta’s stories because they always send a shiver up my spine. When I saw she was writing a true crime book about female serial killers, I couldn’t wait to read it. Talk about chilling!

If you (like me) read true crime accounts or watch television specials about murderers and their victims, you’ve sat through—or given up on—some boring ones. Pretty Evil New England isn’t like that. Coletta doesn’t write this like a textbook but rather almost like a novel, with plot and scene-setting and dialogue that will keep you invested in these five women’s histories the way she does her own fictional tales. But in the case of this work, it’s all the more horrific because it’s all true.

I was particularly interested in the different motivations that prompted the killings. But then, without a motivation, there is no crime. Also worth noting is the forensic science and the criminal procedures that we get to see. And I was pleasantly surprised to find out how our forensics today have been impacted by those times.

This was an impressive work that I’m delighted to have read. I hope there are more installments to come. Whether there are or not, this one is an easy five-star recommendation.

[D.L. Finn · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Pretty Evil New England" documents five women serial killers at the turn of the nineteenth century. Broken into sections, it was a fascinating insight into an era and murder. Each woman's true story reads smoothly like a fictional tale, and the court proceedings were meticulously detailed. I learned a lot about forensic abilities and poisonings. The mindset of a woman killer over a male was not only astonishing but scary at the cruelty involved. A well-researched book that is for any true crime reader or someone who wants to understand a female killer's mind.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This was an interesting read. I enjoy Ms. Coletta’s fiction stories and this was my first read of a true crime story by her. I always find her stories to be intriguing and entertaining and she never disappoints.

I have always thought of women serial killers to be more passionate about their victims and this book showed a couple of more sides to the killers themselves. The reasons behind their killings as well as the relationships with their victims.

It has always intrigued me as to the character and disposition of someone that can take a life. If I think about it, I consider most killers to be killers of passion, someone that kills due to anger, love triangle, or wrong place, wrong time, but a serial killer has a completely different mindset, of which I have not ever thought of. Ms. Coletta has now opened my eyes and my mind to this with Pretty Evil New England. The women in this book that were accused of being killers are a range in age, societal standing and temperament. Most are women with families.

Jane Toppan is a woman with a mind of steel but with shards as far as I can surmise. What brings her to determination to kill? How has she picked her victims? She has a line of deaths behind her but unfortunately, some of those deaths will never be solved because she wouldn’t share them with anyone.

Lydia Sherman is a woman that is hard to read. She’s a woman that has been married a few times and doesn’t seem to have any real love for anyone. She has no discern for her victims, even though she may show a soft side in public, her actions behind closed doors are not as kind and soft. Does she kill because she does not like to be the one to have to support her family, or does she do it because she can?

Nellie Webb is a young woman that would not generally be a suspect. She’s young and kind. However, there is another side to her. What happened to Nellie, did she stop killing, did she change her name and live a full life, or did she just disappear?

Sarah Jane Robinson, on the outside she appears to be a loving, caring, kind sister, mother, and person, but she has a sinister side to her, and she has no problem using her womanly wiles to her advantage.

Harriet Nason is not a woman that has a lot of friends, she is probably the one killer in this book that people would suspect as being sinister. She keeps to herself and her immediate family, she’s distant from her community with only a few close friends.

I find it interesting how the mind works and have always been interested in the mind of criminals. I want to know what makes them tick and why they have the desire to be the person they are. While most people have morals and standards of right and wrong, what causes a killer to have their own standards and the desire to kill? Is it due to their upbringing, their childhood due to trauma, or is just because their mind works differently? I also find it intriguing that some of these women believed and vocalized their innocence until the very end, and that some of them walked away without any repercussions. In the time period of these stories, society saw women as being the nurturing, caring, kind human and men as being the violent, cruel, hard human. This was one mistake that led to the mishandling of some of these cases, in my eyes. Women are vicious, dangerous, and more deceptive than some people realize. I love that Ms. Coletta delved into these stories and told them. She’s a great storyteller, whether it be fiction or true crime. I live in New England and these stories were close to home. While this was my first read of one of Ms. Coletta’s True Crime Novels, it won’t be my last. She makes me think and opens my mind to intriguing stories. I have always had an interest in crime stories, and she feeds that interest in her writing of fiction and true crime. I look forward to more and give this book a 5-star review.

