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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Her sister, Nellie, who lives in America, gives her a chance to escape her ruined reputation- but even Nellie, who gives Belle the benefit of the doubt at every turn, can't turn a blind eye to her murderous ways… There, Gunness met her first known victim: her husband, Mads Ditlev Anton Sorenson, whom she married in 1884. With smoke choking his throat, Maxson cried out in a desperate attempt to get the family’s attention. “Fire! Fire!” But nobody stirred. The only thing Maxson heard was the ominous creaking of burning timbers. Overall, this might not be a paranormal or supernatural tale- but it is a good story to read close to Halloween.

Written in two points of view (Belle and her sister Nellie,) the author adeptly blends the two views into one cohesive novel. A compelling read, In the Garden of Spite is the consummate combination of historical fiction and true crime. It will leave you speechless. Five stars. Unforgettable. 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. For Asle, the excuse raised eyebrows. This was very uncharacteristic of his brother. When he asked Gunness to forward the letter his brother had sent from Chicago, the widow remorsefully told him that the letter was missing. On May 4, Asle Helgelien walked into the La Porte sheriff’s office in hopes of gaining information on the whereabouts of his brother. Sheriff Smutzer drove Helgelien to the Gunness house and told him to see if he could find any clues in the burnt rubble.

Born in poverty in Norway, she was the victim of a cruel and unspeakable act, unproven, to explain her spiteful nature and murderous intent. On moving to the USA to start a new life, intending to raise above her childhood poverty, she married twice. Both husbands died painful deaths when she tired of them. She inherited their property, life insurance, and also insurance payouts from buildings she set afire. Unable to bear children, the story adds a fictional criminal lover who brought to Belle unwanted babies. She raised them as her own. He also helped with her murderous enterprises and arson and encouraged her depravity. She exhibited affection and pleasure in her foster children who were a great help in the house and with farm chores. What happens to them is very tragic and heartbreaking. While this is a work of fiction, many truths were incorporated into the story. Belle wasn’t the most prolific female serial killer out there-apparently- but she was likely responsible for more deaths than can be proven. My reservations lie in the length of the book as you become numbed by her actions and at times the pace is a bit slow. Perhaps less about the food would help!Bella must be one of the most unscrupulous women to have ever lived. A serial killer who lets no one stand in her way. It left me reeling between revulsion, horror and a rather unwilling… admiration! Immediately, neighbors began mourning the tragedy: Belle Gunness, a lonely widow who had spent years fruitlessly looking for love, had died surrounded by her children in a horrendous fire. For all her life, it seemed that tragedy had followed Mrs. Gunness—she had lost two husbands and multiple children to terrible accidents—and now it looked as though fate had come for her, too. Within days, a disgruntled former farmhand named Ray Lamphere was arrested for setting fire to the building. You may think a young woman could struggle to find her own way in the new continent. But guess what: Little Brynhild (her birth name) changes her name as Belle as soon as she takes her first steps to the new continent. She has a plan. She will never be hungry or suffer from poverty again and no other men will harm her! The book switches narratives between Nellie and Belle- as one chronicles her descent into mass murder and the other continues to live in denial, rationalizing and hoping for her sister to settle- until finally she must face her suspicions once and for all.