Books to Borrow Roaring Spring Public Library Recommends

“In the Garden of Spite” by Camilla Bruce is a work of historical fiction that follows the life of Belle Gunness, one of the most notorious female serial killers in American History. The book is both gruesome and fascinating. It is not for the faint of heart, but if one is able to get past the gore, the story is engrossing. I found myself both horrified and intrigued. This book kept me reading until the early morning hours.

The story begins in Selbu, Norway where seventeen year old Belle Gunness (known then as Brynhild Paulsdatter Storset) has suffered unspeakable abuse and tragedy. Convinced that a better life waits for her in America, she finds work as a farm maid in order to save up for her passage.

Once in America, she settles in Chicago, with her sister Nellie in order to find work and eventually a suitable husband. She meets and marries a man by the name of Mads Sorenson, and unable to have the children she desperately wants, she turns to her friend and confidant, James Lee in order to acquire her heart’s desire through less than honorable means.

When Belle rids herself of the burden of her first husband she uses the money from his life insurance to buy a farm in rural Indiana. She marries a second time, and both her husband’s infant daughter and him meet untimely ends. Finding herself a widow for a second time she begins to place ads in local newspapers in search of a new husband. The ads are a ruse in order to lure men to her farm so that she may kill them, dispose of them and keep the money they brought with them. In all, Belle Gunness is thought to have killed at least fourteen people while some speculate she had her hand in at least forty murders.

Again, I want to emphasize that this book isn’t for everyone. It can be brutally graphic at times, but if you like a good serial killer story to keep you up reading until the wee hours, this is definitely worth checking out.