The nitty-gritty: A macabre glimpse into the mind of a female serial killer, In the Garden of Spite is a compelling page-turner, rich in historical details and fascinating characters.

Halfway through the meal, Moira had to excuse herself, as she was feeling ill. I wished her a speedy recovery as she made her way upstairs. Soon after, I cut her throat and let her bleed out in a bucket.

Camilla Bruce’s You Let Me In was one of my favorite books of 2020, and there was no way I was going to miss her latest, In the Garden of Spite. This is a very different beast but just as addictive a read. Bruce has proven she’s a versatile writer, going from the speculative, fairy tale genre to a historical thriller about one of America’s most infamous female serial killers, Belle Gunness. This is a slow build, character driven story about how a devastating event had a life-altering impact on a young girl’s future, full of gruesome and shocking details, and I could not tear my eyes away from the page. Belle is a compelling character no matter what she has done, and if you love stories about serial killers, or even if you’re simply fascinated by them, you won’t want to miss this book.

The story is told from alternating perspectives over the course of about thirty years, beginning in 1877 Norway. Brynhild Paulsdatter Storset is a young teen who discovers she’s pregnant, and she’s convinced that once she tells the father, a well-off man named Anders, he’ll agree to marry her. Brynhild’s family are very poor, living on someone else’s land and working hard to scrape by, and Anders isn’t about to marry a girl from such a low station. Even when Brynhild threatens to tell the priest, thinking he’ll do the right thing and force Anders’ hand, he simply laughs in her face. But when Anders seems to take pity on her and invites her to meet him down by the lake, Brynhild is devastated when he viciously beats her and leaves her for dead.

Unable to face her family, Brynhild makes plans to leave Norway and start a new life. Her older sister Nellie lives in Chicago, and Brynhild is convinced that a wonderful life awaits her in America. Once there, she changes her name to Belle and begins her search for a husband who can help her achieve her dreams, but happiness is elusive, especially when she discovers she can never have children. Belle’s search for happiness eventually leads her to a farm in La Porte, Indiana, where she develops a taste for killing off men who have lost their usefulness.

Belle’s chapters alternate with those from Nellie’s perspective, as she happily welcomes her sister to Chicago, but is soon disappointed when Little Brynhild, as Nellie fondly calls her, seems to be more interested in the exciting sights and tastes that the city has to offer, rather than helping her pregnant sister at home. Nellie becomes increasingly distraught over Belle’s bold actions: aggressively looking for the “perfect” husband and later taking lovers on the side, her unorthodox methods of acquiring children, and her refusal to conform to society’s norms of how married women should behave. As the story progresses, and Nellie becomes more and more convinced that Belle is hiding some terrible secrets, the tension becomes nearly unbearable. Nellie’s point of view is critical to the story and gives the reader a much needed break from listening to Belle’s disturbing thoughts.

This is one of those rare cases where I didn’t like the main character at all, but I ended up loving the book anyway. I don’t think you’re supposed to like Belle, since she’s a killer, but even those close to her mention how odd and unlikeable she is, and when people around her start dying or disappearing, it becomes harder and harder to ignore the fact that she might have something to do with those deaths. Despite her abrasive personality, Belle has a sort of charisma that draws people in, especially men, and this allows her to hide her deadly activities because she’s such a good liar. I was horrified by some of the things she was capable of, and yet behind that horror was a certain amount of fascination and appreciation of her methods, and because of the abuse she suffered, you can’t help but sympathize with her on some level. If you look at her life from the perspective of an immigrant, a girl from a very poor family who was able to come to America (that in itself was not easy) and turn her life around, it’s hard not to admire her focus and drive to get what she wants. However, Belle is a killer, and her methods--which include poison, cleavers and hacking dead bodies up in order to bury them--will remind you that there is something terribly wrong with her.

Belle ends up meeting a man named James Lee who becomes a life-long friend and confidant, and together they form a twisted relationship that seems to benefit both of them equally. James is the only person who knows Belle’s secrets, and in fact he helps her with many of her kills. It was shocking just how much they got away with, year after year, and despite my aversion to James and everything he represents, I thought their relationship added a lot to the story.

