Many thanks to Michael Joseph for my gifted copy and amazing treats 💗

Belle Gunness is a bad ass chick. That is all that you need to know.

Now this story is a true crime, Belle was a real life female serial killer. After reading the book I went on to Google her life story, it's so fascinating. Camilla Bruce did it justice, and shows she did her research well.

Now I'm definitely not condoning violence or murder, but reading Belle's tale you can empathise with her radical choices to solve her problems.

I really liked the point of view from Nellie her sister. Here we have a character who in some way feels like us the reader. There is a closeness that we don't want to believe that Belle would do such things. But empathy also for her actions.

Trifler Need Not Apply is a great telling of a woman well ahead of her time and wanting to break the mould. Despite the fact her actions are slightly questionable

I have read so many good reviews of this book that I was eager to read it. Unfortunately my download has added unnecessary numbers everywhere. A second download was the same. I have read part way through but the book didn't excite me enough and with the constant errors I gave up. I will try again with a proper copy at a later date as the book has potential. I have rated a neutral 3 stars.

I loved this book! Triflers Need Not Apply is vivid, gory, page-turning and at times very moving and sad. It will make you angry, make you sad and at times possibly make you want to throw up. And on top of all that, it’s based on a true story.

All in all, Triflers Need Not Apply is an absolute corker that deserves to be a bestseller.

Starting in 1900, we follow Bella from her early years in Norway, as an immigrant to America, and through the following years as she marries, builds a family and finds her own rather particular way to “survive”.

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!

Bella learns very early on that while the poor tend to suffer horrendously, women can get a particularly raw deal. The amount of violence that men dole out to women was, and continues to be, an absolute nightmare. Bella, damaged early on in life, decides to fight back and to fight to get what she wants. While no one would approve her methods, it’s hard not to occasionally empathise with her.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. While of course Bella is a murderous psychopath, it does make you reflect on how much people can be expected to take when life is a daily round of backbreaking work, hunger, poverty and violence. It leaves you feeling surprised – not to mention relieved – that more people don’t go on killing rampages.

So plenty of food for thought. Indeed, this would make a brilliant book club read, guaranteed to spark a discussion.

In addition, Triflers Need Not Apply is superbly written. It captivates and pulls you in from the first page. Every sentence sizzles! It is so vivid, you feel like you are right in there with the characters, seeing what they see, smelling the smells, hearing the noise, feeling the kid’s hands pulling on your skirt.

I think this is one of the very best books I’ve read this year and I’ll be astonished if it doesn’t become a bestseller. It certainly deserves to.

My thanks to Netgalley for giving me a free copy of this book. All my reviews are 100% honest and unbiased, regardless of how I acquire the book.

A fascinating portrait of an unusual serial killer. Camilla Bruce does a great job of getting inside the head of Belle and showing us her potential motivation and softer side. I'd never heard of Belle Gunness before reading 'Triflers Need Not Apply' but I won't be forgetting her in a hurry!

Ever since I started reading this book I've had one song, and one song only, on repeat in my head. The musical Chicago's 'He Had It Coming'. This book is based on a true story with elements of artistic licence but executed (pardon the pun) brilliantly. It takes a special kind of author to have us feeling pity and almost cheering on Little Brynhild/Bella/Belle during her murderous rages. When does delivering a certain amount of justice go too far? Become too irrestible? Bella's character is beautifully balanced by that of her sister, who offers us a perfect mirror of nature vs nurture. Nellie has grown up with the same abusive father and the same prejudiced community yet it illustrates the huge impact the actions of others have on the individual. One of Bella's most interesting and redemptive traits is the complex love she has for her children. This book is a unique, formidable and thought-provoking read. Highly, highly recommend.

Thank you @netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review. 'Triflers Need Not Apply' is out now in the UK.

