I found it to be quite a dark and chilling read, as you would expect when reading a book about a serial killer! Camilla Bruce gives an unflinching account of Belle Gunness’ crimes and there are some upsetting scenes that I didn’t enjoy reading.

It’s clearly really well researched but I also liked how the author tries to explain who Belle Gunness was as a person. You can almost emphasise with her in the first part of the book but as the story progresses she becomes more disturbed and obsessive and her crimes just cannot be justified.

I did feel there were some unnecessary details that, although factually correct, didn’t really add to the story. It felt a bit stilted at times and I found it a bit slow going in places. It did however pick up the pace again towards the end as the story reached its grisly climax.

The story was told from alternating viewpoints and we read from both Bella and Nellie’s perspectives. It perfectly showed the difference between the sisters, as Nellie’s sanity and sense of decency clearly highlighted Bella’s callousness.

I enjoyed the add on by the author at the end where she explains the liberties she took with some of the facts. It was good to know what was based on real events and what was purely fictional.

I found it really interesting to read about Belle Gunness, it just didn’t grip me as much as I would have liked.

Not my usual type of book, but am so glad I chose to read something slightly different from my usual genre. A fascinating, if not gruesome read at points! This book tells the story of Bella Gunness - born Brynhild Paulsdatter - a real person, who lived at the latter part of the 1800's and early 1900's. The book is written as historical fiction, based on true events known about Bella, which the author clearly shows she has based alot of events on her research, but has also added some fictional parts to the narrative. The story begins in Norway, Selbu, where Little Brynhild is growing up and working on a farm. However, grievous events, that will eventually stay with Bella for the rest of her life, lead Little Brynhild to seek a new life with her sister Nellie across the pond to Chicago, where she changes her name to Bella. Striving to make a better and richer life for herself, we begin to get to know her character and fiery nature, and how she will stop at nothing to get what she wants from life. The tale is told from the eyes of Bella and her sister Nellie, in alternating chapters. Reading from Nellie's perspective helps you as a reader to try and understand the actions of Bella Gunness and think about morally what you may do if someone blood related to you was committing such activities, but also gives us an insight in Nellie's turmoil. Camilla Bruce acknowledges in her afterward that the creation of Nellie was fictional, but helps provide this other perspective of events in the book. Bella is a very unlikeable character, not just with the traits of her personality, but with the events we are to witness by her as we read. However, for me this just added to the fascination of such a character, and in some way, trying to even begin to understand the mindset of such a person and their actions. The book was well written, with pacey dialogue at times, which helps moves the narrative along, but as I read was keen to know how the end would all pan out for Bella; something which still remains part of a mystery, again adding to the enthrallment of who Bella Gunness really was? A great read for anyone else interested in historical fiction, but be prepared for some graphic descriptions of some heinous events. My thanks go out to Penguin Michael Joseph publishers and netgalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

Bella is almost killed by her lover, but is driven by pure spite to survive. Her survival instinct will see her cross continents and defy the expectations of society.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Little Brynhild grew up as a lowly tenant's daughter on a farm in Norway. All she has ever known is hunger, poverty, and constant hard work. Her fortune seems to change when she catches the eye of the rich farmer's son Anders - but he is not the charming prince she thought.

This book reimagines the life of infamous serial killer Belle Sorenson, and as such has some very dark and shocking moments.
For the most part, though, it follows Brynhild's life, as she moves to America, with the help of her sister and brother-in-law. She takes on the name Bella, as it's easier for Americans to pronounce.
Bella may be a little on the odd side, but there is nothing unnatural about what she wants from life, and in the beginning, it's hard to see how the character becomes so extreme.
But the author does a great job of creating a believable change into becoming a murderer.
I thought the way Bella was portrayed... she never (except for one or two moments) becomes a monster. Which I think made it all the more terrifying, that you can relate to most of a murderer's thoughts and drive. She is never truly unlikeable.

The narrative is split between Bella and her sister Nellie.
Nellie's life is such a modest contrast to Bella. She moved to America, but never moved away from the Norwegian community. She never learnt English, and she has no drive or ambition, beyond caring for her husband and children.
When Bella lived with her sister, it showed the harsh light of life for women, and the best they could expect. They are supposed to keep their heads down, accept any male attention, and be grateful for their small lives.
Nellie's chapters weren't really about Nellie though. For the most part, it solely focussed on Bella, giving an extra viewpoint of how Bella's life is progressing.

I thought there were lags in the pacing, in the middle and towards the end.
Bits felt like they were getting repetitive. Which is understandable - the book covers the whole of Bella's life - not all of it is newsworthy.
And after the shock of the first murders in the second half of the book, Bella's murderous routine gets a bit samey. Which I can't believe I've just written about a serial killer...