I loved reading about the immigrant experience, which is something I don’t often find in speculative fiction. Belle’s and Nellie’s lives in Chicago are hard. Starting fresh in America might be a step up from their hardscrabble lives in Norway, but just barely. Nellie works all day as a laundress in order to bring in some money, but she must care for her children while working. She does form bonds with the other Norwegian immigrants in her building, which makes things slightly easier, but she’s exhausted by the end of the day and knows that the next day will only be more of the same. Bruce does a great job of describing the living conditions during the late 1800s. Even in a city like Chicago, most people didn’t have luxuries like indoor plumbing, and it’s during these moments that you can see how elusive the American dream really was

The tension steadily builds up to a horrifying conclusion, one that had been hinted at but still ended up shocking me. The author includes an informative Author’s Note at the end of the story, describing her research and the liberties she took with the factual information about Belle’s life. Camilla Bruce, being a native Norwegian herself, seems uniquely qualified to explore the life of a fellow countrywoman, and her attention to detail and lush, descriptive writing bring Belle’s morbid story to life. In the Garden of Spite was an excellent book to start off my reading year, and I can’t recommend it more highly.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

Camilla Bruce's In the Garden of Spite was an interesting telling of a prolific female serial killer. I had never heard of the Widow of LaPorte before this book but was intrigued because it reminded me of H. H. Holmes and was of a similar era. I liked Bruce's approach to the subject: how did a dirt poor girl from Norway (the same country Bruce herself is from) end up a serial killer in at the turn of the 20th century? She explores Belle Gunness' roots and the various men and incidences that may have driven Gunness' killing spree.

While the book was well written and the subject interesting, I felt the book to be generally slow to build and far too long. While I liked Bruce's focus on the woman herself and her history, there was too much background before the actual serial killer moments. This made for a very repetitive feel - something happens, Belle gets angry, Belle gets revenge - as she cycles through two lovers and two husbands. Also, this build was meant to break down and humanize Gunness and her actions. While I appreciated the effort, I felt Gunness to be sociopathic, greedy, and egocentric and her path almost inevitable. She was frequently described as being odd and while her life events certainly added fuel to the fire, she obviously did not process feelings well and often centered herself in all actions (and never learned to center others... even her love of children was wholly selfish). And with the insurance schemes, she frequently tried the same method to get money even after being questioned. The addition of Belle's sister Nellie as a perspective was supposed to add another level of humanness to Belle (is it possible to be both scared of and protective of your relative) which was an interesting take but ultimately fell flat for me. It was obviously that Nellie was scared of Belle and wanted to do the right thing but was held back by her love of the "Little Brynhild" she took care of as a girl. When Belle's antics endangered the lives of her children, Nellie snapped but do anything about it which astounded me. I thought we would get a character finally realizing the absurdity of Belle's situation and report it.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of this story (and most annoying) was the open ending... did Belle Gunness fake her own death? Did she continue her tirade somewhere else or did she finally change her ways for the better? I almost wished Bruce scaled down the first half of Belle's life and focused on the parts of the story we don't know -- what happened to the Widow of LaPorte?

Overall, I was intrigued by this book but it never really took off for me. It was cool to explore the history of this female serial killer but ultimately, the book was too long and too repetitive for me.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC!

I had been so looking forward to this book, and sadly I was disappointed. Belle Gunness represents such a specific time period and idea in my mind, and unfortunately this book fell short. It felt like it went far too slow.

I'm not sure what to call this book so I will settle on fact based historical fiction with a heavy leaning towards true crime. Although events have been changed and some characters invented it is based on the life of a Norwegian-American serial killer who was active in Illinois and Indiana between 1884 and 1908.

Belle Gunness is thought to have killed at least 14 people and possibly many more. Most of them were men she conned into marriage or the promise of marriage, and others who just got in her way. As the story opens. Belle (who is known as Brynhilde at that time) is an unhappy girl from a poor family who is abused at home and working as a maid. She is in love with a farmer's son and too naïve to understand that his family is considered above her station in life and that he will never marry her. I felt a lot of sympathy for her at first as she is left pregnant and in fear of the shame that will bring if the father of her child refuses to stand by her. When she threatens him it leads to horrific violence and it at this time she changes from naïve child to broken and vengeful woman. I think I still felt for her at this time even while she plotted and manipulated her way to America. Upon her arrival, her true nature starts to take over and it becomes clear that she has very little emotion other than rage. Belle views people only as something to be used to get what she wants. The author creates a very detailed, gripping and chilling account of the inner workings of a murderers mind.

Whoa. First of all, I didn't even realize this was about a real person until I got to the author's note. Then I fell in love with it even more. This book is violent, gory, and Belle Gunness AKA the Widow of La Porte was one messed up woman. I LOVED this book. I have always been fascinated by serial killers and what drives them to do what they do. The book has a lot of fictional elements and characters but it's based on real events. I couldn't believe some of the things Belle did and she was nonchalant about the whole thing!

