Carol Anne Davis at Tangled Web UK

Page Updated: 04/02/2008

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Carol Anne Davis - Page 1

pbk 01 Feb 08

Silent Terror - the misunderstood topic of male rape

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WebPage: http://www.carolannedavis.co.uk

About the Author

Bibliography

British Pbk Original - Summersdale Pub (2007)

Sadistic Killers
Profiles of Pathological Predators
Acclaimed crime writer Carol Anne Davis explores the minds of sadistic killers: their childhoods, their growing pathology and horrific crimes. Knowing what some of these killers endured doesn’t even begin to excuse their crimes - but it does explain them. Davis delineates the different subgroups of sadists - for example, those who kill indiscriminately - in Britain, the US and Australia.
There are also chapters on:
Female sadists, who tend to be overlooked by the media.
Consensual sadomasochism - including a rare interview with a well-known female practitioner
Input from a psychologist who has helped rehabilitate some of Britain’s most violent men.
Sadistic Killers is a compelling look at the formative influences of a sadist and at his or her crimes. Unflinching in detail but never gratuitous, this is an informative read with a hopeful ending.
Carol Anne Davis has been called by Booklist ’the Queen of Noir’, and by The Times ‘Scotland’s leading woman of suspense’. She is the author of several books of true crime and crime fiction, has made numerous radio and television appearances and maintains the website www.carolannedavis.co.uk
'Carol Anne Davis writes with dangerous authority about the deadly everyday. Her work is dark in ways that Ruth Rendell and Minette Waiters can only dream of. This is our world, skewed and skewered, revealed in its true sanguinary colours. You've got to read her. Ian Rankin (on Noise Abatement)
‘One of Britain’s most bracing true-crime writers’ Crime Magazine
‘…eminently readable reference work...’ Time Out

First British Edition Snowbooks (2007)

Paperback - Snowbooks (2008)

Sob Story
Going away to University can be scary. It helps to have a friend. Someone who understands you, someone you can talk to. That’s why Amy is glad to have her pen-pal Jeff. Jeff’s letters make Amy feel better, safer... less afraid.
She doesn’t even care that Jeff is a convicted criminal
Deep down she knows he’s a gentle soul. He’s learned his lesson. And anyway, he won’t get out of prison for ages...
It’s true that Jeff has learned his lesson. The lesson is don’t get caught.
Because deep down Jeff is anything but a gentle soul. When he strangled his last girlfriend he should have been more careful. Next time will be different. He can’t wait to kill again. And that’s not the only secret he’s hiding from Amy. She’s in for one more surprise.
He’s getting out soon .. .
‘Her work is dark in ways that Ruth Rendell and Minette Walters can only dream of’ Ian Rankin
‘Carol Anne Davis is Scotland’s leading woman of suspense. Discover her now.’ The Times

Paperback - Allison & Busby (2006)

First British Edition Allison & Busby (2005)

Couples Who Kill
See Review by Martin Edwards - creator of the highly acclaimed, Liverpool based Harry Devlin Mysteries
What drives attractive male cousins to rape and kill ten young women? Why do an altar girl and her boyfriend lure innocent victims into their customised torture van? Couples who kill comprise only twenty per cent of killers, but they often murder serially and are responsible for particularly inhumane deaths.
Sadistic friends, psychotic sisters and an increasingly pathological mother-son team are amongst those profiled in this exploration of the world’s most deviant duos. There are infamous British cases such as the Moors Murderers and the Wests, as well as many equally disturbing but less well-known ones. In the third of this series, which focuses on the psychology of murderers. Carol Anne Davis explores the formative influences of these killers and their deadly dynamics.
Comprising of thirteen in-depth case studies and exclusive interviews with experts and one of the Wests’ surviving victims. Couples Who Kill provides an unequalled study of this disturbing subject.
In Her Own Words: On writing Couples Who Kill:
There’s a myth that couples who kill always comprise a dominant and a submissive personality - but the reality is much more complex. For example, one male may enjoy sexually assaulting the victims whilst his friend prefers killing them. And in several of the male-female partnerships it was the woman who lured the victims to her vehicle and tied them up after which the man joined in.
As you’re dealing with two violent individuals, the status quo can change at any moment - in one serial killing case the supposedly submissive partner killed his dominant lover and in another a teenage boy was cast as the villain but his desperate girlfriend actually masterminded the homicides.
Praise for the author
‘Society doesn’t like to believe that women are as capable of monstrous behavior as men… Davis’ casebook reveals that not only do women excel at murder, but they’re also even better at manipulation’ Bizarre
‘In this well written, eminently readable reference work, crime writer and criminologist Carol Anne Davis tackles her subject in a way that avoids the extremes of tacky goriness and dry-as-dust theorizing that mars most true crime books’ Time Out
‘Holds an awful fascination’ The Bookseller
‘A remarkable and very readable book… The author deserves credit for tackling a taboo subject in a thoughtful way’ Yorkshire Post

First British Edition Do Not Press (2003)

Paperback - Do Not Press (2003)