Anyway, this was an interesting look into a disturbed person, and had some very powerful moments.
It kept me hooked throughout, and I look forward to reading more of the author's work.

A story that seems to be based in truth, with some embellishments for the sake of fictionalising it, but one that seems so far-fetched I’m surprised this woman’s name is not more widely known.
Belle Gunness…a woman who was not afraid to do whatever it took to preserve her way of life.
Her story begins in Norway, where she and her family are (for reasons we’re never told) despised by the villagers they live among. She is hoping to be asked to wed the son of her employers, but when she tells him she is pregnant he attacks her. He beats her so badly the baby is lost and her survival is in doubt. Once she survives this, she determines that no man will have such sway over her ever again.
A plan is concocted, and she moves to America to settle with her sister. She determines to find a husband who will help her. That could have been it…but Belle finds herself in thrall to a man who seems to have a taste for murder. He seems to inspire something in Belle and so begins a murderous career.
If the story is to be believed, Belle murdered two husbands and made a lot of money through insurance scams. Once settled on her farm, Belle establishes a way of bringing in money. Under the guise of looking for a partner, men come to visit the farm. They bring cash…but after one night are never seen.
The details come about quite naturally. Our sympathy, initially, is with Belle but once she sets on this path it seems she has numerous faults and is quite an unpleasant character. We get some perspective from others, but never anything that really sheds light on why.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Sadly the formatting is not correct. This leaves this book unreadable on my kindle so I cannot leave a review/ I have a policy I will only review if I am able to finish a book as otherwise I feel this is unfair and sadly I just cannot finish this book due to formatting each line has numbers at the end of it.

Triflers Need Not Apply is an astounding crime thriller from Camilla Bruce. Based on the real-life antics of the infamous Belle Gunness and her killing spree in the early 1900s.
I had never heard of Gunness ahead of reading this novel and now I'm so curious to learn more.
The story is told from perspective of Belle and her sister Nell. Both women have endured a terrible abusive childhood. And whereas Nell strives to forget the past, Belle is determined to feel her revenge of those responsible for her pain. However, she doesn't stop at killing those men from her past but turns to killing any man that crosses her path. I cannot same more about the story or I'll be giving away spoilers.
There is one hell of a high body count in this novel and parts are truly grisly. But it is worth sticking with the novel for the interesting characters and brilliantly drawn scenes of Chicago and life for our protagonists.

Although this book is presented as being based on a real-life female serial killer, I have chosen to regard it as wholly fiction, after reading the author's notes. It is a truly horrendous account of how a young, Norwegian girl came to America and became a widow twice, each time having murdered her husband,. She went on forge a living for herself and her adopted children by advertising for potential husbands and then killing them,
The story unfolds at quite a slow pace in the first two thirds, mainly because Ms. Bruce has inserted excepts from a sister which don't contribute very much except for chronicling the sister's suspicions. The final third picks up speed with incidents following one on the heels of another until we reach the truly horrific ending.
I can't say it was an enjoyable read, as the subject matter was so grim, but it held my interest to the end, so I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys this kind of story.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Triflers Need Not Apply

Based on the true story of serial killer Belle Sorensen, this is an interesting read. The tale labours in some sections, and several characters lack depth, but I’m pleased I persevered. Driven by curiosity to discover how it would end, the last 30% of the book was more chilling and gripping than what came before.

If, like me, you enjoy stories based on real events from the past, I recommend you give this one a go. The author has created an unlikeable yet compelling protagonist, and a memorable ending to the story. I therefore give it 4 stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my review copy of this novel. This is my unbiased opinion.

Triflers Need Not Apply by Camilla Bruce is the imagined tale of one of the most notorious female killers in America.

It is the story of Belle Gunness who is believe to have had a penchant for killing men. In this fictional account Camilla Bruce has tried to paint a picture of Belle and the events that led to her murderous spree. Cleverly, Camilla Bruce has not tried to overly paint a sensitive picture to humanise the act of murder or this merry murderess; at times Belle is downright unlikeable. She is: selfish, recalcitrant and deeply unrepentant of her actions.

However, incidents have been created to create an image of what may have led to these events.

I was unaware of Belle Gunness before reading Triflers Need Not Apply. Having read it, I must admit she seems like a fascinating and clever character. Camilla Bruce really has managed to bring her to life in this novel.

Triflers Need Not Apply by Camilla Bruce is available now.

For more information regarding Camilla Bruce (@millacream) please visit www.camillabruce.com.

For more information regarding Penguin (@PenguinUKBooks) please visit www.penguin.co.uk.

✨ Teenage murderer
✨ 19th century Norway
✨ Absolute chaos

This is the story of Belle Gunness - a serial killer who's popped over the American to chaos absolute havoc.
We begin in Norway where we learn about Belle's shitty start in life ranging from poverty to domestic abuse. Determined to get a slightly better one, she hops on a boat over to Chicago to join her sister, Nellie, where she quickly discovered the 19th century was made for men only.