If violence and gore isn't your thing you may not want to pick this one up, but it's a fascinating read that had me hooked from page one.

It always surprises me that there were just not more female serial killers in and among history being written about. Because women are cunning and RUTHLESS! This is the fictional novelization of Belle Gunness, the widow of LaPorte, Indiana and a real serial killer. The body count was somewhere between 12 - 40. She had an actual "murder farm" in Indiana. You can get a pretty clear picture of what happened to make Belle, an immigrant from Norway, behave in such a spiteful and angry manner. And at first, you're kind of on her side. You understand why she's doing the terrible things she's doing. And you're even agreeing with her. But then, it all spirals out of her control. What? Murder and mayhem uncontrolled? But of course!
This first novel by Camilla Bruce is captivating and extremely well-written. I spent one entire day striving to finish it because I didn't want to miss a moment. And not give anything away, but to this day, no one is actually sure what became of the Widow of LaPorte.


**Thanks to NetGalley for an early digital galley!!**

Fascinating fictional account of female American serial killer Belle Gunness. The author did an amazing job of keeping the reader engaged while making a horrible main character sympathetic.

Since this is based on a true story, it makes the horror of such a vengeful person actually living even more unsettling. The author does a great job filling in the known facts with believable scenarios that make the story read smoothly. The main character is well written but some, including her sister, are a little weak. The amount of farm work done by the main character is staggering and stretches the imagination. I did appreciate how she ended the novel in a satisfying and appropriate way.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Press for the ARC to read and review.

Deliciously disturbing. In the Garden of Spite was suspenseful and intriguing after a slow start but quickly started to drag again. I felt bad for the MC initially, eventually hating her easily-in a good way because I think that was the point. At times, it was hard to keep the characters straight. The writing was rather good with strong chapter transitions. Overall, a woŕthwhile read that may induce a few shivers.

Thank you to NetGalley for granting me a copy. My review was not affected by receiving a free copy.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review..

Raw and gritty novel based on the life of Belle Gunness. Although much of the novel is conjecture, it was an interesting read. .

WHAT THE HECK DID I JUST READ?!?!?!?! My daughter just asked if I'm okay and the answer is <b> NO! I'm definitely NOT okay!!!</b>

<i>"They never expected me to hold a grudge."</i> <b> Those words will haunt me for quite some time now.</b>

I admit I've been fascinated by fictionalized stories of serial killers. Usually, they don't haunt me in my dreams and keep me up at night. But this... this... THIS has scarred my brain, I think. And (unfortunately) also caused me to want to learn more about the serial murderess Belle Gunness.

I literally lost count of how many bodies had dropped by the time I made it to the mid-point of this novel, but that's not what kept me reading. It was the way Belle was portrayed as yes, a killer, but also a victim whose compulsion to kill was deeply embedded as a way to protect herself and her children. I hated that I kept finding myself feeling just a teensy bit sad for her. And then she'd do something completely horrid and turn my stomach and I'd have to set my Kindle down and hold my babies super tight because.. UGH! This was horrible!!!

Do I recommend this to fans of historical fiction who enjoy a good serial killer story? ABSOLUTELY!!! But make sure you're in a good head space before you pick this one up, because it WILL keep you up at night and send shivers down your spine!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with an e-galley of this book in exchange for my honest review.

In The Garden Of Spite is an intense journey telling the fictionalized story of Belle Gunness, one of America's most prolific female serial killers. Being a fan of true crime, I was very interested once I heard about this book. A book that not only tells Belle Gunness story but also tells the story of her past and what may have lead her to murder?
To be honest, I did not know much about Belle Gunness before reading thus book, but it not only tells her story but gives insight into what events may have shaped her life. It is a perfect combination. Not quite true crime but far more than just a story. Belle Gunness was an incredibly prolific Killer, in fact no one is quite sure just how many victims she had. Camilla Bruce does a fantastic job weaving together fact and fiction t0 create a dark and thrilling read that is incredibly hard to put down. Starting in the distant mountains of Norway and ending on an Indiana farm, In The Garden of Spite is a whirlwind of a book that should not be missed.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this title!

I was intrigued by the tagline "an audacious tale of feminine rage" and the book did not disappoint. Belle was ambitious and smart and had no problem going after what she wanted, whether it was a husband or a candy shoppe or a new house or children of her own. But once she had it, the traumas of her past did not let her appreciate it. The glamour of it faded and she invariably blamed the men in her life for her problems, which since she was a serial killer, turned out badly for them!

