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The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago by Douglas Perry

I’m a CHICAGO musical fan and generally enjoy stories about lady criminals, so this was a must-read for me. I really enjoyed it.

The Girls of Murder City tells the story of, mainly, three women: playwright and reporter Maureen Watkins and two glamorous murderesses, Belva Gaertner and Beulah Annan. Watkins covers their trials in a time when killers of the fairer sex are making headlines in Chicago.

This book featured lots of fantastic details, first person accounts from reporter Maureen Watkins and backgrounds of infamous killers.

NOTE ABOUT THE AUDIOBOOK: The audiobook version I listened to was narrated by Peter Berkrot. Berkrot was fine, the narration of the facts was fine… but why in the heck would an audiobook producer get a man to narrate a story featuring dialogue by mostly women? Berkrot doing women’s voices was distracting, stupid and unnecessary. That specific choice boggles my mind. I didn’t affect the quality of the book, but I would have enjoyed the audiobook itself more if a woman had narrated instead.