Hello Beautiful People! Welcome back to another review! For this review, I checked out In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce. In the Garden of Spite is a bit different from the usual books I read as I tend to read more present-day thriller and crime fiction books. I was excited to check out this one because it is both of those genres but also with a historical fiction addition to make it unique.
This book reminded me that I should definitely check out more thriller and crime, historical fiction books because I really enjoyed this one. I also really enjoyed that the book was the author’s fictional retelling of the life of the infamous Belle Gunness who was a real serial killer in the early 1900’s.
Main Characters:
- Belle Gunness: Changed her name to Belle when she came to America to live with her sister as a young woman, wanted to marry a rich American and be successful, hated men.
- Nellie: Is the only character other than Belle whose perspective is given in the book. Is Belle’s older sister who helped bring her to America, it would end up being one of her biggest regrets.
- James Lee: Belle’s weird crime buddy who helps turn her into the murderer she was meant to be. They truly are best friends and in love, they talk about everything and are each other’s biggest supporters. It’s a sweet relationship in some ways but they just vibe with each other because they are both terrible people.
Some warnings for future readers:
- Belle may be a lady looking for a hubby in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s but she was no lady when it came to murder. Camilla doesn’t skip out on the goriness and just disgusting attributes with a murder in that time frame (bugs, smells, etc).
- This book includes the murder of adults and children.
- Includes the kidnapping of children
My Review
I have to give this book an 8/10 rating, I really enjoyed it. There were some parts that were a bit slow but Belle managed to be a murder machine through most of her life so there weren’t many dull parts.
Belle starts off on her murder spree because she was treated like a piece of trash by a man she was with when she lived in Norwegian with her parents as a young woman. This sparks this rage within her in which she starts to see the death of men as the only way to climb to the success she desires. To Belle success was having money, living a luxurious lifestyle, having a bunch of children, and whatever she needed to do to get that she would.
When I heard this was a bit of a feminine rage book I wondered if any part of me would kind of side with Belle. I quickly lost that thought because I really did not end up liking Belle as a character. I don’t think as the reader you actually are supposed to like her but I thought she would be a tad more likeable because she obviously convinces all these men to come to her, but yeah she definitely isn’t. Belle is crass and harsh, and she thinks very highly of herself despite having few good qualities or skills.
I enjoyed how Camilla spruced up bits of Belle’s story making it more enjoyable for the reader. She admitted that there’s no evidence that Belle really did have a James Lee of sorts in her life but it was nice to have him as a character in the book because he sort of forced Belle to voice why she had a desire to do all the bad things she did. Camilla also mentions that this is essentially what she believes happened to Belle. Since Belle was one of the first prolific female serial killers, the time frame she lived in allowed little records of her real life and death, it had to be interpreted or guessed by most. There was a big question about whether Belle lived long after her murders or died with them, and no one really knows. I liked Camilla’s telling of it all. It was a delightful read that had good character development because we got to see why Belle turned out as she did, and while it doesn’t elicit sympathy it just helps drag you further into her story.
I really appreciated in the book as well that we get a perspective from both Belle and her sister Nellie. Belle is harsh and dark and often describes the things in her world in a negative way. Her sister however is much more positive and we get a way different perspective on things from her. Nellie is also just more humble and down-to-earth than Belle is. Nellie is a nice break from Belle’s consistent negativity and desire to want more.
I really recommend this book to anyone who loves a character-driven historical fiction book. I say historical fiction because a lot of the book is from Camilla’s imagination but there definitely are parts of truth to it which adds a spine-tingling element to the book. I am looking forward to checking out some more of Camilla’s books in the future.
Summary and Commentary
***Please be aware this section has spoilers***
The book starts in 1877, as Belle (whose name back in Norway is Brynhild but to make it easy I’ll just keep calling her Belle) lives with her family in poverty. Her father is an alcoholic and he and her mother don’t have a positive relationship. Belle works as a maid for a local farm. Belle and a young farmer start having a relationship but the young man is considered at a much higher standard due to his successful farm than Belle is. Belle becomes pregnant and tells him. Due to their class differences, the man isn’t too happy about the baby. Belle is obviously happy and thinks this means he will now marry her. Sadly the guy tricks her one night gets her alone and beats her almost half to death, and she of course loses the baby.