This story is told from the perspective of Norwegian sister’s Bella and Nellie. Nellie moved to America first, where she married and raised a family in Chicago. In Norway, Bella is subjected to a rather nasty, life threatening, attack by the father of her unborn baby. She looses the baby and decides to seek revenge on her attacker. The lure of a new life in America is appealing and Bella decided to follow her sister to America . She works hard and with some help from Nellie, saves enough money to pay for her passage. Nellie wants her sister to settle down and get married to a good man and introduces her to perspective suitors. Bella however, believes the world is made for men and they can do what they want, especially to women. She plans and plots, again, to take her revenge on them. Based on a true story, with additional fictional elements, this is a macabre tale which unfolds as the reader is taken into Belle’s twisted, calculating mind. There are some unsettling images of violence, rape, gore and abuse, so beware.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penguin Michael Joseph UK for the ARC.

I found this book absolutely fascinating. It is a clever mix of facts and fiction which really held my attention throughout.

1877 in Norway - teenager Brynhild Selbu, a farmer's servant, has been given every reason on earth to hate men. She's also determined to leave her poor community for a new life in Chicago, via the hospitality of her sister Nellie and her family there; she'll reinvent herself - scale the social ladder of respectability and never be hungry or wear rags ever again. In 1881 she achieved the first part of her plan and set sail for America, changing her name to Belle. The expectations Nellie had of her sister helping her out with the household chores, and Belle putting her plans into action, completely diverged. By 1884 she'd met and married Mads Sorensen - no love involved - he had a large house and a good income, but she couldn't have children and consoled herself with spending money.

Then she meets James Lee - an extremely unsavoury character who becomes an evil driving force in her life; a force she is only too happy to accommodate. Thereafter, Belle is consumed with financial security and possessions, - and children. No man would stand in her way - whatever it took, she would do it. And she did.

Belle is a serial killer - her sister suspects that she's being doing away with her husbands, but Nellie has no idea what else she's been up to.................until a child's remark, which makes her wonder.

This is really absorbing. Well worth reading.

Normally, I write my review and then check others to see what they thought but this time I did it the other way around because I really did not like this book and wondered if I was alone. Seems that I am.

I disliked this book from page 1, which is a real shame as I was really looking forward to a tale about a woman succeeding in an oppressive and shameful men's world, even though her success was her path to becoming a serial killer.

The whole cadence of the book jarred for me, it read and felt as if the author was writing in Norwegian with a direct word by word translation into English. Other reviewers suggested it to be rich in detail and amazingly well written, I am sorry to say that I do not agree.

I struggled against hope, reaching some 40% of the way through the book, and sadly had to give up as there are far more riveting books out there.

4.5 stars, rounded up.
Oh My! What an evil woman Bella Gunness was. And she was a real person to boot. Admittedly someone I had never heard of but, after finishing this book I did look her up. This book is fiction based on fact. If you read the author's notes at the back, she explains which parts are pure fiction. But all is based around the bones of the heinous crimes that Bella committed. Starting in her native Norway where she grew up in near poverty and, well, wasn't best treated, she soon made her way to America, to find her fortune and marry well. The rest of what happens I'll leave for the author to tell you but, believe me, it's not for the faint hearted.
Apart from her being a serial killer, I was actually quite taken by Bella. Some of the things that happened during her childhood did shape the woman she became. It doesn't mean it's more acceptable, just understandable. What impressed me so much was that Bella was actually very smart and I can't help but wonder what she would have been able to make of herself had her early years been kinder to her. Sadly, as her crimes got worse and she pretty much spiralled, I had to admit defeat in my understanding and it was actually quite hard to read about what happened in her latter years.
The book is well written and weaves fiction around fact seamlessly - as I discovered when I read the author's notes and also subsequently looked Bella up. It held my attention mostly all the way through, spending time setting things up in the beginning well. It did loose itself a wee bit in the middle third but by then I was fully invested and never for one moment thought about putting it down. It's told in turn by Bella and her sister Nellie so we get two points of view from two very different people which worked really well.
All in all an interesting read that I would recommend to fans of fictionalised true crime as well as, well, fans of crime books in general. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Triflers Need Not Apply is a fascinating and enthralling fact meets fiction historical true crime thriller with an unusual premise and an audacious novel of feminine rage inspired by one of the most notorious real-life female serial killers in American history - Belle Gunness - and the men who are said to have driven her to kill. Brynhild Paulsdatter Storset, the birth name of Gunness, was born in Selbu, Norway on November 11, 1859, to Paul and Berit Storset; she was the youngest of eight children. The family lived in abject poverty; every day was a struggle to survive and at the tender age of fourteen, she began working for neighbouring farms by milking and herding cattle to save enough money for passage to New York. She experienced a lot in her formative years that likely affected her view of the world moving forward - poverty, hunger, rape, a beating that kicked the child right out of her, followed by abandonment of someone she thought she'd marry. It had been 1877 when Belle was seventeen that she had been impregnated by neighbour and wealthy landowner Anders, but after she demanded he make an honest woman of her, he tragically causes her to miscarry their baby. She is devastated and determined to get her revenge, but she bides her time. Then, months later, she fatally poisons him.