[Murder in Common · Rating 5 out of 5]

Award winning Crime Fiction writer Sue Coletta brings a fresh perspective to the True Crime genre with her book: Pretty Evil New England – True Stories of Violent Vixens and Murderous Matriarchs.

With expressive descriptions, Coletta solidly brings you into a time and place. With a deft hand she brings characters alive, clearly demonstrating their duplicitous natures and calculating ways.

I particularly liked Coletta’s approach of adding modern forensic input by referencing a study by Penn State researchers and the work of FBI behaviorists. This one in particular is my favourite:

…the best way to survive a male serial killer’s attack is to let him get to know you on a personal level. By humanizing yourself, you’ll ruin his fantasy of you as a victim. This won’t work with a female serial killer. They already know you.

Pretty Evil New England is rich in atmosphere, genuinely factual, and savvy in style. A highly recommended read.

~ June Lorraine

[Debbie Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sue Coletta is the next Ann Rule

Pretty Evil New England reads like a fictional thriller but is a gripping true crime book about five female serial killers in New England during the late 1800s. The tales are horrifying and riveting at the same time. Author Coletta’s research is meticulous and thorough but historical details don’t slow the narrative pace. Also included are fascinating facts about forensic procedures that are surprisingly sophisticated for that era.
Pretty Evil New England is a must read for fans of true crime as well as history. Coletta is the heir apparent to true crime queen Ann Rule.

Debbie Burke
Award-winning journalist
Author of Tawny Lindholm Thrillers with a Heart
Blogger at The Kill Zone

[Clarabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the first 3 sections of this book. However, section 4 mixes two different serial killers, alternating chapters which I found very confusing. I understand the desire to combine them, they have a lot of similarities and there is less information on both but two shorter sections would have been easier to follow. Overall, I really enjoyed the mix of personal perspective, confessions, and trials. Highly recommended!

[Angie Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a true crime novel from an awesome author! It was a first for me, as I usually read fiction. This was written extremely well and was a very intense read. If you like to read about serial killers, this is a definite must read.

[Cyn Delia · Rating 5 out of 5]

e arc provided from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review

I can't say enough enough about how much I LOVED this deliciously evil true crime novel. All five of these cases feature women serial killers. Ms Coletta has written a well researched, thoughtful study of these women and their victims. I also liked the photos etc included in the book.

[Jillian Reise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so intriguing to read. Whether you love true crime or this is the first one you have read you will not be disappointed. Sue Colletta writes an amazing account of these women serial killers. You get the history of their crimes and then a back ground of their lives which makes it hard not to be sad for these women. You really can picture what went on and how it led to their heinous crimes. And the books stay interesting right up until the end. I can not wait for her next true crime book!

[Doris Vandruff · Rating 5 out of 5]

The true account of five women who are serial killers. Between them over one hundred people were killed. This book tells you of their lives. The trials of murder and how they died. Some had absolutely no reason to kill the people they did. It was opportunity and pure unadulterated evil.
Well written. Very interesting.

[Casey Bates · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about five female serial killers back in history. It is one of the best true crime books I have read . The author Sue Coletta writes in details of the murders , she did her research well and I love how she tells the story . I will be looking forward to more from this author in the true crime genre .

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well researched and well written book that delves into 5 female serial killers in 19th century New England. The book is broken down into 5 sections, one for each of the profiled killers. The details provided about the crimes and trials is pretty amazing all things considered which clearly shows how meticulously the author researched each of the cases.

This book is not gruesome, as some content can be when it comes to serial killers, but still manages to convey how horrendous the crimes were. At times I did find the level of detail into conversations a bit too much when the conversations did not seem to be entirely relevant, but that is just a personal preference and did not detract from the overall content of the book.

