I may be a little generous in my rating of this book, but what I enjoyed about it I really enjoyed. It's essentially four separate stories that are unrelated to each other, except by the common link of women involved in crime. Two of the stories were absolutely fascinating to me. One was about a wealthy woman in the 1940s who created intricate dollhouses, and honestly with the amount of research and effort put into that story, it seemed like the inspiration of the book or at least the one Monroe was most excited about. The other was about a woman who fell in love with a death row inmate she believed to be wrongfully convicted. Both of those were incredibly worthwhile and fascinating reads.

But there were four. One of the others involved the Manson murders years after the fact, and the last was about a girl who tried to commit a mass murder and failed spectacularly. I understand that Monroe was trying to go for a variety of stories and ways women can be involved in crime, but I was so bored by those two. It was mostly just biding my time until something interesting came up again. With regards to the last story of the attempted killer, I actually found it more interesting to do outside research instead of listen to this book.

It's hard when half the stories in a book don't do anything for you. That being said, I'd highly recommend this if you're interested in any of the specific stories because they're entirely unrelated. You really don't need to read all of them if only one or two sounds interesting to you. The only one I'd seriously recommend on its own is the first one about the dollhouses because that absolutely fascinated me. I've seen episodes in cop shows that dealt with that a bit, but never heard the real story. It was so well done and I think entirely worthwhile as a standalone.

Another thing of note, that I didn't actually realize until decently into the book, was that Monroe actually grew up very close to me. She referenced a few cases close to her heart that I remembered growing up as well (and I don't believe had much national media attention), so that was kind of an added bonus for me.

Overall, I think if you're interested in true crime, this is a solid book to pick up. I didn't get along with two of the stories, but even those were mediocre at worst and I definitely learned a lot. If you like deep dives in history, even if not specifically true crime, I'd also recommend the first section about the dollhouses. But if this book sounds like your kind of thing, it probably is and I'd highly recommend giving it a go.