Gaining a feeling of power and control she had never felt before, Belle continued to stoke violence up until her move to the United States in 1881. When she was processed by immigration at Castle Garden, she changed her first name to Belle, then travelled to Chicago to join her sister, Nellie who had immigrated several years earlier. In Chicago, while living with her sister and brother-in-law, she worked as a domestic servant, then got a job at a butcher's shop cutting up animal carcasses, until her first marriage in 1884. The resilient, fierce and deeply psychopathic woman longs for nothing more than a husband and children and yearns for one of the beautiful houses with gardens set behind wrought iron gates. She is unable to bear any due to the severity of that beating when she was a young woman, but lovingly collects children anyway. Not all of them stay with her. Not all of them live to adulthood. Not all of her husbands live, either, which is why she comes to be known as the Black Widow of LaPorte. She marries many men in an effort to gain wealth at times luring them to her with a lonely hearts personals ad in a newspaper. They whisper about her in Chicago. Men come to her with their hopes, their dreams—their fortunes. But no one sees them leave. No one sees them at all after they come to call on the Widow of La Porte.

The good people of Illinois may have their suspicions, but if those fools knew what she’d given up, what was taken from her, how she’d suffered, surely they’d understand. Belle Gunness learned a long time ago that a woman has to make her own way in this world. That’s all it is. A bloody means to an end. A glorious enterprise meant to raise her from the bleak, colourless drudgery of her childhood to the life she deserves. After all, vermin always survive. This is a compulsive, enthralling yet melancholic true crime story about the making of a 19-century serial murderer. Bruce reconstructs Gunness’s mental state and embellishes the nonfiction narrative with some interesting twists and drama. The subject matter is heavy and right from the beginning you are drawn into the nature versus nurture musings as you wonder whether the experiences and environment Belle was surrounded by as a child influenced how she turned out. It's disturbing, macabre and not for the faint of heart with stunning characterisation with Bruce bringing the times and places vividly to life. An amalgamation of Norwegian noir and true crime at its finest, the book is bursting with truth, rumour and myth and will appeal to fans of lurid literature. True crime readers will love it. Highly recommended.

A novel based on the true story of serial killer Bella Gunnes (Brynhild) from Norway who carried out a series of murders in Illinois and Indiana in the early 1900s. Bruce does an excellent job of getting inside her mind and sharing the thoughts and feelings of someone capable of such atrocities.

I would usually struggle to read a book centred around a character so unlikeable but I surprised myself with this one. Bella’s story is fascinating and full of dark turns as the crimes become increasingly more abhorrent and without justification. The question of religion and morality is somewhat explored, as well as the idea of nature vs nurture in upbringing. I won’t say too much on the plot as to avoid any spoilers but it is provocative and engaging throughout.

I really enjoyed the structure and writing style. Some alternating chapters with Bella’s sister Nellie feature throughout and Nellie provides the sympathetic contrast to Bella. The author says she wrote Nellie in to the story to explore how far familial love can go when it comes to knowledge of crimes. I think this was clever and added a whole new layer to the story. I also appreciated the authors note at the end that clarified what was fact and what was fiction.