I think the author does a good job of showing the evolution of Belle’s character – through her youth in Norway to her time in Chicago and then her move to Indiana. While she doesn’t make you sympathetic to Belle (she IS a serial killer after all), she does her best to help us understand her, both from her perspective and from that of her sister Nellie, This would be a great book club title - so much to discuss here about Belle, about the past that influenced her future, and about the complexities of her relationship with her sister.

Belle Guness has had a hard life. People seem to always be falling dead around her. Now she has her riches, her farm, and her children, all she needs is a new husband. Men seem to always arrive, but quickly go missing. There are rumors in Chicago, but nobody can prove what they believe is happening at Belle’s farm. They will never understand how Belle herself has suffered.

Holy shit. That is all that needs to be said about this book! When my booksta bestie @theboozy.reader told me I needed to read this book I immediately requested it. I knew a little bit about what to expect, but certainly didn’t expect it to be as crazy as it was! I was shocked to learn it was written about a real serial killer, and I think Camilla made great fiction out of the story!

A deliciously evil journey through the life of notorious serial killer Belle Gunness! Highly recommended for fans of true crime and historical fiction.

Synopsis: In the Garden of Spite portrays a fictionalized version of the real-life serial murderess, Belle Gunness. Belle, born Brynhild Storseth, grew up in Selbu, Norway and experienced, hunger, poverty, and abuse at the hands of the man who impregnated her. Refusing to live a meager poverty-stricken existence, Belle immigrated to the United States and discovered the easiest way to get what she wanted was just to take it. This dark and twisty tale recounts the prolific killing spree that lasted from 1884-1908 in Indiana. Belle is ruthless in her pursuit to gain status and financial security. Belle was never tried or found guilty of murder, and it was not until after her supposed death that the bodies of her numerous victims were found buried on her farm.

My Evaluation of the Book: In the Garden of Spite was not just a story about the life of Belle; it strove to explain her reasoning behind the murders. I am used to reading some unconventionally dark material as a reader of mystery and horror. However, the realization that this story is based on true events makes it particularly disturbing. The author hails from the same area of Norway as Belle, so I can understand her fascination with wanting to find out more about her life, especially since she is one of the first woman serial killers. Bruce does an amazing job of painting the picture of Belle's entire life including a detailed backstory that makes this typically hated character very relatable.
This story ends similarly to the real-life account. However, the author took liberties to push the story that Belle did not die in the fire that engulfed her farmhouse. The story shows that Belle developed an elaborate plan of escape through staging her own death. I would have liked to have seen the story end without adding this in. The air of mystery surrounding what really happened to Belle Gunness is what makes her story utterly captivating. The author should have let the readers draw their own conclusions as to the true fate of Belle Gunness. Overall, the book was a very impressive tale that managed to achieve a nice balance between the real-life Belle and her fictionalized one.

Chicago’s second most famous serial killer comes to life in this historical fiction. Bella always gets her man!

Belle Gunness is one of the most prolific serial killers and she is also a woman which is even rarer. Not much is known about the murders she committed but there are many rumors. Camilla Bruce did an excellent job of weaving this story between facts and fiction. It is hard to believe how many murders Belle got away with and was never caught. It is also interesting how she was such a spiteful person but had a kind heart for children. I gave this book 4/5 stars because it was a really long and slow read. At 480 pages, I felt that some of the story could have been weened out in order to make it flow better for a more enjoyable read.

In the Garden of Spite was a well-written account of one of America's most notorious female killers: Belle Gunness. If I had been just slightly less of a true crime junkie, I would have enjoyed this much more. I read Harold Schechter's nonfiction title about Belle Gunness, "Hell's Princess", less than a year ago and could see where the author drew directly from passages given to insurance investigators or letters written to possible suitors by Belle. Camilla Bruce manages to stay very true to the actual story of Belle Gunness with the exception of a single character, but that single character greatly changed the way that Belle's crimes were committed. I was not a fan of this change, but I did understand why it was necessary for the creation of a more robust narrative. Bruce also gives Belle a tragic backstory in her hometown in Norway, which was an interesting choice. Overall, it was a good historical fiction crime read, but if you're very familiar with the story of Belle, it may not be for you.

Camilla Bruce does an outstanding job of letting the readers get into the head of Bella Gunness. What does a murderer think before they kill? How does this person justify taking another life? Then we go a step further and get into the rationalizations of Bella's protective sister. Men flock around Bella and then disappear but who could suspect a poor widow? I not only loved watching the crimes occur but Bella's outlook change. She saw things as beautiful and food as fresh. Then things became moldy and rotten. The pacing is excellent, especially if you love true crime.

I obtained this book through Net Galley and have left an honest review.