"The female of the species," wrote poet Rudyard Kipling, "is deadlier than the male." Mr. Kipling didn't know how correct he was. When it comes to crime, women through history have proven to be just as ruthless and bloodthirsty as their male counterparts. In Mistresses of Mayhem, author Francine Hornberger takes us on a gripping and often unnerving journey into the lives and minds of female criminals. Some of them are legends: Lizzie Borden chopped her father and stepmother to death with an axe, for reasons that baffle criminologist more than a century later. Bonnie Parker, as homicidal as her lover, Clyde Barrow, cut a deadly swath of blood and bullets through the depression-era Midwest. Kate "Ma" Barker was the alleged brains behind a cutthroat gang of bank robbers and kidnappers - two of whom were her own sons. Sante Kimes sexually seduced her 21-year-old son, and together they embarked on a short but deadly life of crime that culminated in the murder-for-profit of a wealthy, 82-year-old New York City socialite. Serial killing, crimes of passion, terrorism, prostitution, embezzlement, kidnapping, robbery, swindling, fraud - crime is not just a guy thing.