This whole experience is traumatic for Belle as she loved and cared for this man and he clearly didn’t care for her, and if anything was embarrassed to be with her. With the loss of her baby and her dignity, Belle starts to plan revenge on the man. Due to the twos class difference, he won’t ever be charged for beating her and she’s just seen as the poor whore who tried to trap him. She slowly starts to poison his food in an attempt to hurt him in the way he hurt her. While doing this Belle talks about the letters they receive from her sister Nellie who made enough money to take herself to America and has recently wed and had a baby. Belle is instantly jealous of her and wants to go and live in glamorous America. Since Belle is the only one in her family who can read and write she responds to Nellie’s letters for her family. In a letter, she tells Nellie that Belle was beaten for no reason by a local man and her life is in danger. Her parents want her to go to America with Nellie so she can have some kind of future because they will kill her if she stays here. Of course, this is all a lie and her parents are none the wiser she’s written that in. I felt bad for Belle at this point in the book. I wasn’t aware of how big of a murderer she was until I got more into the book, but I thought her anger and rage at this point were justified. I didn’t think her desire to kill was but I could see why she was in so much pain, and was so desperately trying to gain some control back over her life.
When Nellie gets the letter she’s instantly worried about Belle and wants to bring her to America as soon as possible. Nellie and her husband John aren’t the most well-off but they do okay, and are happy in their relationship. The two have a young son and have been trying and struggling for another. It’s going to be hard for them to help fund bringing Belle to America, and it will mean they will have to stretch their already tight finances. Nellie just wants her sister to be safe fearing if she stays in Norway she will die so she is okay suffering financially to bring her here. She won’t mind having family around either and is excited to have her sister around to help. Back home Belle has successfully killed Anders the man who hurt her and is proud of her doing so. The doctors presumed he had stomach cancer so no one else was none the wiser to her doing. It’s clear though that Belle has a nasty temper and can fly off the handle and be violent in the blink of an eye. You just have to do the right thing to get her there.
In 1881 Belle and Nellie had gathered enough money to get her to America. Of course, Nellie is excited to see her but Belle is cold and odd. Nellie just brushes it off but this weird behaviour continues the longer Belle stays. Belle isn’t any help around the house and at this part I really started to dislike her. Her poor sister spent all this time working hard to bring her to America and she couldn’t even be bothered to help around the house. She was much more interested in finding a rich husband. Belle when she gets to Chicago is unimpressed with Nellie’s home and work. She is angry Nellie is poor like they were back home, and imagined America to be a lot different than it was. Nellie tries to humble Belle’s expectations but Belle has all these high hopes and thinks she deserves to live a lavish life. Belle learns English so she can find an American husband and is disgusted Nellie hasn’t learned it yet. I hated how judgemental Belle was of Nellie. Nellie seemed like she lived a tough but good life. She was happy with what she had, and the love in her home. Belle just wanted materials and things.
One night when Belle and Nellie are out drinking and celebrating a holiday Belle meets a man named Edvard. Edvard follows Belle back to their home when she leaves the celebration and tries to force himself on her. Belle forcefully tells him no many times and when he doesn’t stop Belle grabs the nearest weapon, a pair of scissors, and stabs him in the leg. Edvard lives but Belle gets labeled as an unstable woman. I mean look I thought Belle was a bitch in some parts but I fully supported her in this one. The man had it coming. She shouldn’t have been labelled as unstable just because she didn’t want to have sex with this man, and didn’t allow him to assault her. Some things definitely were unfair for her. Belle knew that the scissor incident meant she needed to look for men outside of this community and started thinking of other ways to find a man.
Belle joins the church in the hopes of finding herself a rich and respectable man. Most of the men will most likely be older and widows, but Belle doesn’t care and is only in it for the money and not the looks. In 1884 Belle meets Mads Sorensen her first husband. Mads owned a home and had a decent job. Mads wasn’t a widow as Belle thought he may be but she liked him even more because that meant all his money had been saved waiting for a wife. Belle notices early on that she can’t get pregnant and is very angry that Anders took her child from her, and her ability to have more. Belle desperately wants a child and she tries to distract herself with Mad’s money. Belle suffers from major food insecurity and she goes crazy with buying groceries and constantly needing her pantry full. I felt a bit bad for Belle, it’s clear her mental health is not well and her attempts to try to mould into this new life are not as easy as she hoped.
