Why is there a female-led obsession with true crime?

From Agatha Christie to Kim Kardashian, ladies love to be freaked out by non-fiction.

From Agatha Christie to Kim Kardashian, ladies love to be freaked out by non-fiction.

If she were alive today, the matron of mystery, the seductress of suspense, the woman who inspired the greatest WAG war of all time - Agatha Christie - would be 132.

(Of course she's a Virgo).

Alas, on her birthday she leaves behind a legacy of expertly crafted crime novels and a lingering presence on the proliferation of the female obsession with gruesome murders.

The true crime audience is oversaturated by female viewers, listeners and readers.

A 2010 study found 70% of Amazon reviews of true-crime novels are by women, while 73% of true crime podcast audiences were found to be female, according to research by Boling and Hull in 2019.

Crime psychology expert and self-professed true crime addict Professor Amandar Vicary suggested the uptick of women interested in the genre increased by 16 per cent.

It’s thus no surprise that female creators have begun dominating the area, running in the space Christie once walked.

Lawyer Kim Kardashian announced last week she is currently working with Spotify to launch a true crime podcast titled ‘The System’, with a gruesome triple homicide to kick the series off.

“There are so many twists and turns with how it was handled — or mishandled — and we take the listener along for a journey in search of the truth,” she told Interview.

For the queasy stomach, fraudsters flourished onscreen as Amanda Seyfried won her first career Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Drama for her role as the biotechnology fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, and the much-loved, much-snubbed Inventing Anna.

Selena Gomez brought a legion of Disney kids straight into the fixation with the series Only Murders in the Building, launching a new generation of true crime obsessives.

Martin Short, Steve Martin and Selena Gomez in Only Murders In The Building.

In the podcast space, none can look further than the soothing narration of Serial’s Sarah Koenig, whose velvet voice makes even the most gruesome of murders enticing to listen to.

On the flip side, friends Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark added a touch of comedy to terror with their podcast “My Favourite Murder”, pairing quick-whips with brutal killings.

For the literary giant, who could forget the advent of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, a story that perfectly fictionalised a revenge fantasy on a cheating husband only the most twisted AND scorned could conjure.

And in more recent times, Zakiya Dalila Harris’ debut novel The Other Black Girl captured the crime of the moment - working yourself to death - as she captured the psychological thriller that is being a modern-day working girl.

No list dissecting the best the crime genre has to offer without a prestige TV recommendation.

And thus we cue the miniseries The Act - a tumultuous depiction of the real-life murder of Dee Dee Blanchard, a mother who’s long-term Munchausen by proxy hoax led her daughter Gypsy to commit the ultimate crime.

Still from The Act. Patricia Arquette as Dee Dee Blanchard, Joey King as Gypsy Rose Blanchard.

So why is there a female-led obsession with true crime?

The dark obsession ruminates in a myriad of factors: it’s entertaining, it’s sickeningly exciting and it’s an eternal reminder of the terror women experience everyday. 

Whatever factor encourages your fascination, we’re sure if Agatha Christie were still alive today, she wouldn’t even tell us why she liked it too.