Triflers Need Not Apply: Be frightened of her. Secretly root for her. And watch history’s original female serial killer find her next victim.

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Because it is based on true events, it is even more terrifying, and left me chilled right to the bone! While Nellie desperately searches for an explanation, some way for her to cope with, or rationalize, Belle’s criminal enterprise. I researched Belle after reading the book and enjoyed seeing how much the storyline mirrored the true events but with the author’s own fictional understanding of who Belle was. On seeing her photo, I am now able to see her as she actually looked in real life and this has left me with a permanent vision of her and her story.

Triflers Need Not Apply - Goodreads Ceecee’s review of Triflers Need Not Apply - Goodreads

Belle Gunness was born Brynhild Storset in Norway in the 1800s to a poor family of rural tenants. Her earliest years are spent with vicious nurture and violent nature, and an early sexual encounter gone extremely sour—the author's editorializing at work with this fact, as this encounter is rumored in Norway but not officially confirmed— leads to her first murder. Little Brynhild poisons her abuser and likes the feeling of power she gets. Her second husband was a butcher wh taught her his trade. This came in handy after his death on bodies she dismembered before burying them on her farmland. She was excited and joyful at the sight and smell of blood, first from butchering farm animals and then her human victims. As the now wealthy owner of a large farm, her first victims were killed for their money and property, but later the killings were motivated by blood-lust. Numerous men came to court the wealthy widow, or to find employment working on the farm. These men vanished, often before breakfast the next day, robbed with any cash or property they brought with them, murdered, and buried. Set in 1877 Selbu, Norway, Little Brynhild is a precocious, tough little girl living under the hand of her brutish, drunk father and protective mother. They live in abject poverty, her older sister, Big Brynhild now Nellie as she is known has long since moved to America settling in Chicago with her husband where they too are struggling in a new land to survive. As Little Brynhild matures hoping for better circumstances she catches the eye of a farmer's son and ends up pregnant. Naively believing her lover will do right by her and marry her, he rejects her and with her declarations to the local folks of her baby being fathered by the farmer's son, her lover lures her to a secret meeting and savagely beats her leaving her for dead. This was the defining moment that will rule the rest of Brynhild's life and lead her to become the brutal serial killer Belle Gunness.I knew as soon as I started reading this book it would be a five star read for me, I just love true crime that’s written as fiction. Camilla Bruce hasn’t just included factually correct events but has attempted to intriguingly understand who Belle actually was and why she did what she did, regardless of her twisted and deadly justifications.

Triflers Need Not Apply (Audio Download): Camilla Bruce Triflers Need Not Apply (Audio Download): Camilla Bruce

Overall, this might not be a paranormal or supernatural tale- but it is a good story to read close to Halloween. And through it all her kind, older sister Nellie can only watch in horror as Bella's schemes to enrich herself and cut down the male population come to a glorious, dreadful fruition . . . As the years go by, Bella's life seems to be marked by obvious tragedy. Her husbands and children just keep...dying. And her homes and businesses just keep... burning down. What's up with that? Eventually, Bella moves to rural Indiana and marries Peter Gunness, her new persona as Belle Gunness begins. And once Peter suffers a tragic accident with a meat grinder—or cleaver, depending on who you ask—what's a twice-made widow to do with a huge farm but create an ad asking for male farm hands to come and help her? It's not exactly her fault if all the men disappear in the night... This was such a fantastic read that I find myself missing it days after I finished. I've never heard of Bella Gunness before and the depth of research needed to write a story this all encompassing definitely impressed me. It was fun to read about something completely new. Usually, books of this nature feature a male killer or are set in more modern times. I felt this straddled historical fiction and true crime rather well. It didn't get bogged down in details (this was my struggle with The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America - however, to be fair, I read that book AGES ago so I might have more appreciation for it now) and the dual narrative helped give a perspective outside of what Belle was telling us.

So the biggest weakness may be pacing but the greatest strength in the writing is fictionalizing actual events and plotting a female serial killers story in a realistic and historically accurate setting. Got me out of a reading slump! Dark glee, tragedy . . . fans of my story The Corset will gobble this up Laura Purcell I wanted to read this book based on the non-fiction 'true crimes' accounts of Belle Gunness. Speculation and embellishment about her crimes and motives are added to the story. I had read some previous accounts of her crimes and knew she is considered one of the most prolific female serial killers in American history. The number of her victims has been estimated at 40. Come for the fabulous premise, stay for the razor-sharp portrait of a marvelously complex (and often totally terrifying) mind . . . Camilla Bruce has absolutely outdone herself'LAIRD HUNT

Triflers Need Not Apply Triflers Need Not Apply

Early in life Bella Sorensen discovers the world is made only for men. They own everything: jobs, property, wives. But Bella understands what few others do: where women are concerned, men are weak. This is well written, mind blowing, extremely intense, dazzling, riveting novel. I devoured slowly but each chapter was like heavy meals which take extra time to absorb properly. I admit I've been fascinated by fictionalized stories of serial killers. Usually, they don't haunt me in my dreams and keep me up at night. But this... this... THIS has scarred my brain, I think. And (unfortunately) also caused me to want to learn more about the serial murderess Belle Gunness. I'm just typing out the names of each murder from the podcast description, so this will not include Minisodes or Hometowns. Exploring the darker elements of the female experience—in this case, the sociopathic murderous elements—makes for fascinating reading. This was a great work, but it could have been shorter.Well, I don’t want to give more spoils but I have to say: she reached most of her goals: she became wealthy and she married ( if you don’t count her husbands start to die suspiciously and any men she involves with vanished into thin air!) Hi, I’m Fiona. Welcome to my book blog! My ambition is to share and promote the books I’ve loved and help readers find great books to read. In addition to reviewing books, I’m a professional business writer and editor.