It should be noted that some of the detailed descriptions of violence were quite difficult to read. I also took off a star in the rating as I think the book was longer than it needed to be. Overall, an good book that I think will stick with me for some time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Micheal Joseph UK for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This tale is so rich; steeped in intrigue and emotion, it is hard to tell fact from fiction in the story of Bella Gunness. While the narrative revolves around murder and rage, there is so much about family, the female body and societal expectations which took me by surprise.

Opening in Norway, Bella - known at this point as Little Brynhild - is a young woman intent on being treated fairly despite her lower class. After a dalliance with the farm owner's son, she demands that he does right by her; marriage, she proposes, because they are expecting a child. Perhaps Bella makes her proclamations too loud, for the vile son leads her away to a lakeside, beating her within an inch of her life which leads to the miscarriage of their child. It is at this point that Bella decides she will survive and spite any man that crosses her along the way. With a journey to Chicago, a status upgrade through the church, several marriages, a worried sister, and a whole lot of murder, Bella discovers that perhaps her actions aren't to spite, but to enjoy her power over the lives of those she believes seek to hurt her.

Bella's character is such an interesting and complex one; I sympathised with her misfortune but the leap to exacting her revenge to take down 'weak' men makes her unlikeable. While both conniving and vicious, she's a doting mother and pious housewife - until you wrong her at least. Her weakness is presented in her desire to perform for others and be the woman she believes she should be all the while living outside of society, constructing disasters. Truly, she's a woman of duality.

Nellie, Bella's sister, is equally a voice in this story: the one to uncover it all. While she struggles to reconcile her sister as the murderer the reader knows her to be, Nellie is reflective of everything that Bella is not. The counterbalanced voice makes Bella seem even more extreme while adding in the fear that she might face Bella's wrath for getting too close.

However, what particularly made this book was Bruce's notes at the end of the novel. Her discussion of fact and fiction; how she wanted to portray the character from the information she had found; and her own connection to the novel was deeply insightful. For those that skip end notes, don't be fooled - you really need to read these ones!

Triflers Need Not Apply by Camilla Bruce
This novel is a clever blend of fact and fiction. It is based on the life of serial killer Bella (Belle) Gunness who was born Brynhild to a poor tenant farming family in Norway and carried out her crimes in Illinois and Indiana. She becomes pregnant by Anders the son of a landowner and expects that he will marry her. He has other plans and beats her badly leaving her for dead by a lake. She takes her revenge and then leaves Norway to join her sister Nellie in Chicago. She changes her name to Bella and her story is told in alternating perspectives by Belle and Nellie.

The novel is well written , in a style appropriate to the time. I like the two contrasting points of view as older sister Nellie gives us an understanding of Bella’s personality and Bella gives her own distorted view of the world.
Bella’s rage against men grows and she plans to she marries for what she can gain. Her one redeeming feature appears to be her love of children, particularly toddlers. However in her approach to men she is more than cold blooded and the detached manner in which she dispatches her many victims is chilling.

I did find the book a little overlong and there were many descriptions of violence and brutality. It is however a compelling read which leaves you astounded at the depth of her cruelty. My thanks to the author, the publishers and Net Galley for the opportunity to read the book in return for an honest review.

This one really took me by surprise. The main character is utterly despicable but Bruce does a great job of writing from Bella's deluded perspective, as well as conveying the ratcheting anxiety in Nellie's point-of-view. I knocked off half a star because the pacing is a little slow in the second part of the book but overall its a gripping, chilling read about a sociopathic killer and the sister who loves her.

I’ll admit, I didn’t actually know about Belle Gunness until the cover and synopsis for Triflers Need Not Apply caught my eye and I went down a dark path on the internet.

Triflers starts with Belle, then Little Brynhild, growing up in Norway with her family, including an abusive father, and carrying the child of landowners son Anders. One night, Anders, who refuses to be associated with Brynhild, lures her to the woods and brutally attacks her, killing her unborn baby and leaving her forever changed. From that day on, hate takes root in Brynhild, a promise to never be vulnerable again, to take from men instead of be taken from - with deadly consequences - particularly when she moves to America.

