Women Accused of Murder in Nineteenth-Century England got bad press. Broadsides, newspapers, and books depicted their stories in gruesome detail, often with illustrations of the crime scene, the courtroom proceedings, and the execution. Unlike murders committed by men, murders by women were sensationalized. The press -- and the public -- were fascinated by these acts 'most unnatural' of the fairer sex.

Judith Knelman contends that this portrayal of the murderess was linked to a broader public agenda, set and controlled by men. Women were supposed to be mothers and wives, giving and sustaining life. If a woman killed her baby or husband, she posed a threat to patriarchal authority. Knelman describes the range and incidence of murder by women in England. She analyzes case histories of different kinds of murder, and explores how press representations of the murderess contributed to the Victorian construction of femininity.

If readers in the nineteenth century shivered at accounts of murder by women, we should get an equal chill up the spine today reading about how these women were perceived. Twisting in the Wind is a book that won't leave any of its readers -- true crime fans, sociologists and criminologists, historians, or researchers in women's studies -- hanging in doubt.