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.

An absolutely gripping tale of a true crime female serial killer, Belle Gunness. She was a Norwegian who immigrated to Chicago in the 1900s, and began her killing spree there. Belle was a strong, fascinating character, and the book allows the time for her character to develop and gives space to look at the motivation for what she did. Packed full of detail including gruesome descriptions of dismemberment amongst other things, this definitely isnt for everyone, But if historical true crime is for you, I would definitely recommend Triflers need not apply - oh and I love the title of the book too, based on a personals ad that Belle would post when looking for a husband.

Difficult to initially get in to, this book is whip-smart and reads like fiction it's so entertaining. It's also rather grotesque at times, which I found just fabulous!

Gruesome and yet clever, this book manages to take on so many different, difficult topics, and faces up to them. Belle has been treated horribly, and she handles the aftermarth badly too, in the most bloody and brutal way. I found this difficult to read due to the pregnancy loss the character suffers, but cannot praise the writing enough.

I really wanted to love this book but after numerous attempts I had to dnf it. I just could not get into it or care about what was going on. I picked it up, put it down and ended up leaving it for a long time with no urge to pick it back up.

This is clearly just a 'me' problem as everyone else seems to love it, so don't let this review influence you!