Did not finish.

I found I wasn't really intrigued by Bella's story. While we're obviously not supposed to like her character, we do need to be interested in her story which I wasn't.

I was surprised to see so much of the story told through her sister's perspective, and I think that's what made me so detached from the story.

The dark aspects of the story felt very surface level, it lacked any real atmosphere for me.

LOVED this. I didn’t want it to end. I’ll be heading straight to Google to find out more about Belle Gunness when I’ve finished writing this. A variety of different characters and I probably shouldn’t like Belle… but I do, a bit. Very well written; I love a book about a serial killer, especially a female one. I’ll be checking out more by Camilla Bruce in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley publishers for the ARC.

This was one of my favorite books of 2021, it kept me hooked until the very end, couldn’t put it down.

I thought Belle’s perspective, despite intense and dark, was truly well done. It mustn’t be easy, considering how twisted the character (and the real person is based on) is. Yet, it still put us inside Belle’s head — what could possibly go through someone’s head to do these things? And the book explores that as well, the many sides of Belle and the darkness around her, her past, her crimes, her twisted secrets.

Some scenes aren’t easy to read, there’s graphic detail, and well, it’s pretty dark.

What I liked the most about this book was the interpretation (creative freedom even?) when the author wrote Belle’s perspective.. In fact it’s easy to forget that this was based on real events such is the depth of the narrative.

Big thank you to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for sending me a copy of this to read and review.

I was so so so intrigued about this one, A female serial killer out to prove to the world, in a time when inequality was at its worst between men and women, that she could be just as ruthless and single minded as a man if not more. And a true story?! Say no more, I am HERE for it. This however did not deliver for me unfortunately. I so wanted to love this book.

I got about 30% of the way through and just could not make myself keep reading. This bored me which I honestly was not expecting it to. This is also probably my fault as Historical Fiction is not my favourite, However I thought that the fact that its a true story and the fact that it was about a female serial killer trying to have everything that a man can but going the wrong way about it would intrigue me no matter the setting.

Unfortunately my copy has numbers in the middle of every sentence making it a difficult read. I'm going to buy a copy instead as the story really intrigues me & I've heard great things about the book & don't want my reading put off by this.

Little Brynhild lives in poverty in Norway. She becomes pregnant by the son of the family she works for, but rather than marry her, he chooses to beat her so badly she loses the child. Once recovered Brynhild is determined not to be placed in the same situation and to escape her life in Norway. First she exacts her revenge on her seducer and then she travels to America, reinventing herself as Bella. However Bella will stop at nothing to get the pampered and luxurious life she wants, even if that means murder.
I couldn't really engage with this book, which is a pity but I found the excessive focusing on violence and the visceral nature of this - lots of descriptions of blood etc - was too much for me.

Being a huge fan or real life crime/serial killer stories I was seriously intrigued by the premise of this book and couldnt wait to get stuck in... unfortunately I can only describe it in one word.. tedious.

Bella Gunness was a real life American serial killer but for some reason isnt one of the well known ones. There isnt very much information on her killings, noone actually knows the true tally of just how many killings she accomplished BUT what we do know is that she killed a lot!

This book basically tells a story of how she may have come to be the killer she was. After being abused and exacting her revenge in her homeland of Norway she follows her sister to America, hoping for a better life perhaps?

Whilst I enjoyed the imaginings of what had made her become who she was I felt there was WAY too much attention to minor details that ended up making a story drag on and on, I ended up zoning out frequently to be honest! I don't need to know what someone ate, is that really important?

This is definitely a story that could have been told more interestingly with the depth it needs without irrelevant detailing.

A tale of just how far greed can take someone!

Thanks to netgalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for the ARC.

I am a huge fan of true crime, and hadn't heard of the serial killer Belle Sorensen before. This is an element of true crime that I love, I'm fascinated by the motives killers have for their crimes, and this was a story I knew nothing about.
This took a long time to get into, a lot of the dialogue and scenes were rather irrelevant to me. I'll be honest, I wanted the nitty-gritty details!
Having said that, the second half was much better and I did enjoy it. I think it would have helped being much shorter.

