Black Widow

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.

About the Author

Carol Baxter is an adjunct lecturer at the University of New England, Fellow of the Society of Genealogists, and the author of An Irresistible Temptation, Breaking the Bank, The Peculiar Case of the Electric Constable and Captain Thunderbolt and His Lady.