Mrs Bolton's Revenge

Following the sudden death of Charles Bolton, the senior partner of a major law firm in the city, his son Guy was shocked to learn from one of his clients that for many years she had been his lover and, furthermore, she knew he had maintained a string of mistresses in other locations he frequently visited. The revelation came as a total shock to Guy, but after some deliberation, he and his sister Deborah decided that they had to inform their mother. Judith Bolton had once been a hotshot lawyer in the same practice as her husband, earning a reputation as the most fearsome corporate solicitor in London, specialising in takeover deals and described by one City grandee as 'combining a sharp legal brain with the mind of a psychopath'.

As a Trustee of a number of major charities and having served on Government committees, she still enjoyed a certain status in the social circles in which she moved, and she believed her professional reputation placed her above most other spouses in her husband's legal practice.

The revelation of his infidelity therefore, hit her hard. She not only found it hurtful to her as a woman but, seemingly more important in her eyes, was the damage to her standing in the community. It was the ignominy of the latter which fuelled her anger, especially as, reinforced by a dream, she became convinced that her friends and former colleagues had been well aware of his behaviour but had kept silent. Humiliation was not an emotion with which Judith could cope. Combined with anger, it formed a lethal cocktail leading to only one outcome - revenge.

Settling on the mistresses themselves as the guilty parties and motivated by an inner fury the 'legal psychopath' embarked on a secret and murderous programme to eliminate them one by one. Careful planning and a modicum of luck brought success in her diabolical plot as she systematically despatched the first four women on her list. However, in tackling the fifth and final victim, there was an unexpected twist in the tail and a shattering revelation which proved devastating for Judith and brought distress to her family.