What does Lizzie's murder represent in the novel, Very Old Bones?

Lizzie's murder represents several degrees of violence against women. On the most basic level it represents the physical helplessness of an innocent female against the blood lust of an insane husband. On another level, the hallucinatory emasculation of Malachi is the symbolic representation of his childlessness which drives him to an insane act of frustrated revenge against his barren wife. At still another level, the support of the Malleus Maleficarum represents the endorsement of violent misogyny by the Church. All three levels coalesce in showing Kathryn the vulnerability of women to sexually inspired violence in a male dominated world. Her defense is to deny her own sexual desire and to encourage that same denial in her eldest daughter in order to circumvent what she has seen to be the inevitably disastrous consequences of sexuality.