Revenge. Everyone wants it. Few will attempt it. Even fewer on the scale of the women and girls in this collection of tales that run the gamut from grisly through calculated to justifiable—at least, in their minds. Their reasons are as varied as the perpetrators themselves. You’re bound to have met one or two like them. Take the troubled teenager in “Jedda Summons a Higher Power,” tormented by high-school bullies. Or the Manhattan socialite with a penchant for scamming gullible males in “Paying Poppy Back.” Maybe you’ve worked in an office with a micromanaging supervisor like the unhappy narrator in “The Good Life.” Sorry, no kindly grandmothers slipping arsenic into tea. These female killers go for the jugular in ways that will surprise. Whether revenge is served up sweet, white-hot, or ice-cold, there’s something to please every reader.