Women were traditionally the victims in crime novels. But a crop of current thrillers have turned the tables, featuring women as not only the perpetrators, but also the heroes.
Here are ten books where women take their lives and (mostly men’s’) deaths into their own hands. Sometimes the motive is revenge – on the men who’ve ruined their lives, and sometimes they’re out-and-out psychopaths – but each has a common theme: a burning anger at the inequality of world they live in. Quite simply, these women have had enough.
1. LISTEN FOR THE LIE by AMY TINTERA
Five years ago, Lucy Chase was found staggering along a highway, make-up running down her face and her best friend’s blood all over her dress. But did she kill her? No one is sure – not even Lucy. With no memory of what really happened, Lucy is plagued (and sometimes titillated) by intrusive thoughts of murder wherever she goes. She can’t help but imagine how she’d dispatch the guy at the grocery store, or even her useless boyfriend. When a true crime-podcaster starts investigating the case, the truth may finally be revealed, but will the killer (whoever it may be) allow that to happen? Fresh and funny, Listen For The Lie is like your new favourite Netflix show in book form, full of sharp dialogue and acerbic characters (and murders, of course).
2. HOW TO KILL MEN AND GET AWAY WITH IT by KATY BRENT
Meet Kitty Collins, IT girl, famous influencer… and vegan serial killer. Fueled by a domestic violence incident in her past, Kitty begins disposing of horrible men (and getting away with it), but even serial killers need a moral code, and Kitty’s is simple: no killing women, no killing innocent people, no killing door men and police men. The book is gruesome in parts, but Kitty is such a uniquely dark and fun character, you’ll find yourself forgiving (and even applauding) her for her murderous ways.
3. SWEETPEA by CJ SKUSE
One of the original female serial killer novels, Sweetpea is the story of Rhiannon, who lives up to her nickname, appearing to be the epitome of the unassuming girl next door. Boring job, tick. Crappy boyfriend, tick. Cute little dog, tick. But she’s got a secret hobby: in her free time, she murders people. Sweetpea is quite simply, a psychopath, no doubt, but she will quickly become your favourite serial killer since Dexter.
4. HOW TO KILL A GUY IN TEN WAYS by EVE KELLMAN
Mille Masters runs a unique service – if you’re a woman and you’re having trouble with a sleazy man, just text M, and Millie will sort it out. At first, Millie this just means offering a lift home from a bad date, but when one such rescue goes wrong, she discovers a more permanent solution to bad men’s behavior – and her hotline gets a murderous upgrade. Even with black humour throughout, How To Kill a Guy in Ten Ways is a thrilling rollercoaster as the police close in on Millie.
5. HOW TO KILL YOUR FAMILY by BELLA MACKIE
Bella Mackie’s updated version of the classic Kind Hearts and Coronets sees Grace systematically knocking off each member of her family to get to the fortune that’s rightfully hers. The kills get more and more inventive as she nears her ultimate target – the patriarch of the family, who left her mother pregnant and penniless. Grace may be a ruthless and singleminded killer, but it’s the chauvinistic world she lives in that’s really responsible for her crimes; the twist ending makes it clear that, even when it comes to murder, the deck is always stacked in favor of the boys.
6. YOU’D LOOK BETTER AS A GHOST by JOANNA WALLACE
Claire enjoys her part-time career as a serial killer, knocking off her victims for the most innocuous of crimes – cutting in front of her in line, or a severe lack of fashion sense. They appear to her as ghost-like entities, an indication that they’re going to be next on her hit-list. But when someone discovers her murderous little hobby, Claire has a new target. Fueled by a terrible childhood and the loss of her father to dementia, you can’t help but feel a degree of sympathy for this otherwise-cold-blooded killer.
7. BAD MEN by JULIE MAE COHEN
Saffy is a glamorous socialite who also just happens to be a rather proficient serial killer. For the past fifteen years, she’s hunted down and dispatched ‘bad men’ – rapists, murderers and domestic abusers. But her double life has left her lonely, after all, dating can be tricky when your boyfriend might turn out to be your next victim. With cocktails, romance, and a whole lot of stabbing, Bad Men is an irresistible mix of Sex and The City and Silence of the Lambs.
8. THE BEST WAY TO BURY YOUR HUSBAND by ALEXIA CASALE
Four British housewives must help each other work out a plan to get rid of their abusive husbands for good. Told from the alternating POVs of each woman, The Best Way to Bury Your Husband allows the reader to get to know each of them and understand that their murderous motivations are all too well founded. Fans of Apple TV’s Bad Sisters will love the novel’s black humor and female friendship.
9. GOOD GIRLS DIE LAST by NATALI SIMMONDS
A cheating boyfriend. A sex-pest boss. And now stuck in traffic in a record heatwave. Who could blame Em for breaking bad? Her life has always been derailed by men getting their own way, and now a gridlocked London is full of them, standing between her and home. Natali Simmond’s novel is a cross between Falling Down and Thelma and Louise, a chaotic road-trip that builds in intensity, until Em finally snaps. However, you’ll be cheering her every step of the way.
10. LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO by KATHERINE A. OLSON
Dylan, AKA ‘Lady Justice’, delivers well-deserved karma to men who always managed to escape the consequences of their actions. But when she meets the man who abused her sister in college (now a successful (and corrupt) businessman) she is determined to see him suffer in the most horrible ways. Look What You Made Me Do is half spicy rom-com, half dark revenge thriller that’ll have you humming Taylor Swift as you imagine what you’d like to do to your worst enemies…
AUTHOR BIO: L.M. Chilton is a journalist with fifteen years of experience working on a variety of television shows, such as This Morning, Loose Women, and more. His writing has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Metro (London), and The Mirror (London). A former self-proclaimed dateoholic, L.M. Chilton has been on over a hundred dates over the last few years. He is the author of SWIPED (on sale May 21), a dating app whodunit with a darkly humorous take on love in the age of the internet.
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