Kiss It Away
Nick is an angry young man with a steroid dependency. Filled with chemical rage, he arrives alone in Salisbury and rapes Ben, a stranger.
Then, less than an hour later, he brutally murders a woman.
But it is Ben, bloodied and partly dressed, who is witnessed near the murder scene. And it's his photo fit which is flashed on TV.
Ben can't bring himself to tell his girlfriend, Dawn, that he's been raped but he acts so strangely that she suspects that he's the killer. Now it's her turn to feel fear. As Nick's drug-fuelled fury rises, so does the body count, The police start to close in - but they're closing in on Ben…
In Her Own Words: On writing Kiss It Away
Dawn blames herself when her new lover, Ben, starts acting strangely. Then a brutal murder is committed in her home town and it’s Ben’s photofit which is shown on TV. As the body count rises and his personality continues to change, she believes that he must be the killer. In reality, he’s trying to cope with being attacked and raped...
Most novels which delineate rape and its aftermath deal with female rather than male victims and even then we only see the rapist vis-à-vis that one criminal act. This novel shows some of the emotional journey and the pivotal acts that led Nick, the rapist, to start using his body as a weapon and explores how society mocks, sexualises or ignores male on male rape. Men rape other men and boys daily in prisons, in children’s homes, in darkened streets and in well lit locker rooms. If the victims were women they would receive sympathy and appropriate help. But because they are male they are often marginalised or treated with embarrassment.
Kiss It Away also has many humorous moments as Nick moves into an alcoholic household. I’ve witnessed such a household up close and personal and know that it has its share of dark humour as well as grief.
The title comes from a ballad written by the late Shel Silverstein and performed by the irrepressible Dr Hook, a song that can only be sung with a cry in your voice.
'Reminiscent of Ruth Rendell at her darkest' Booklist
'A gripping tale of skewered psychology from one of the most talented of the rising Scottish Mac Mafia school of crime. Not only unputdownable, but also a mighty chiller,' Maxim Jakubowski, The Guardian

First British Edition Allison & Busby (2003)

Children Who Kill
Why do two young boys abduct, torture and kill a toddler? What makes a teenage girl plot with her classmates to kill her own father? Why does a child set fire to the homes of his classmates? We tend to think of children as innocents, incapable of murder but their crimes can be some of the most horrific and terrifying acts committed. In this new book Carol Anne Davis explores the actions and motivations of thirteen killers aged between ten and seventeen. Well known cases including those of Mary Bell, Robert Thompson and John Venables are examined alongside historical case studies and lesser known crimes. Children Who Kill is an intelligent and moving account of the dark and troubled childhoods that lead to murder.
In Her Own Words: On writing Children Who Kill:
Some people aren’t fit to be parents. That’s the conclusion I reached after researching Children Who Kill. One mother, a sadomasochistic prostitute, lent her daughter out to clients. Another suspected that her husband was sexually abusing their child but she failed to act. A neglectful mother’s toddler only survived by drinking the dregs from cans of beer.
The fathers of some of these children (or whoever acted in loco parentis) were equally heinous. Yet when these children went on to kill, society suggested they were simply born bad.
Thankfully the people I interviewed had compassion for the violence these young people had suffered, a compassion which I share. There’s no getting away from the horror of what these children did, bludgeoning, stabbing, strangling and setting fire to their victims. But when you profile their lives up to the murder or murders, you at least understand the cause.

About The Author
In Her Own Words
As children we're told to smile for family photographs, no matter how wounded we're feeling - and most of us continue to keep up such appearances in adulthood. I'm interested in what goes on behind the simulated smiles. Ted Bundy was admired by his university tutors and by those he campaigned for politically - yet his hobby was decapitating women. John Wayne Gacy dressed up as a clown and amused children by day yet tortured and killed young boys at night.
It was relatively easy to get inside the head of the sociopathic David in Safe As Houses. I just took the hatred that I felt towards certain people when I was a child and put it into an adult framework. Douglas, the necrophile in Shrouded, was harder to create as I couldn't initially envisage feeling lust for a dead body. But he operates out of fear and I've lived through prolonged fear so that gave me my starting point. After that, it's just a case of taking so-called normal lust and directing it towards a very unusual love object. The sex is made easier for Douglas in that he becomes so stressed by the forbidden acts that he goes into a fugue state.
Carol Anne Davis is Scottish and has lived much of her life in Edinburgh. She has been a full-time writer since 1990, writing about sex and death for adult and horror magazines, and has contributed to most of the major anthologies of the past few years.

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Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Sadistic Killers (Summersdale Pub Pbk, 2007)

Sob Story (Snowbooks, 2007) Snowbooks Pbk Feb 08

Couples Who Kill (Allison & Busby, 2005) Allison & Busby Pbk Oct 06

Kiss It Away (Do Not Press, 2003) Do Not Press Pbk Sep 03

Children Who Kill (Allison & Busby, 2003) Allison & Busby Pbk Apr 04

Women Who Kill - Profiles of Female Serial Killers (Allison & Busby, 2001) Allison & Busby Pbk May 02

Noise Abatement (Do Not Press Pbk, 2000)

Safe as Houses (Do Not Press, 1999) Do Not Press Pbk Jun 03

Shrouded (Do Not Press Pbk, 1997)