A fictionalised retelling of a grim historical tale, Triflers Need Not Apply is the story of Belle Gunness, a Norwegian immigrant who travelled to America to try and forge a better life from herself, and who ended up carving out a place in the annals of crime. Born into abject poverty, she emigrated to America when she was around 22 years old, following an older sister who had settled in Chicago. She worked there for a number of years before getting married to her first husband and setting up a sweet shop, which later burned down in a mysterious fire. Soon after this, deaths started to occur. These didn’t raise any eyebrows at first as death, particularly infant mortality, was much higher at this time. However, after her first husband died and Belle collected a large life insurance payment under dubious circumstances, she chose to move to the countryside and buy herself a farm, where death and despair seem to follow in Belle’s footsteps.

I found this a really interesting read. I was already familiar with the story but the author has fictionalised many aspects to flesh out the story and provide reasons for why Belle left Norway and what may have led to her later actions, which I found very intriguing as I’d never really considered those aspects before. Although there is no excuse for the actions of Belle Gunness, both alleged and confirmed, it definitely puts a different spin on her actions when you consider what a difficult upbringing she had and what she managed to achieve despite this.

I thought this was an interesting approach and would definitely recommend it - I was left wanting to know more about the characters!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Quite a dark sort of book with mainly unpleasant characters, particularly Belle Gunness, whose life the book is about. The first part of the book is set in Selbu, Norway which is where Belle was born and raised. The events that happen to her as a young woman probably turn her into the monster she became later on in life. The family live in poverty but her sister, Neliie, has gone to live in Chicago and eventually sends Belle the money to move there and live with her. Belle has big ideas and doesn’t want to live in poverty so marries well in order to improve her standard of living. The sequence of events that follows turn Belle into a serial killer. I had not realised this book was based on a true story although some events and people are fictitious. I was captivated by the story although it was not a book I would normally choose and I can’t help wondering if Belle had not been badly treated when she was young if she would have behaved differently. Triflers Need Not Apply is a real page turner and all the way through you hope things would turn out well and Belle would mend her ways. The ending is a real surprise although some of this is just conjecture as it is still unknown what actually happened.

Triflers Need Not Apply is one of those books which leapt out as of interest immediately. Female lead? Check. Murders? Check. Historical setting? Check. And a bonus point for it being based on a true story - yep, it's the type of book I love. And in some ways, I did. Bruce writes so well, introducing her characters slowly, allowing their personalities to unfurl, and writing about a period and setting in America that I know nothing about in a way that educated as well as entertained me. The murders themselves are gruesome - this isn't a cosy crime - but not in a way that felt over done. The only downside for me... was that I couldn't relate, or find myself liking, any of the characters. In a way that's not surprising, after all it's a book about a serial killer and those who, to a large extent, enable her behaviour.

I wanted to love Triflers Need Not Apply as it seemed to encapsulate pretty much all I love to read, but alas it wasn't to be.

I hated the main character and most of the supporting ones, the pacing was very slow, and the author appeared to want to somewhat justify or downplay the terrible murders committed by the real Belle Gunness and therefore I struggled with the narrative voice which seemed to speak to me as if I was on her side.

The ending was predictable and at the same time seemed to come out of nowhere. There was very little foreshadowing or build-up and the description of the climactic event read like an afterthought.

I did find the prose smooth and easy to read and some of the historical content was interesting, but it took me far too long to get through this book and because of that, I can't give it a rating higher than 3*

Review posted to goodreads and waiting for approval on amazon.co.uk

In 1908, Chicago was aflame with the discovery of multiple bodies buried in the grounds of a burnt-out farmhouse, belonging to one Belle Gunness. Believed to have killed at least 14 people, Belle had outlived two husbands and multiple properties burning down (all of which she claimed insurance for), although officially she wasn’t so lucky – her body and that of her children were found in the farmhouse she had lived and slaughtered in. That being said, many suspect that it may not have been her at all and all a scheme to escape capture.

Triflers Need Not Apply is a fictionalised account of Belle’s life. From her early days in Norway, to her violent last few years in America, it blends fact with speculation to give a thrilling tale that explores how and why Belle turned to murder. With most of the book told from Belle’s perspective, we get an intriguing insight into the killer’s mind.

Camilla Bruce does a brilliant job of depicting Belle in a way that makes her readable and somewhat sympathetic without ever shying away from her darker side and the despicable things she did. This is helped by the presence of Nellie, Belle’s sister and fellow PoV character. Through her we see a sister’s love and determination to understand and support her, while also trying to manage the increasing fears and suspicions she has for Belle, all on top of her own health issues. They contrast and complement each other well.