Belle is off to prove that women can be just as powerful as men and starts to work her way through a number of husbands who

I just couldn't gel with this book. Considering the love it's getting, it's probably me rather than it.

Based loosely on a true story, this is a long and sometimes shocking exploration of the lives and background of an unlikely serial killer. It brings to life the vivid background and potential motivations of a strong and independent woman who is finding a way to be in a world full of abuse. Loved the characters and settings, a truly shocking ending makes you feel deeply for the characters and their complicated lives.

Thank you to @millacream and @MichaelJBooks for this advanced copy of Triflers Need Not Apply in return for an honest review. Triflers Need Not Apply was published on 5th August 2021 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Bella Sorensen knows from when she is a little girl that the world is controlled by men. They own land, jobs and their wives. But Bella also quickly realises that she wants that same power and knows that she can get it because men have one weakness; women.

Bella’s first husband Mads does not live up to her expectations so she decides that he has to go. Once his life is no more, Bella sets off on a killing spree, seeking to quench her limitless thirst for death and power. Meanwhile her older sister Nellie looks on in fear and horror; unable to stop her sister’s rampage through the male population.

General Thoughts 🤔

Firstly, I love that this book was based on the true story of Bella Sorensen. There were characters and events added for dramatic effect of course and they made for a fantastic story. Bella’s actions were horrific and gruesome and for some sick reason, I loved reading about them. The author didn’t dwell on every single detail of the murders and they were written in a very matter of fact way which I think spoke to how Bella saw the killings. She was doing a job, completing a task and it was as simple as that.

I did find myself wondering how Bella got away with what she was doing for quite so long. I appreciate that it was a very different time, but authorities were involved on more than one occasion and still she was free to continue her spree. That said, I’m sure a huge number of women went missing during the Victorian era and not an eyelid would have been bat.

Characters 👫👭👬

Of course I have to start with Bella. What a complicated and incredibly fascinating character she was. She had a difficult childhood and I can’t imagine what it must have been like for her when she lost her first baby. Though I’m not convinced that that sole event was what made her into the murderous woman she ended up being. It played a part of course and was probably the straw that broke the camels back, but I think her mind already worked in a very different way to other women at that time.

I thought that James was an interesting character and I wonder how many of the murders would have happened if he hadn’t come into Bella’s life. They both had the same “need” for blood and I think that they spurred each other on. In some sort of sick way, they had a very strong friendship. James was there for Bella whenever she needed him and I wonder if James harboured a secret love for her, rather than just lust.

Writing Style ✍️

The book was told from the perspectives of Bella and her sister Nellie and I thought that it was really interesting to have the story told from two very different points of view. I found that it evened the playing field for me. I may have been persuaded that what Bella was doing was for survival and some kind of perverted fight for female empowerment if it wasn’t for Nellie’s side of the story bringing me back down to earth.

I loved the authors note at the end of the book. I love how she came upon this story and decided to research and run with her own version. I think that the changes and additions that she made to what was known to be factual were perfect and she did a great job of plugging the gaps where there were unknowns. I liked that the story wasn’t brought to a neat conclusion; just as the true story doesn’t seem to have been either. I have taken it upon myself to come up with my own little fantasy about what truly happened to Bella Sorensen.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

I have had this book sitting and waiting to be read for months and I wish I had picked it up sooner. I was glued to every single page and loved switching my usual reading up for a bit of historical fiction. I anticipate that I’ll be thinking about Bella Sorensen for quite some time and I owe that to a story that has been written brilliantly well.

An absolute pleasure to read, exciting and addictive the author leads you on a journey that is hard to rival. Based on true events you will be horrified and dumbfounded at the story with a strange curiosity to see what will happen next. Definitely an excellent read.

