Mothers Who Murder

Books & Poetry

Wednesday October 08, 2014 Comments

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Well, here we are back in the good old true-crime genre. Indeed, many a gory tome has emanated from here – a little light reading to whittle away the days.

In Dr Xanthé Mallett’s sojourn through the mayhem of infanticide and other unnatural causes of death, mothers, for a change, take centre-stage. What could be more abhorrent to a civilised society than the head protector of life snuffing it out?

Mothers Who Murder, By Dr Xanthé Mallett, Random House, $34.99

The Australian cases covered range from Kathleen Folbigg, found guilty of smothering to death her four children, to former water polo player Keli Lane, convicted of killing her newborn daughter.

For the most part, however, Mothers Who Murder sheds little fresh light on what is already known, delving into hearsay and supposition with a dash of personal opinion and a lot of regurgitated material from the crimes focused upon. In most of these cases, social deprivation, depression and instability lead to the act itself – with the inevitability of governmental inaction, missed clues and assistance that came all too late.

Dr Mallett’s assertions are, of course, mere speculation, because we will never know all the facts – and that is the bottom line.

What we do glean from Mothers Who Murder is that lies – often blossoming into intricate tales of mass deception – are an integral part of any crime, no matter how heinous. And those lies, once unravelled, leave nothing but a dead truth.

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<h1>Mothers Who Murder</h1>

<address><a href="https://inreview.com.au/contributors/teri-louise-kelly/" class="author">Teri Louise Kelly</a></address>
											
							Well, here we are back in the good old true-crime genre. Indeed, many a gory tome has emanated from here – a little light reading to whittle away the days.
In Dr Xanthé Mallett’s sojourn through the mayhem of infanticide and other unnatural causes of death, mothers, for a change, take centre-stage. What could be more abhorrent to a civilised society than the head protector of life snuffing it out?
<div id="attachment_28649" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://indaily.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Mothers-Who-Murder-book.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-28649" loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-28649" src="https://indaily.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Mothers-Who-Murder-book.jpg" alt="Mothers Who Murder, By Dr Xanthé Mallett, Random House, $34.99" width="200" height="300" /></a>
Mothers Who Murder, By Dr Xanthé Mallett, Random House, $34.99
</div>
The Australian cases covered range from Kathleen Folbigg, found guilty of smothering to death her four children, to former water polo player Keli Lane, convicted of killing her newborn daughter.
For the most part, however, Mothers Who Murder sheds little fresh light on what is already known, delving into hearsay and supposition with a dash of personal opinion and a lot of regurgitated material from the crimes focused upon. In most of these cases, social deprivation, depression and instability lead to the act itself – with the inevitability of governmental inaction, missed clues and assistance that came all too late.
Dr Mallett’s assertions are, of course, mere speculation, because we will never know all the facts – and that is the bottom line.
What we do glean from Mothers Who Murder is that lies – often blossoming into intricate tales of mass deception – are an integral part of any crime, no matter how heinous. And those lies, once unravelled, leave nothing but a dead truth.
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