America's First Female Serial Killer - by Mary Kay McBrayer (Paperback)

About the Book

The nurse from hell: Always cheerful, helpful, and sweet, nurse Jane Toppan was the last person you would suspect to administer a dose of death. When countless patients sought treatment for minor ailments and ended up dead, it was often thought accidental, due to the shortcomings of medicine in the late 1800s. But behind the jolly mask, there was a monster that was years in the making. America's First Female Serial Killer is an imagined retelling of Jane Toppan--one of the deadliest poisoners of all time--and readers will get a fly-on-the-wall perspective of her life and crimes that will leave you up at night.

Book Synopsis

The Making of a Female Serial Killer

"In America's First Female Serial Killer, McBrayer offers us a complex―and terrifying―portrait of a killer who seemed almost doomed from birth." ―Kate Winkler Dawson, author of American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI

#1 Best Seller in History of Ireland, Child Psychology, and Crime & Criminals

For readers who are fascinated by how serial killers are made. This book is for listeners of true crime podcasts and readers of both fiction and true crime nonfiction. It is for watchers of television shows like Deadly Women and Mindhunter, who are fascinated by how killers are made. It's for self-conscious feminists, Americans trying to bootstrap themselves into success, and anyone who loves a vigilante beatdown, especially one gone off the rails.

America's first female serial killer was not always a killer. America's First Female Serial Killer novelizes the true story of first-generation Irish-American nurse Jane Toppan, born as Honora Kelley. Although all the facts are intact, books about her life and her crimes are all facts and no story. Jane Toppan was absolutely a monster, but she did not start out that way.

Making of a serial killer. When Jane was a young child, her father abandoned her and her sister to the Boston Female Asylum. From there, Jane was indentured to a wealthy family who changed her name, never adopted her, wrote her out of the will, and essentially taught her how to hate herself. Jilted at the altar, Jane became a nurse and took control of her life, and the lives of her victims.

Readers of America's First Female Serial Killer:

• Will gain insight into the personal development of a severely damaged person without rationalizing her crimes
• Experience the rarely told story of a female serial killer
• Understand that even monsters were humans, first

If you enjoyed books such as In We Keep the Dead Close, Mindhunter, or In Cold Blood; you will love reading America's First Female Serial Killer.

Review Quotes

"In America's First Female Serial Killer, Mary Kay McBrayer brilliantly presents one of the most fascinating serial killers in American history--and not just because the killer was a woman. McBrayer digs into the troubled life of Jane Toppan, who is by far one of the most disturbing 'angels of death' found in the annals of murder. What McBrayer offers us is a complex--and terrifying--portrait of a killer who seemed almost doomed from birth." --Kate Winkler Dawson, author of American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI

"Mary Kay McBrayer has written a thoughtful and inspired take on one of the greatest poisoners in history. America's First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster seethes with rage, compulsion, and a righteous condemnation of the servitude of the underclass. A chilling and sobering read." --Robert Levy, author of The Glittering World and Anaïs Nin at the Grand Guignol