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  • Published: 9 March 2021
  • ISBN: 9781405950459
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 448

Triflers Need Not Apply

Be frightened of her. Secretly root for her. And watch history's original female serial killer find her next victim.




A chilling reimagining of the life of history's original Black Widow

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

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.

And through it all her kind, older sister Nellie can only watch in horror as Bella's schemes to enrich herself and cut down the male population come to a glorious, dreadful fruition . . .

Based on the true story of Belle Gunness whose killing spree began in Chicago in 1900, Triflers Need Not Apply is a novelistic tour de force exploring one woman's determination to pay men back for all they have taken.

  • Published: 9 March 2021
  • ISBN: 9781405950459
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 448

About the author

Camilla Bruce

CAMILLA BRUCE was born central Norway and grew up in an old forest, next to an Iron Age burial mound. She has a master’s degree in comparative literature and has co-run a small press that published dark fairy tales. Camilla currently lives in Trondheim with her son and cat. You Let Me In is her first novel.

Also by Camilla Bruce

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Praise for Triflers Need Not Apply

Got me out of a reading slump! Dark glee, tragedy . . . fans of my story The Corset will gobble this up

Laura Purcell

Dark, twisted and dangerously addictive

Sam Lloyd

A brutal and compelling tale that starts as a revenge story but quickly becomes so much more. Clever, shocking and horrific in places, it's the sort of book for which the phrase 'page-turner' was invented.

Lucie McKnight Hardy

Come for the fabulous premise, stay for the razor-sharp portrait of a marvelously complex (and often totally terrifying) mind. I was a big fan of You Let Me In, but Camilla Bruce has absolutely outdone herself with Bella Sorensen and Triflers Need Not Apply.

Laird Hunt

Deliciously dark, wickedly observed with a protagonist who will haunt you in the best way. Utterly gripping, chillingly compelling - you won't read another story quite like Bella's.

Miranda Dickinson

Loved this fascinating tale of how a woman's pain turns to rage and then murder. Based on the real life adventures of serial killer Belle Gunness, this book is a dark, thrilling ride into a world of revenge. Oh so satisfying.

Julie Owen Moylan

Triflers Need Not Apply is a perfect read for any crime fiction fan. A chilling immersion into the mind of a serial killer - dark, seductive and addictive. A truly gripping read.

Lia Middleton

Based on a true story, with dark humour throughout, you will be hooked

Prima

Extraordinary. Bruce does a marvellous job of reimagining this real-life murderer, without excusing her crimes

The Times

This gory fictionalisation of her story is also a great character study

Best

Explosive . . . If you like true crime, you'll devour this chilling story of revenge

Woman's Weekly

Explosive . . . If you like true crime, you'll devour this chilling story of revenge

Woman

Clever and pacy . . . To think of [Bella] only as a cruel murderer is too two-dimensional and doesn't do her, or Camilla's writing, justice

Belfast Telegraph

Chilling. Camilla Bruce's adept reimagining of this compelling historical figure is difficult to forget

Gazette and Herald

You'll veer between pity and loathing for the main character, with perhaps a touch of horrified admiration at times

The Hunsbury Handbook