I always find it interesting how when a female is accused of murder, everyone wants to find a rational explanation or claim the woman must be insane. It was like this back then and to a degree remains that way - the public seems to never just want to assign the label of "evil" to a woman.

Great read for October for me - as it is spooky season and I live in New England.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this ARC.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting stories. Reading electronically made some of the pictures and notations difficult to read.

[Rebecca Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and interesting read! For those who are interested in serial killers, this book is for you!

Meticulously researched and well put together, this book is going to take you down the poisoned path of murder, and reveals the story in-depth along the way! This is one that you do NOT want to miss!

[Karyl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this book in the general store in Mystic, Connecticut, and considered it an excellent choice for spooky season.

The author covers four instances of female serial killers in New England, all of whom employed poison as their weapon of choice. One of the women, Jane Toppan, was a nurse who seemed kind and jolly, and always ready to lend a hand when someone fell ill. Unfortunately, that hand usually held arsenic. Other women murdered their husbands and children when they got to be too much to care for. Because medicine was still in its infancy, quite a few of these murders were initially attributed to natural causes.

While the premise of the book is quite intriguing, I found it a little difficult to keep the four narratives straight, mainly because they took place around the same time, so they ran together in my brain. The author chose to use mainly courtroom testimony for the second case, that of Lydia Sherman, which made for somewhat dry reading, though at the same time, the author tends to embellish the text with charged language, words like “nasty” and “snarled.” Her own feelings about the matter seep through, which can make the reader uncomfortable.

If you’re looking for a book on female serial killers in New England, this definitely fits the bill, but I was hoping for a little more.

[Joan Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t read a lot of non-fiction. No matter how interested I might be in the subject, I usually grow weary after a few chapters and leave the book unfinished.

Not so with “Pretty Evil New England.” I was intrigued from the moment I learned Sue Coletta was writing this book. And once I began reading, it was hard to put down.

Pretty Evil New England is the story of five nineteenth-century female serial killers, Jane Toppan, Lydia Sherman, Nellie Webb, Harriet E. Nason, and Sarah Jane Robinson. The author’s research into each of these killers is phenomenal. After finishing the book, I’ve concluded female serial killers are colder and more calculating than their male counterparts.

The book reads more like thriller fiction instead of a boring account of the crimes. Ms. Coletta writes about the victims, gives details of the crime, provides stories from witnesses, and covers the trials of each woman.

I hope the author will write more true crime stories. If she does, you can bet I’ll be reading them.

[Ebb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was only familiar with the case of Jane Toppan when opening this book. The chapter on her was familiar but similar to the other chapters, the formatting was bit awkward. In each chapter, the trials slowed the book down and sometimes felt repetitive and dry. This might have been due to the fact that all the murders were conducted using the same method, so a lot of the details of the cases felt like they blended together. The cases that I found to be the most interesting were Jane Toppan and Nellie Webb. Although these 5 women were interesting, it would have been nice to see a wider range of women criminals outside of poisoners. I think the book is a good read for anyone that is interested in true crime and women criminals in particular.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Carol Macarthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently, female serial killers get little coverage from the media. Sue Coletta's chilling account of five women--serial killers--in Nineteenth Century New England is a page-turner. Rather than a totally objective, documented account, Coletta writes these accounts in more the manner of a novel. The women become fully-developed characters from the court records and testimony. The book details the differences between the motivations and methods of the female killer and the male killer and is highly enlightening. A true-crime "must read."

[Emily Dickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Interesting!

Well written and interesting look at female serial killers. I don't normally read true crime as they fail to hold my interest ,but this one was written in a way that kept me turning the pages. I never realized how different the female and male serial killers could be. Loved it!

[Denise H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love watching documentaries, movies, and even TV shows (Criminal Minds, Bones, CSI, etc.) that delve into serial killers and all the background and forensics that go along with them. If they do get caught, it always fascinates me to see how – what the slip up was, who turned them in, etc. For that reason alone, this book was really fascinating to read, and then secondly, I love Coletta’s fiction series – The Mayhem Series and Grafton County Series so being interested in this book as well was a no-brainer.

