I’m so sure I’ll suffer from recurring nightmares after reading Bloody Benders’ absolutely bloody, vicious, bleak, dark story! Camilla Bruce did a magnificent job, giving voices of this monstrous family. With realistic narrations of Kate and Elvira, she help us to witness true nature of evil and darkness!

Third narrator is Hanson: young townie, helping Benders to build their house, forming a bond with them is such an innocent voice, created by the author ( I wish he may have been a real person who became a journalist to write about the true crime story of the family) the only person who starts doubting about true intentions of the family.

In the history, Benders were a family of serial killers who lived and operated in Labette County, Kansas, United States, from May 1871 to December 1872. The family consisted of John Bender, his wife Elvira and their son John Jr. and daughter Kate.

This book based on the real events, opening with Benders’ moving to Cherryvale after getting away from crimes they’ve committed.

Kate Bender: young, cunning, attractive daughter of the family is a cold blooded killer, hardly restraining the need to shed more blood. Her mother Elvira help her daughter get away with murder because she raised her as a criminal, forcing her pickpocketing, flirting with old men at the young age. They left their old life and she trusts her daughter pay her back by gaslighting people with her fake ability to talk with the spirits.

William Bender, step father of Kate thinks her daughter can talk with the angels. The same angels can whisper to her for informing the loaded visitors who stay their house which turned into an inn! As angels keeps whispering his son John and William attack those wealthy visitors to steal their money and dear Kate grabs her knife to finish the business her family started.

John, step brother is also obsessed with Kate and he doesn’t hesitate to get his hands dirty if he sees any man getting too close to Kate’s vicinity.

The Bloody Benders are villains, cold blooded killers, human stains, grifters, liars, manipulators!

So what happened to the Benders? Did they get caught? Did they pay for their sins? Or did Kate use for spiritual connections to get away from the murders?

The gripping, engaging storytelling skills of Camilla Bruce allure you from the beginning! You cannot put the book down and the fictional parts were developed perfectly.

I highly recommend it to true crime,historical thriller lovers!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

I originally was going to give this book three stars, but only because it just was not my cup of tea. I strive to be fair with books, so I think that it deserves four stars for being a quality work.

This book is based off of the Bender family, who were serial killers in the late 1800's, and this book is along the lines of "In Cold Blood" in the sense that it is a fictional telling of an historic crime. Overall, it was a well written book, but it was a bit too slow paced for my liking.