CAROL ANNE DAVIS

Why does a young woman lure teenagers into her car then participate in their horrific rape and torture? What makes a nurse lethally inject the healthy babies in her care? Women, statistically, aren`t a violent breed ... but the female of the species can be just as deadly as the male.From the mass poisoner to the sexual sadist, from profit killings to crimes committed just for twisted thrills, Carol Anne Davis sets out to explore the dark and disturbing world of the female serial killer. In depth analysis of individual cases, including new information from the minister who heard Myra Hindley`s confession, provides an invaluable insight into the psychology behind these atrocities.

Why would two young boys abduct, torture and kill a toddler? What makes a teenage girl plot with her classmates to kill her own father? Society regards children as harmless - but for some the age of innocence is shortlived, messy and ultimately murderous.Mary Bell, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables are infamous for their crimes against other children, but many of the less familiar studies here are equally as shocking. Thirteen murderers - the youngest only ten - used fire, poison, bullets and strangulation on victims from infants to pensioners. In a comprehensive study of juvenile homicide, Carol Anne Davis offers new psychological insights and a hard-hitting look at the role of society in an area too shocking to ignore.

What drives attractive male cousins to rape and kill ten young women? Why do an altar girl and her boyfriend lure innocent victims into their customised torture van? Couples who kill comprise only twenty per cent of killers, but they often murder serially and are responsible for particularly inhumane deaths. Sadistic friends, psychotic sisters and an increasingly pathological mother-son team are amongst those profiled in this exploration of the worlds most deviant duos. There are infamous British cases, such as the Moors Murderers and the Wests, as well as many equally disturbing but less well-known ones. In the third of this series, which focuses on the psychology of murderers, Carol Anne Davis explores the formative influences of these killers and their deadly dynamics. Comprising of thirteen in-depth case studies and exclusive interviews with experts and one of the Wests surviving victims, "Couples Who Kill" provides an unequalled study of this disturbing subject.

From Beverley Allitt, the attention-seeking nurse who preyed on the children in her care, to the infamous Dr Harold Shipman, who was responsible for the deaths of at least 218 of his patients, history has been littered with examples of healers who have done anything but. In a comprehensive study of violent crimes perpetrated by health care professionals, Davis offers valuable insights into 34 case studies involving doctors and nurses who have crossed the line from healer to killer. These in depth analyses include interviews with experts in the fields of mental health and criminology.

Carol Ann Davis profiles fourteen women who used arsenic, manual strangulation, suffocation, lethal injection, multiple gunshots and stabbing to kill their victims. Each killer is the subject of a separate chapter, exploring her childhood, lifestyle and sexuality. There is analysis of the murder, the trial and the subsequent imprisonment of every woman. Ms. Davis comments on the classification of female killers, how society may underestimate dangerous women, and what it is that can turn ordinary women into killers.

Carol Anne Davis escribe con peligrosa autoridad sobre el devastador día a día. Su obra es siniestra en aspectos que Ruth Rendell y Minette Walters sólo habrían soñado. Éste es nuestro mundo, deforme y distorsionado, revelado en su verdadera tonalidad sangrienta. Hay que leerla. Ian Rankin