This is an eerily readable book, and while it does tend to be slower in places, this is needed to establish Belle’s history and journey throughout the book. Some of the more fictional aspects do stand out as being such, in particular the character of James Lee who I struggled to place amongst those characters based in reality. Even so, this was a well done novel and I really enjoyed seeing how it unfolded (as much as one can enjoy reading about a real life serial killer).

I was intrigued by the blurb & was looking for something a little different to read however I found the book very slow & difficult to get into.

I didn't particularly like Bella or her sister & unfortunately did not finish this one

What a book - totally loved the suspense that Camilla Bruce builds throughout the book, but what an absolutely shocking story. The strapline says it all - be frightened of her / secretly root for her. I was gripped from the start and the tension never dropped. What a dark and twisted book - it rightly deserves all the praise it's received, and then a heap more.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. The book fictionalises the life of Bella Sorenson a serial killer form late 18th/ early 19th Century Americal. Although her murderous mind first worked in Norway most of her killings took place in America.

As a true crime novelisation the author has all the information to create plot, characters etcetc. To be brutally honest she fails on an epic scale. There is no creation of tension, no terror, no mystery - the whole reads like a 400 page list of people she lured into her life and then killed. Every one in the same or very similar manner - Man arrives, man has Oranges, man does not leave. There were umpteen opportunities for someone to uncover what was going on but any investigation into missing or deceased people merits a line or two here or there

This is the LONGEST 400 page book I have ever read - every page felt like a chapter. A totally unsatisfying read. This is my second book by this author both merited the compulsory 1 star that Goodreads insists upon. It will certainly be the last i read by this author

It is a very unique book about a true crime within a fictional context. It was a weird one for me. Belle had a dreadful life with both darkness and grotesqueness finally becoming a cold-hearted monster herself. I enjoyed it but if there had been less gruesomeness I would have liked it more.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for giving me this arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book is a blend of fact and fiction and is the story of serial killer Bella (Belle) Gunness who was born in Norway and was active in Illinois and Indiana.

I expected this would be a disturbing, gory, horrific, and upsetting read, and it was all of that. What I didn’t expect was how tedious I found the book, but I kept with it to the end. The premise could have been done with far more skill to consciousness or any type of psychological insight but the enabling one which it used. The author succeeds in presenting the period and setting well and in telling a true crime story in an engaging way. This is not a high quality writing, however, the fictionalized version of events read well.

The story is told from two perspectives, that of a fictionalised older sister and from Bella’s thoughts and actions. I didn’t feel that Nellie’s viewpoint added much to the plot. Sometimes all the conflicting feelings were expressed on the same page, which could be confusing. When the truth about Bella’s shocking crimes could no longer be denied, the Sister refuses to do anything about it.

“It is what people like me do. We learn how to survive.”

There were a few times I thought about putting the book down and not finishing it because I could not root for the main character, Bella. Her first victim was deserving but after that not so much and her greed and evilness made me rethink her first victim.

The ending was inconclusive. It ends with her death, but suspicion remains that she may have faked her death to start a new life elsewhere. It was a tale that really had no end. If this had been purely a true crime book, that wouldn’t have mattered, but as it was fictionalised I felt it could have gone further.

Inspired by the true life story of Belle Gunnes, notorious serial killer, Triflers Need Not Apply is deliciously macabre and not a story for the faint of heart.

From Norway to America, we follow the journey of Belle as she wreaks havoc and exacts revenge on men who have wronged her. Initially we may have some sympathy for her as she is subjected to cruelty and abuse. But as time goes on, her killing becomes more random and almost an addiction.

The chapters narrated by her older sister Nellie are interesting to read as she begins to realise the extent of her beloved sister's crimes. Wanting at first to protect and believe the best, Nellie is forced to accept her sister has become unrecognizable.

Written with great skill, Triflers immerses the reader in the story and it becomes darker and darker, with a final delicious twist at the end.

Exceptional and utterly wicked and brilliant. I have always had a fascination with true crime and having heard about belle Gunness and her misdeeds as well as what may or may not have happened to her, this novel based on her life is an intriguing tale. I love it because it doesn’t hold back on who she may have been and how life was like for those like her and how she would have been treated and I guess how society expected her to behave, I kind of felt my sympathies lie with her though at times I was wondering what would happen next.