Despite her attempts to try to distract herself from her desire for children, Belle can’t ever get kids off her mind. Belle starts to get a short temper with Mads and starts to become abusive towards him. I felt really terrible for Mads in these parts. He seemed like a very kind man who was just happy to have a wife and a person to love. He wanted children as well but was happy to just have Belle. Belle never appreciated that man, all she saw were dollar signs and I wish he knew her intentions because he deserved better. Belle does this crazy thing and offers to take one of Nellie’s children for her one day, just out of the blue. Nellie is disturbed by the offer as she provides for her kids, and they may not be wealthy, but they are happy. Nellie worries that Belle is losing her cool. I thought so too. Who offers to take a child from someone who is capable of taking care of that child?
There is an event one day for people who are interested in being foster parents to have the opportunity to take home some children to foster. Belle goes to it in the hopes of finding some children to take care of. That’s where she meets James Lee for the first time. James pulls her to the side and offers her a better deal in which she may get to keep the children permanently. Belle is interested in anything that would let her act like a real mother and agrees to James’s sketchy deal. Belle would receive money in order to take care of the child. James brings her first child a little girl. James tells her that his business is hiding children whose parents want them hidden. He wants Belle to keep the children and that’s why she’s receiving money for it. The whole thing seemed odd to me and I wondered if James was lying about the actuality of the business. Belle just wanted money so she didn’t care. James and Belle start a sexual relationship even though she’s married to Mads and I was certain this would happen as soon as he was introduced. James seemed more up Belle’s alley. He saw all this darkness that she saw and was comfortable with doing bad things for money, the two are a match made in heaven. I will say that I didn’t love the sex scenes for the two. I am just never a fan of those in these books but it made sense for the book because it helped describe this intense passion the two had for each other.
All of Belle’s foster children eventually leave her and Belle asks James to bring her someone more permanent. At that time it’s actually Mads who finds her someone permanent as one of his coworker’s wives just died in childbirth. He doesn’t feel able to take care of the child and wants Mads and Belle to take the baby girl. Belle is elated and that is how she gets her first daughter Jennie. Belle meets Peter Gunness one night when she goes to celebrate a holiday in her old neighbourhood. Belle takes a liking to him but quickly learns that he is a man who is devoted to his marriage. I thought it was so interesting how driven Belle was for romance. She already had two men on the go and had no hesitation adding another if he was interested. Belle’s flirting with Peter is all the talk the next day and Nellie starts to wonder about Belle. She knows she beats Mads (she’s seen the bruises) and now wonders how faithful she is to the marriage.
One day Nellie’s husband and son come home and tell Nellie that they saw Mads and he looked terrible. He was thin and looked incredibly sickly. It made sense that Belle was back to her old tricks with the poison. I assumed she would kill Mads at some point I just wasn’t sure when it would be. Nellie becomes concerned and finds it odd that Belle hasn’t mentioned anything about this to her. When Nellie goes to see them she finds out that Belle is keeping Mads from the doctors and finds the whole situation really strange. There’s not much she can’t do though. Belle lies to people who question her about Mads saying she is pregnant and that is why she hasn’t been able to keep up with Mads’ illness and take care of their daughter. Belle was envisioning James bringing her another baby, mads dying, and her going to marry Peter and live on his farm with him. I thought it was so interesting the way Belle lied and hurt others in order to get what she wanted. I mean realistically she was just doing to others what Anders did to her. James brings Belle her daughter Caroline eventually, and Belle is overjoyed.