I’ll start with saying the book does feel too long, you quickly feel like you understand Belle; her motivation to never answer to a man, to feel weak or settle, the rage since her childhood attack. And yet, once you learn this you don’t learn more about Belle, these thoughts and feelings are just repeated over and over and never explored or deepened or challenged. To spend a hours reading a book with a character who is not remotely likeable, you need something else, but she wasn’t fascinating without the ongoing exploration or conflict of her psyche. She knows who she is and doesn’t question it. But then possibly this says more about the woman because how could a woman truly behave like this?? Possibly my criticism is more of the woman and not the character, if that makes sense. Certain scenes, involving Belle’s children, are disturbing and haunting and in these moments you experience the trace of Belle’s humanity, however I feel like the men Belle murders aren’t given enough time to truly be horrified over their deaths. It’s gruesome but could have been truly demonstrated by committing to this. Time is spent more on Belle’s sweet shop, entanglement with James Lee etc, and it dilutes the horror of her crimes to glide over these men in comparison. I understand that for Belle they didn’t matter and it’s her narrative, but essentially the book is about these acts.
Similarly Nellie, Belle’s sister, a woman who essentially acts likes the conscience in this book, and who shares the narrative, is confusing. She is horrified but actually quite pointless, her presence doesn’t really add to the book, for me, because she is also unlikeable for her actions and contradictions and I didn’t understand her at all.

This is not a bad book, the ending was provocative and intriguing and I appreciated the awareness and education (even if some is fiction) of the story. I just needed something a bit more. That said Belle was truly horrifying to be in the head of, the author did a fantastic job of creating a woman who it almost feels shut off her morality, so assured in the rightness of her crimes.

Thank you NetGalley for the review copy.

Born Little Brynhild, Belle discovers that it's a man's world, so she decides to even the score by killing men for their money. Starting with the first man who disappointed or crossed her, Belle leaves a trail of dead men behind her. from her homeland of Norway to Chicago in the US & beyond. She's smart though, & only her greed may be thing that brings her down.

A fictionalised version of a true story, this is a shocking read with a staggering number of possible victims. It starts off quite slowly, but by the end the reader is drawn into the story. The narrative is from the points of view of Belle & her older sister, Nellie. The author introduces a third main character, James Lee, who is very much the -devil-on-your-shoulder catalyst for many of the killings in the book & his relationship with Belle is intriguing as they really did bring out the worst in each other. I thought it was well written in an engaging style & although the ending is a bit of an anticlimax (necessarily so), it was a fascinating, if fictional, look at a prolific female serial killer.

Thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Penguin Michael Joseph UK, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

*2.25*

I'm so sad to say that this book really did not work out for me. I was so eager to read this true crime historical story, but I found myself having trouble with the pacing and the rythm of this book.
I was bored for the first part of the novel, and in the second part, when the true action took place, I already lost interest in what was happening.

I liked the author's way of reconstructing this chronicle fact and how she studied the sources and the different events that happened throughout the years. I think that the study behind the novel was well done and for this reason I was interested to know more and what changes and liberties she brought to the story.

I also think that the main character was very well crafted. It's not easy to bring a true person into a book and writing about their life like the writer was inside their head. Bruce was great in doing this and I appreciate this novel for it. Also, I was scared, so I think this is a good trait for a mystery book!

My main problem was that the book was too long and I was really uncomfortable being in the main character's head. Sometimes it was boring, but sometimes I really had goosebumps. There was not a good balance in my opinion.

But if you like historical true crime stories, I still recommend checking it out!

The cover of this book drew me to it and its contents definitely matched my expectations. This is a well researched crime novel whose grisly events, if you didn’t know that it was based on a real life serial killer, you might find difficult to believe had taken place. To best appreciate the story it is better not to know too much about these true events.
The killer in question is Bella Gunness, a woman who cons men into her life only to kill them sooner or later. Definitely recommend this one

Trigger warnings: child death, brutality, murder, domestic violence, and dismemberment.
When I saw this title in the Netgalley-verse, I was immediately intrigued, as I remembered the My Favorite Murder episode about Belle Gunness. Bruce makes an imaginative deep dive into the background and crimes of the real Belle Gunness and I really enjoyed it, despite the heavy subject matter.

