Most murders, for example, are committed by men. One of the reasons female criminals aren’t written about so extensively is a harmless one: there just aren’t as many. So it doesn’t hurt to push back against that from time to time. I don’t want to climb too high on a soapbox and declare that my work is particularly important-there are certainly much more timely, pressing, politically-charged books being published every day-but I do think that in the true crime genre, female criminals are often forgotten about or given the Jodi Arias treatment (sexy femme fatale!). Tori: I’m glad you used the word obscure, because I do love writing about crimes that most people haven’t heard of. Why do you feel it’s important female stories of this nature be told? Why do you think they have historically been understated or underrepresented in conversations around criminality and criminal psychology?

Both titles shed light on the obscure-and often deadly-crimes of a handful of people. NS: Before you wrote Confident Women, there was Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History, which explores some of the most cunning female serial killers who’ve gone under the radar, especially compared to their male counterparts. It took me a while to land on con women, but once I thought of it, and realized that they’d hadn’t been written about in any comprehensive, female-specific way, well, let’s just say I sent my agent the world’s fastest email, basically screaming, This is what I want to do! Their stories are just so twisty and compelling, I think any writer couldn’t help but be drawn to them.

So I was thinking about other sorts of crime, and some of the most colorful ones-lady pirates, for example-had already been written about, so I kept searching. Tori: I had finished a book all about female serial killers (which we’ll get to in the next question) and I still felt a pull towards writing about female criminals, but to be frank, I couldn’t deal with any more serial killers for the time being. What first drew you to their stories? What made you want to sit down and write about them? NS: In Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of Feminine Persuasion, you spotlight notorious female con-artists from across the world.

Lady Killers by Tori Telfer