In 1896 with Mads still dying Belle opened up a candy store in the hopes of having some insurance money to lean on in the future. She plans to burn it down eventually. She literally bought and ran this business with the plan to burn it down, how crazy. Nellie’s daughter Olga went to work in her shop with her. Olga tells Nellie one day that Belle is doing some weird things in the store and asks her to leave when a strange man comes around. Nellie finds the whole thing weird and suspects she’s cheating on Mads. Nellie tries to catch her in the act and eventually does find her in the store with James. Nellie calls her out and Belle gets very angry with her for meddling. I felt bad for Nellie because she really wanted Belle to be happy but also couldn’t get her to see that all these things she was doing were wrong. One day Belles baby Caroline gets sick and passes. This was common for the time but Belle took her death very hard. She was given insurance money after she passed which I thought was strange because I didn’t realize people could put life insurance on children, I don’t feel like that’s a common thing to do. It’s clear more than ever Belle is very money-driven. Belle decides in her grief to burn down the candy store and collect the insurance money.
James brings Belle another child to replace her lost one and she continues to pass these children off as her biological children. Surprisingly not long after Belle decides to burn down her and Mads’ home. Everyone survives but I thought it was so strange that no one found it weird that all of these bad things followed Belle around constantly. With a new home, Belle thinks she will be content and happy. Mads knows that Belle is poisoning him and calls her out on it. She doesn’t even worry and just brushes it off. Belle gives Mads a deadly dose on purpose and he passes. The thing about Belle is she’s confident. She thinks she can do whatever she wants and get away with it, and so far that’s been working for her. When Nellie went to check up on Belle and the kids after his passing she was shocked but not shocked to find that the house seemed as normal as ever. The grief wasn’t apparent. She continues to become suspicious.
The insurance company is becoming suspicious of Belle as well but they have no way to prove she’s the hand that’s causing all of these terrible things. All the questions coming her way are making Belle really frustrated. She doesn’t like being under the lens and feels like people shouldn’t be questioning a widow. I find Belle to be a huge narcissist. How can she really be this frustrated that they are curious considering everything she had done? I mean she’s not exactly subtle with her ways either, she doesn’t even split things far enough apart to make it seem normal. James however continues to give her this other perspective that she deserves to have the insurance money and everything she wants. With all this new money Belle creates this dream that she wants to own and run a successful farm. I am not sure why she wanted this but I wondered if she thought that would get Peter to marry her or something.
The farm was located in La Porte which was outside of Chicago and it was clear that Belle was running away from all the bad news that followed her. She wanted to find a husband who didn’t know about all her recent misfortunes. With the plans of a new farm, Belle puts out an advertisement looking for a husband and receives a ton of responses back. Nellie finds the whole thing weird, but I guess that was essentially the online dating world of that era. In 1901 Peter Gunness’s wife passed away. With that and Belle obtaining this new farm, the two quickly planned out a marriage. I thought it was interesting how much Belle lusted for Peter. I mean the men she lusts for tend to be shit, and the ones who she treats like shit are nice, so I wondered if deep down Peter wasn’t as good as Belle made him seem. Peter had children from his marriage and Belle was excited to have more children to look after. Peter turned out to not be as submissive as Mads was and this was hard for Belle because she couldn’t control him in the ways she wanted to. It was interesting to finally see Belle meet her match.
When Peter’s youngest daughter passed away he instantly blamed Belle for it. It was hard to tell whether or not she actually did play a role in her death, my best guess is yes, just knowing her track record. Peter started to drink after his daughter’s passing which made him an even bigger battle for Belle. Peter no longer trusts Belle and sends his other daughter to live with family out of fear she will do something to her, which in all fairness made sense to me. The book jumps a bit and in the next chapter Belle is talking to the coroner and Peter is dead. Belle brutally murdered him after they fought and tried to pass it off as an accident. However this was a hard one to pass off, and she got spun into a large web of lies. Belle is furious that they think she killed Peter… even though she did. That’s what I don’t get about her. I mean she’s sloppy with this stuff and then finds it odd that others find all these deaths and fires around her strange.
Nellie of course finds it odd that another one of her husbands has died so soon, but doesn’t have anything to confirm her suspicions. Nellie noticed during the funeral that Belle’s sadness was fake. If I was Nellie I would have stopped being around her because I started to worry that Belle might try to kill her or something. Myrtle who is one of Belle’s children tells Nellie that she saw Belle kill Peter. Myrtle knows that Belle didn’t see her and isn’t sure what to do with what she saw. Sadly Nellie doesn’t have the best reaction and shuts her down and tells her not to talk about it. Nellie acknowledges in the book that she handled this situation wrong which is a redeeming quality about her. No one really knows what they would do in a situation like this when it would happen but at least she knows she didn’t handle it in the right way. She regrets how she handled this interaction often throughout the rest of the book.
