About the book

Fast-paced and surprising, this story of Australia's first female serial killer is as exciting as it is thought-provoking. 'Never before in the hundred year history of Australia has a female prisoner become so notorious as Louisa Collins.' - Evening News Two inquests, four trials, three hung juries and the executioner...but was Louisa Collins really a husband killer? Was she the callous adulteress, drunkard and liar known as the Botany Bay Murderess and the Lucrezia Borgia of Botany Bay? Or was this mother of seven a spirited and defiant woman who was punished for breaching society's expectations of womanly behaviour? Compelling, freshly told and richly detailed, Black Widow uncovers the truth of a story that challenged the morality, the politics and the notion of law in an Australia on the edge of nationhood.