Female violence is a truth too uncomfortable for most to consider. We treat those who kill, abuse and commit terrible acts as outcasts – they are monsters, angels of death, manifestations of pure evil and a threat to the ideals of womanhood. In reality, the truth can be much more complex.

Many women who commit acts of violence have been subjected to shocking abuse themselves. Some are suffering from serious mental illness or psychological harm. For many, the desperate search for the care they have been denied their whole lives leads them to repeat the same brutality they once suffered.

Women like this are not the inhuman monsters of tabloid myth, but victims and proponents of abuse motivated by the most human instinct of all: to love and be loved.

Introducing us to eleven ordinary women who came to commit extreme acts, Anna Motz – one of Britain's leading forensic psychotherapists who has spent three decades working with violent women – takes us on a journey into psychotherapy, uncovering their motives and the fault lines in their psyche that led to their crimes. We meet Mary, who turned to arson after her son was taken into care, Maja, whose fantasy life led to her stalking an ex-boyfriend, and Dolores, whose terrible crime is unimaginable to most people.

Deeply affecting, compelling and profound, A Love That Kills offers a rare insight into the sometimes perilous dance between therapist and patient and the often tortuous pathways to recovery, asking vital questions about how society treats violent women.