Belle decides that the way to get everyone off her back is to get James to bring her a baby boy so she can claim Peter got her knocked up before he passed. This way she has a Gunness boy to claim the farm, and everyone will think they had a fine relationship. It’s clear that Belle is a very controlling person and she wants everything to go exactly as she desires. If it doesn’t she will make sure it does. With Peter being gone Belle needs to figure out how to keep the farm afloat financially. She makes a deal with James in which her large property will be used as a place to hide bodies. He will bring her people he wants rid of, and she will do the deed. In exchange, money. It’s interesting how easily Belle can kill with no remorse or second thoughts. As long as money is involved she doesn’t even bat an eye. Belle puts out more of her ads calling for men to cash out their bank accounts and to come marry her. It’s interesting that so many men were so willing to do this but that’s how Belle made her money.
Belle goes on a major killing spree. She gets so confident in her killing skills it is sick. She starts to get sloppy with her overconfidence as well. Belle even admits at one point she was even a bit scared of herself and her ability to murder so freely without any worries. This turns on her though when one day Jennie her daughter stumbles on Belle disassembling a body. For the first time, Belle’s sloppiness has gotten her into trouble. I wasn’t sure if Belle was going to kill her or not. Belle’s one redeeming point was that she loved her children a lot, they are probably the only thing she loves. I would be surprised but not surprised if she was willing to kill one of her children. Belle ultimately plans to kill her. Belle sets up this whole thing where Jennie and the family will believe she’s going to school in California but really she will be dead. This made me sad because these poor kids didn’t deserve to be dragged into all of this.
Ironically Belle complains about missing Jennie…like girl you killed her! She seems to regret doing it which is interesting because this is the first time she really seems to have any guilt or see the further consequences from her actions. From this, she claims she will never lose another child. One night Belle is making a poisoned dinner for one of her guests. This killing has made Belle tired and untidy and her children are suffering because of it. Belle gives the good food to her guests she plans to kill and this is hard for the children as they are hungry and want to eat the good stuff. Belle laced some orange slices with poison to give to her guest. After she and her guest finish and she goes to get the oranges Belle stumbles upon something horrible. Her children have taken it upon themselves to eat some oranges, and now they sit dead in the kitchen. This made me so sad not for Belle but for her children. Belle’s overconfidence and lack of awareness have put her children in compromising situations more than once. It’s sad that her sloppiness has led to their deaths, they didn’t deserve it.
In order to clean up her mess Belle has to plan her biggest scam yet. She sets up the children along with a cadaver body to represent herself and sets the farm on fire. She hopes to trick the world into believing she is dead, and James helps her execute it. Nellie is horrified when she hears of what happened and blames herself. She feels like if she helped Belle more maybe this wouldn’t have happened. I felt bad for Nellie because none of this was her fault and she shouldn’t take any blame for it. She couldn’t have done anything to stop Belle and her crazy ways. Eventually, they find all the bones on Belle’s property and the Black Widow of La Porte comes to life. Belle tries as much as possible to act as though this whole thing isn’t her fault. She and James go off planning to start a new life, and yet she can’t seem to forget the one she left behind. Belle tries to put on this cold front but it’s clear she never wanted to lose her children.
I honestly wondered the whole time in the book what it would take to stop Belle. I should have assumed it would be something to do with her children because realistically they were the only thing she ever cared about. I really loved how at the end of the book Camilla explains where she added in her own imagination and what was true about Belle and her life. I appreciated all she did to make this a really exciting story, true or not, and all the research it would have taken. I also agree with Camilla and I feel like Belle didn’t really die in that house that day. I mean maybe she did but Belle was deliberate in everything she did, and her thing was fires. I hope you enjoyed this review! Have you ever checked out any of Camilla Bruce’s books before or even this one? What did you think? Feel free to check out all my socials @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when a new
Baddie Book Reviews 