A serious subject, women who kill, gets a jaunty treatment by author Wright. Brief essays give an overview of women who committed murder for a variety of reasons but with a common thread of bucking the patriarchy. Often these acts of murder were out of revenge, like when Maria Barbella slit her rapist's throat and Boudica fought the Romans after they pillaged her village. Celia, an enslaved woman, beat her enslaver to death. But some women killers were actually just psychopaths, like Delphine LaLaurie, whose favorite pastime was torturing enslaved people. Grouped by theme (such as Killer Queens, Pretty Poisoners, and Black Widows), each essay begins with a colorful illustration by Eva Bee and helpful trigger warnings. Wright likes to keep it humorous, which mostly suits the sketches but sometimes feels out of place and could turn some folks off. Readers who want to just dip their toes in the lady-killer pool will be most pleased with this book and will likely find at least a couple of subjects they want to explore further.

Conversations about murderers tend to focus on men--Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ed Gein--but author and journalist Wright (We Came First; It Ended Badly) sets the record straight here. She argues that women kill and have killed for millennia and for reasons as varied as those of men who kill. Wright pinpoints 40 women across history and from around the globe who had the means, opportunity, and motive to take out someone (or several someones), including Elizabeth Bathory, a sadistic 16th-century Hungarian noblewoman who preyed on village girls; Ching Shih (1775--1844), a Chinese pirate who punished disobedient followers with death and was even more ruthless with her enemies; and Celia (no surname), an enslaved Black woman in the U.S. who in 1855 killed the man who had enslaved and raped her. Each account is brief, an amuse-bouche for readers interested in crimes perpetrated by women. VERDICT This book of bite-size essays will appeal to fans of crime podcasts such as My Favorite Murder. Recommended for libraries seeking to diversify their true crime collections.--Ahliah Bratzler, Indianapolis