Obsession, jealousy, lust, revenge ...

There is nothing more dangerous than a passion that curdles into murderous intent. Love, when it goes wrong and spirals into violence, can lead to the most tragically chilling consequences; death at the hands of a partner or ex-partner is the most common way for a woman to be murdered, far outnumbering her risk of murder by stranger.

Sexual obsession is the theme that ties all of these tragic stories together. There is the tale of talented landscape artist Jill Cahill, whose husband was not content with battering his wife to a pulp and so went back to finish the job while she lay in her hospital bed. There is the wife whose body was found in the boot of her own car, and whose husband had framed his girlfriend for the crime, hoping to get rid of two women from his life. But men don’t have a monopoly on murder; there is also the case of Martha Freeman, who hid her lover in her wardrobe, and teamed up with him to murder her husband.

John Tanner served a twelve-year sentence for the murder of his girlfriend, and is now back behind bars for another attack on another partner. British soldier Emile Cilliers attempted 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 you will find in the pages of this book.