The cover is the book is eye-catching and special detailed work on some of the pages is really cool. The book itself is divided up into sections for each of the women being highlighted – Jane Tappan, Lydia Sherman, Nellie Webb, Harriet E. Nason, and Sarah Jane Robinson. Each lady gets her time in the spotlight as we get to learn their individual modus operandi, details of their crimes, and their backstories. With Coletta’s writing style and the meticulous research details provided for each case, it was easy to become immersed in each lady’s tale along with their motivations, justifications, and the disturbing workings of their minds. The explanations of how female and male serial killers differ were surprising. I was engrossed in the details and fascinated by each story being told. If you are a true crime buff of any fashion, definitely grab Pretty Evil New England for a chilling eye-opening read!

Thank you to the author and publisher for the advanced reader copy received through NetGalley. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review; all thoughts and opinions are solely my own.

[Colin Garrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exploring murder in nineteenth century New England, crime writer Sue Coletta tells the stories of five female serial killers - Jane Toppan, Lydia Sherman, Nellie Webb, Harriet E. Nason and Sarah Jane Robinson. Delving into their individual backgrounds, she looks at the events that drove these women to a point where they chose to commit murder. Between the five, they killed more than one hundred people, many of which were members of their own families.

Though I’m familiar with many of the famous serial killers of the 1800s in my own country (UK), I’m less aware of America’s Victorian murderers, so hadn’t heard of any of these women or the details of their crimes. Carrying out meticulous research, the author recounts how each one went about their nefarious deeds and the ensuing consequences. What I found most interesting was that the preferred method of all five was to use poison – that old stalwart of Victorian killers – arsenic. It’s also interesting that many of the women murdered their own children and husbands – in some cases several husbands!

Using witness testimonies and court records, Sue Coletta tells a captivating tale of lies, deceit and an appalling number of murders. She also reveals how some of the attending physicians involved managed to make colossal mistakes in their diagnoses (in terms of cause of death). If these serial killers hadn’t knocked off so many people, perhaps they might never have been caught.

A fascinating account of Victorian murders in New England.

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very intriguing book. If you can get through the entire middle. The first case, that of “Jolly” Jane Toppan moves along at a good pace in both storytelling and details. Then we get to the 2nd story in the book and here it takes a turn for me. The second story dragged on for a very long time and was so dry that I thought of quitting several times. I forced myself through because I wanted to read about the other killers (I’m a true crime fan and listen to several podcasts about the subject). I breathed a deep sigh of relief when I finally finished the second one and was on to the next. It was a little better, moved along at a nice pace, not overly filled with unnecessary points. Then we get to the end and we’re thrown back and forth between two different killers. It was muddied and at times confusing, trying to keep which person killed was part of which killers legacy.
You could tell that the author definitely did her research into each case.
I did receive this as an ARC from Netgalley, and was actually looking forward to reading it, but with the 2nd story dragging on, and the muddied way the last two stories were told, I did not enjoy it nearly as much as I thought I would. It was almost like different authors with different writing styles tackled the different killers.

**I received this as an ARC from Netgalley and this is my honest and voluntary review.

[Monica Babaian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Several recent books have delved into the minds of women serial killers in general, but Pretty Evil New England is the first to narrow the focus on women serial killers in New England. In this book, true crime writer and author of The Grafton County mystery series, among others, Sue Coletta takes readers to nineteenth century New England, introducing them to five women who defied all societal expectations of women as nurturers and caregivers by becoming serial killers. The author describes the relationships each of these women had with their victims, how they plotted to kill, which instruments of death they employed, and their motivations for killing, leaving a chilling effect on the reader. Coletta consulted newspaper articles, court proceedings, police interviews, and personal correspondence of the serial killers and their victims in researching for the book. Photographs of the murderous women, their husbands, neighbors, relatives and even the enemies they murdered, the tools they used to kill, and places of significance appear throughout the book, making their murderous sprees feel more immediate. Recommended for true crime fans and anyone interested in New England history.