the fascinating third instalment in Paul B. Kidd’s chilling Never to be Released series. Each year in Australia crimes are committed that are so evil their perpetrators are sentenced to the maximum punishment that the law allows. And seeing as there is no death penalty in any state of Australia, these worst-of-the-worst are sent to prison for life without the possibility of parole. It is termed ‘never to be released’. to date, no criminal who has ever been handed down this sentence has been set free, and they will die in jail as the law demands. But the fear of going to prison forever obviously does little to deter people from committing crimes of the most heinous nature. In his third book of case studies on the subject, Kidd, a recognised authority on Australia’s serial killers and criminals, looks at such cases as: the housewife who skinned her de-facto husband, cooked his head in a pot and served him up to his kids for dinner; a mild-mannered serial rapist and murderer who was so ordinary-looking that his victims trusted him immediately - time and time again; and a serial killer whose ‘victim’ turned up alive and well in the middle of his trial for her murder.