I lived in Dallas for a a couple of years and during my time there I discovered Texas Monthly magazine. What drew me to was the superb writing of Skip Hollandsworth who specialized in true crime features. Texas is a big state and therefore there is a lot of crime there. And like everything else, even the crime is bigger (and stranger) in Texas. She Kills is a compilation of some of Hollandsworth’s most interesting articles that have been updated. And the best part is they all feature women criminals.

Women tend to commit crime and particularly murder for different reasons and using different methods than men. This book features a prolific cross dressing bank robber, a high schooler unhappy with a custody arrangement who poisons her father’s refried beans and a long time nurse who suddenly begins killing off her patients among others. Exercising his wonderful ability to weave a narrative, Hollandsworth examines their crimes, their motives and the ways the public reacts to female criminals.

I really enjoyed this collection. It held me captive for the entirety of a rainy Sunday. If you are a true crime addict or just like to read about the complexities of the human psyche, I highly recommend preordering this upcoming book.

Skip Hollandsworth is a legendary crime writer, and having many of his longform articles gathered in a book is so valuable. He has a knack for capturing the human side of true crime.

Given Skip Hollandsworth's prowess in true crime as a genre, I was primed to enjoy this collection. Maybe it's just that the tone of true crime reportage has changed so much in the last 25 years, or that so much of the genre now rewards longform deep-dives, but I found myself disappointed. Each piece feels curiously unfinished, perhaps even hollow. I was enchanted by the quote Hollandsworth attributes to a long-ago court-watcher: "where else are you going to find so much human nature?" — yet I found little insight into, or even interest in human nature in these pieces. While Hollandsworth avoids presenting his subjects as acts in a freak show, his journalistic focus here still reads as a cursory gesture ("weird, huh?"), before we're on to the next.

The standout piece is unquestionably "O Sister Where Art Thou", covering the incarcerated women of the Goree State Farm and their brief and surprising fame as a touring musical group. The length, depth, and general execution of this piece makes one wonder what might have been had Hollandsworth chosen to expand it into a full book. I believe I would have enjoyed it more than this one.

Even if I didn't read everything Skip Hollandsworth writes, I'd still find She Kills fascinating. The storytelling really sucks you in. I'm a lifelong Texan so I'd heard some of these stories, but some were brand new (like the Goree Girls and the Burns family). If you like true crime, you'll really love She Kills.