A novel closed based on the true story of Belle Gunness, a late 19th century immigrant from Norway to the USA who became notorious as a serial killer. I started the book knowing nothing of the backstory. Early chapters, describing a miserable poor childhood in Norway where a lover treats Belle cruelly and nearly kills her, are very vividly written, but the story slows down rather once she has travelled to join her sister in Chicago. From this point on, the books' chapters alternate first person accounts by Belle herself and by her sister Nellie. The writing style is very plain and simple (which is appropriate to the voices adopted) though I felt at times the middle part of the book could have done with tighter editing. The suspense builds over the latter two thirds of the book, as mysterious fires and deaths accumulate, bringing Belle considerable financial gain. Bruce gets us inside the head of a woman who was, by any standards, a psychopathic killer, showing how she justified her actions to herself. Her anxiety, so typical of an immigrant, to accumulate wealth and possessions, is very convincingly drawn. She is shown as kind and loving to the children she adopts - until eventually circumstances bring an end to her attempts to maintain a family. The last few chapters are gripping and very unsettling - the reader feels implicated in Belle's twisted value system. For all that it was possibly a little too long in its totality, I was sorry to reach the end.
I would be interested to know whether this Norwegian writer composes her books in English or whether they are translated. The only other Norwegian writer I know is ,of course, the playwright Henrik Ibsen. In his work, too, outwardly happy family lives can be fatally wounded by festering secrets that lie within.
The title, 'Triflers Need not Apply' is used I gather only for the British market. I find it inappropriate as it suggests that the book's dominant tone is black humour (for example in the same way as the film Kind Hearts and Coronets). There is some humour here, but I think the title used for the US edition, In The Garden of Spite is much stronger and more appropriate. It helps us to understand that Belle (in Bruce's analysis) is a woman devoted to revenging herself on the race of men.

We meet real-life serial killer Belle Gunness as a teenaged girl, back in Norway in the late 19th century, having just undergone the trauma that will shape the events of her future life. We also meet her older sister Nellie, who has herself already emigrated to the United States, as she arranges for the transport of her sister to Chicago. We then follow the stories of each sister over the following decades in alternating POV chapters – one sister becoming increasingly desperate, depraved, and homicidal; the other trying to ignore the rumours and see the good person she knows (or wishes) her sister to be.

I usually love fictionalised accounts of historical figures, and am also fascinated by true crime, so was excited to read this one. However, while the author does a good job of creating the time and place in which the tale is set, I found that this one dragged a little. The pacing was slow and I found Nellie’s story rather repetitive. There were plenty of gruesome scenes to liven things up, though, and the author did a great job at presenting Belle as an incredibly conniving, chilling figure. The last few scenes, in particular, were haunting and will stay with me for some time (unfortunately)!

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for the arc to review.

This was a fictionalised reimagining of the life of serial killer Belle Gunness, a Norwegian woman who emigrated to America, where she proceeded to kill her husbands and then lure other men to her farm in order to bump them off as well. Although the story is based on a real person, a substantial amount has been changed or imagined in order to be able to tell the story from Belle's point of view, and to fill in the gaps about what she did, and why she did it. In that respect, it does not really hit the mark for lovers of true crime stories, but it is still an interesting investigation of what might drive a woman to kill.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in return for an honest review,

I will update the review with a link to our blog closer to publication date.
I'd like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I had never heard of Belle Gunness before this book and I thought this would be a really dark and intriguing read which is based off her life. It was a bit slow in parts and I thought Nellie's chapters with her POV were a bit long and boring, however it was fascinating to be inside the mind of a serial killer and also see what it could be like from the perspective of a loved one too.
I thought the book was a little too long and could have been shorter but overall it was a very interesting topic and the ending was a big shock which I did not expect.

3.5*

A fictionalised account of Belle Gunness's life, one of the most prolific serial killer America has seen. While the story follows the general outline of Gunness life and victims, a lot of details have been imagined for this novel, including a sister who in my view really helped bring the story to life.

The first part of the book covers Belle's Norway years, her move to America and her first attempts at making a life for herself in the land of milk and honey. After a good start explaining Belle's background and her first murder, the pace slowed too much, to the point boredom descended and I didn't really want to continue reading. But thank goodness for my perseverance(or should I call it my sense of duty?! lol) as the second part of the book brings not only a change in pace but a lot of gruesomeness and excitement too. Most of the action happened in this part, at such a whirlwind pace that I've barely managed to keep my emotions in check. I have been horrified, I felt like vomiting, I've pondered over nature vs nurture, I've kept wondering how some people can be so cruel, and I've been left in tears! Poor children, and poor Nelly too!

2 stars for the first part, 5 stars for the second. In my humble view the book would have benefited from a trim and a bit more alertness in the first part, particularly as this could be crucial for some reader. Also I am not sure I agree with the narrative of a killer becoming a killer after being a victim. I appreciate that killers are humans too, with complex layers, and yes sometimes it does happened in that order, but dunno ...could extreme cruelness just be ingrained in some humans?

I was sent an advance proof copy of Triflers Need Not Apply by Camilla Bruce to read and review by NetGalley. I was looking forward to reading this novel that is based on a true story after reading the blurb and some early reviews. Unfortunately I did not share their enthusiasm. I found the book to be overly long and not particularly tense or exciting, in fact I had to force myself to read to the end. I felt that the chapters concerning protagonist Belle’s sister Nellie were rather tedious and on the whole unnecessary, this for me contributed to the book feeling too lengthy. The true story at the heart of this novel is quite incredible, but in my personal opinion, the fiction surrounding it is not.