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.

Found this an interesting read although a bit jumpy in spots. Wasn't an 'un put down able book' but still good.

Wow!!! What an absolutely fantastic book! I think I may be left with nightmares after this deliciously dark mix of fact and fiction. This is loosely based on the story of Belle Gunness, someone who prior to reading this book- I had no knowledge of!

This is a gruesome, vile and spine chilling novel in places. The images and descriptions are vivid so as a reader you are transported. The writing really gives the historical and atmospheric feel to this read. I love the varied viewpoints between Bella and Nellie. Nellie is the kind voice throughout the book who gives insight into her sister. Whereas, Bella is evil- it is clear from her unpleasantness towards her sister.

As a reader, we are able to witness the thoughts and plans of our protagonist. She is a character who desires more and plots to achieve this. Bruce clearly takes us on the journey from Norway girl with big ambitions to black widow, serial killer. From the descriptions of feeding husbands to pigs and calculating plans we get an impression of the character.

The pace of this novel has been slower than I usually prefer but I feel the author really painted a clear picture of the protagonist prior to any of the dark acts she engaged in. This is extremely intense to read, we witness the attitudes toward Bella from her own father. Is raises questions of- is this what made her the way she was?

This is an absolutely fantastic read, I have been completely unable to put down. I have been completely pulled into this one. This is a spectacular read which is well written and interesting. This is a book that has converted me as a fan of this author.

This is a must read and already, I cannot wait to see what the author has in store for us next.

An intriguing mix of fact and fiction. This story is based on a serial killer living in nineteenth-century North America. The story begins in Norway and is told from two sisters points of view. It explores what makes a serial killer. Belle had a tough upbringing and suffered a grievous assault as a young woman. She emigrated to North America with the help of her sister, who is the story's other viewpoint. Reading the author's notes, you understand the amount of research necessary for this book. It is a detailed and grisly story with complex characters and a cleverly created historical world.

I received a copy of this book from Penguin Books UK - Michael Joseph in return for an honest review.

𝐵𝑒𝓁𝓁𝒶 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝓂𝑒𝓃. 𝒮𝒽𝑒 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑒𝒶𝓉𝒽 . . .

Triflers Need Not Apply - Camilla Bruce

This book is based on real life serial killer Belle Gunness whose murderous rampage started in Chicago in 1900.
I love these kind of re-imaginings and they always send me off down a rabbit hole reading around the subject and I have to admit this time it was grim.

Told in different parts of the lives of Bella; first in Norway, then America. We learn of her treatment at the hands of men as Little Brunhild then as Bella and what leads her to start her killing spree. She is ruthless, single minded and truly murderous.

‘𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐞? 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐲 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧.’

We get the POV’s of both Bella and her sister Nellie and this gives quite a different contrast between the monstrous Bella and her gentler sister.
Bella is angry and raging against men. An interesting character, cold, frightening and seemingly not able to socialise in what is considered a normal way. I did feel sorry for her and how she had been abused but at the same time couldn’t warm to her callous treatment of those around and closest to her. I warmed to Nellie but she is conflicted by her love for Bella and of her children and is scared of what she knows.

I could not believe what I was reading at some points, the treatment she metes out on those she meets including her children was brutal. A relatively slow paced read, I was nonetheless hooked and couldn’t put it down. This is so dark and devious, a fantastic retelling that you won’t want to miss!

✩✩✩✩✰

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With thanks to Camilla Bruce and Michael Joseph Books for my copy of this book

Based on the true story of a woman who goes on a murderous rampage in Chicago in 1900.
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.

A woman unhampered by scruples can take from them what she wants. And so Bella sets out to prove to the world that a woman can be just as ruthless, black-hearted and single-minded as any man.

Starting with her long suffering husband, Mads, Bella embarks on a killing spree the like of which has never been seen before nor since.

I had never heard of Bella Sorensen or anything to do with her life in the US before reading this book.

I really wanted to like this book - based on a true story of a prolific female serial killer, what isn’t too like!

Bella Gunness started life as Brynhild, born into relative poverty and hardship with a violent father, her life started unravelling at the hands of Anders, the son of the family whom Brynhild worked for. Little Brynhild travels to America, following in the footsteps of her sister, to start afresh, starting with a new name.

The story follows Bella through her rise in society, and through a number of husbands.

The story is actually good. Little is known about Bella and so the author has used imagination to write the story as she saw it. However, the novel is too long. I found the minutiae of outfits and meals and discussions to be tedious and unnecessary, causing me to lose interest and making the book difficult to go back to. Also, the repeated detail of each man she lures to her address, then kills, then disposes of - it just got boring and murder shouldn’t be boring!

I didn’t like Bella, but she wasn’t a likeable character and this didn’t impact on my final rating. I found her sister and some of the men in the book more unlikeable just because they were so non-descript and had so little impact on the book that they either felt irrelevant or you couldn’t feel sympathy for their grisly end.

This book was unexpectedly disappointing.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this.