Brynhild is a young woman in rural Norway, eking out an impoverished existence in the late 1800s. She gets an invitation from her married older sister in Chicago to come live with her and her husband. Before leaving, Brynhild commits her first murder. After her arrival in Chicago, she changes her name to Bella to fit in with her new surroundings and begins to socialize with the Norwegian community there. The story is told through the perspectives of Belle and her sister Nellie. You can see the progression of Belle's thought process about what she needs for survival, as well as Nellie's growing horror as notices that the men who know her little sister often mysteriously disappear.
The corruption arc of Belle's struggle for survival is really sad and it is clear that in the beginning, Belle feels trapped by her situation, the patriarchy, and the men in her life and sees the removal of those men as the only means to gain freedoms for herself. As she accumulates more wealth and agency, she ramps up her killing frequency - she still sees murder as the only way to move forward, even though there are several better ways to get around obstacles. Belle's victims and Belle's process for getting rid of bodies are described, which are upsetting, but they do not feel overly salacious.
This book was great and empathetic, but it is not for those with weak stomachs. Triflers Need Not Apply.

“Triflers Need Not Apply” is written by Norwegian author Camilla Bruce and is based on history’s most notorious female serial killer, Belle Gunness (nee Brynhild Storset). Commencing her murderous rampage in Chicago 1900, the story explores the Norwegian/American woman’s determination to pay men back for all they have taken, in the most heinous way possible.

- Early in life Belle Sorensen discovers the world is made only for men, but she understands what few others do: where women are concerned, men are weak. So Belle 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, Belle embarks on a killing spree the like of which has never been seen before nor since. And through it all her kind, older sister Nellie can only watch in horror as Belle’s schemes to enrich herself and cut down the male population come to a glorious, dreadful fruition . . .

I knew as soon as I started reading this book it would be a five star read for me, I just love true crime that’s written as fiction. Camilla Bruce hasn’t just included factually correct events but has attempted to intriguingly understand who Belle actually was and why she did what she did, regardless of her twisted and deadly justifications.
Belle was a very strong woman, both physically and mentally who knew exactly what she wanted out of life and worked hard to attain it. No man would stand in her way of achieving that lifestyle and as the disappearances of more and more men accumulated, she became a notorious female serial killer of the likes never seen before. Having a morbid fascination for my own city’s female serial killer of the 1800’s - Sunderland born Mary Ann Cotton, better known as ‘The Black Widow’ - I was therefore excited by the prospect of “Triflers Need Not Apply” and I wasn’t disappointed. The attention to detail was second to none, I could visualise every scene clearly due to the author’s ability to convey the sights, smells and sounds, from the roast chicken cooking in the stove to the dismembering of the bodies with the meat cleaver.
Apart from Belle’s story, I found Nellie’s equally interesting and her developing emotions as she begins to discover her sister is not quite the woman she thought she was. Can she stay silent when she suspects Belle of being more than a very unlucky woman in love? And could she be putting her own life at risk, involving herself in Belle’s murderous affairs.
I researched Belle after reading the book and enjoyed seeing how much the storyline mirrored the true events but with the author’s own fictional understanding of who Belle was. On seeing her photo, I am now able to see her as she actually looked in real life and this has left me with a permanent vision of her and her story.

A pre-warning, that this is a serial killer story that doesn’t hold back on the killing, so if you’re a little squeamish this might not be for you. There’s also some upsetting scenes involving children which may distress. However, if you’re a hardened crime reader of the twisted and macabre kind, you should devour this fabulously written historical true crime fiction like I did. “Triflers Need Not Apply” will stay on my favourite shelf for ever and I will revisit the enigmatic Belle again for sure.

5 stars for this utterly chilling read….