Obsession, jealousy, lust, revenge . . .
There is nothing more dangerous than a passion that curdles and spills
into murder. Love, when it goes wrong and spirals into violence, leads
to the most chilling and tragic consequences. Death at the hands of a
partner or ex-partner is the most common form of murder for women, far
outnumbering the risk of death from a stranger.
Obsessional sexual desire is the common thread through the stories in
this book, tragic examples of how death can come at the hands of a once
trusted and loved partner.
There is the story of talented US landscape artist Jill Cahill, whose
husband was not content with battering his wife to a pulp but went back
to finish the job while she lay in her hospital bed. There is the case
of Martha Freeman from Tennessee, who hid her lover in her wardrobe, and
then teamed up with him to murder her husband. There is the wife whose
body was found in the trunk of her own car, and whose husband had framed
his girlfriend for the crime, hoping to get rid of two women from his
life.
UK student John Tanner served a 12-year sentence for the murder of his
girlfriend, and is now back behind bars for another attack, on another
partner. British soldier Emile Cilliers tried to murder his wife by
cutting the cords of her parachute; however, while he may not have
succeeded, Belgian teacher and amateur skydiver Els Clotterman did when
she cut her love rival's cords five years earlier.
These, and many others, are the stories of fatal attraction that
dominate the pages of this book.
