Women, Crime and the Courts by Patricia O'sullivan

Women, Crime and the Courts by Patricia O'sullivan

Kwan Lai-chun was sick of being made to feel second-class by her husbands concubine; sick of her mother-in-laws endless carping about the money she spent; sick of the whole family. Late one sticky, humid night, something snapped in her -- and she grabbed the meat chopper. Within minutes, three people were dead: the concubine with over 70 gashes, many of them to the bone. Kwan was found guilty and became the second and last woman in Hong Kong to suffer the death penalty. But behind her story, and those of the citys other female murderers, lie complex webs of relationships and jealousies, poverty and despair. Taking the first 100 years of Hong Kongs colonial history, this book unravels the lives of women -- Chinese and Westerners alike -- who found themselves on the wrong side of the law. Hong Kongs female prison population was a tiny fraction of that in Britain or America, but there are still plenty of tales from its women kidnappers, smugglers, bomb-makers, thieves and cruel mistresses.

Michelle Huneven is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, most recently Blame, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and one of the Ten Terrific Reads of the year for O, the Oprah Magazine. An Altadena native who lives there still, she contributed the introduction to the collection, as well as a work of short fiction.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9789887963981
ISBN 10	9887963984
Title	Women, Crime and the Courts
Author	Patricia O'sullivan
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Blacksmith Books
Year published	2020-11-09
Number of pages	280
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.