She Kills

The Murderous Socialite, the Cross-Dressing Bank Robber, and Other True Crime Tales

By: Skip Hollandsworth

Narrated by: Skip Hollandsworth, Tanya Eby

A superb collection of true-crime stories—written by Texas Monthly’s legendary feature writer Skip Hollandsworth—that reminds us why America is perennially obsessed with the genre.

Skip Hollandsworth has been covering true crime since long before the podcasts, networks, and television shows discovered it. Texas born and bred, the revered journalist joined Texas Monthly in 1989, and the stories he has written over three-plus decades have helped define a locale and a culture.

Curated by Hollandsworth, She Kills brings together beloved stories that focus in particular on female perpetrators—from the high schooler who was so desperate to move back in with Mom that she had no choice but to poison her father’s refried beans, to the wallflower nurse in small-town Texas who one day started killing off her patients, to the lovelorn dental hygienist who ordered a hit on her rival.

These are expertly crafted tales that will stop readers in their tracks and leave them gasping with shock and pleasure. Each story is updated by Hollandsworth, who provides background on his original storytelling and new information on the perpetrators and victims, where available.

She Kills is a jaw-dropping, addictively readable compendium of women whose often sensational crimes and circumstances put them on the wrong side of the law.

Robotic reading

Great research.
Great stories.
Terrible listen. Sounded robotic and not human a little distracting for me.

Likely better read with the eyes than ears

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW. I have a weakness for true crime stories, and over the years, I've enjoyed reading Skip Hollandsworth's pieces in Texas Monthly magazine. His writing is engaging and evocative, his subject matter fascinating, and his angles are always unique.

In SHE KILLS, readers are offered a compilation of eight of his stories, uniquely grouped because the perps of these heinous crimes are women. Texas women, at that! Right up my alley. The stories are gripping and the murders horrific, but it's the human interest element that Hollandsworth manages to coax out that makes the reader reflect and think and wonder.

I very much enjoyed hearing the author read the Introduction, which explains his fascination with true crime, starting at age sixteen, living in Wichita Falls. I was, however, disappointed that his only narration was of that section, and the rest was by a female narrator who I at first thought was AI generated because of odd sentence breaks and uneven pacing. Given the stories are told from first person, I think the audiobook would have been stronger with a male voice to represent Hollandsworth. If nothing else, it would have been a notch better if at least the Postscript to each section were male-voice narrated. And I feel like it should have been disclosed that only the Intro would be author-narrated. I probably wouldn't have purchased the audiobook had I known that.

My feeling is that SHE KILLS is likely better enjoyed by reading with the eyes and not the ears. But no matter what format, it was time well-spent listening to these stories and being reminded of how things are not always as they seem. Judge not, lest ye be judged and all that.

Fair storytelling

I enjoyed listening to the women’s stories that Mr. Hollandsworth covered. I was familiar with about half of them, but I loved the added details and postscripts for each one. The only thing I did not like was the AI generated voice that read the stories. I would much rather have heard Skip read his own stories.

Oh that Skip!

I’d give him 5 stars even for reading a road map. Lol well done once again Thank you all for a nice production