The Blood Countess (Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster)

“Puhak lay[s] out how received wisdom has been warped over the centuries by exaggerations, shoddy scholarship and outright fabrications. . . A skillful guide through the thicket of political turmoil, weaponized accusations and palace intrigues.” -Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

In the foothills of the Little Carpathian mountains lie many threats: yellow-eyed wolves prowling the dark woods, brigands waiting in copses of birch. But there is no threat so great as what waits inside the old manor house . . .

This is the legend of Elizabeth Bathory. And nearly none of it is true.

Elizabeth Bathory has long been remembered as the murderess of more than 600 young servant girls, a monster who held her victims in a torture chamber deep within her castle and bathed in their virgin blood to preserve her own youth. If Bathory really was so depraved, she would be the most prolific female serial killer in history. And if she wasn't- then, she herself has been the victim of a misogynistic, centuries-long disinformation campaign.

Born into a family of nobility and privilege, Bathory's influence grew to encompass land spanning five hundred miles through Royal Hungary, Transylvania, and the Ottoman Empire, with the well-being of thousands of serfs at her whim. As a powerful woman with no living male relatives, suspicion, rumors, and violent ire began to stir. Shelley Puhak now turns an expert eye to the archival record, capturing the downfall of history's most dangerous woman, and the tumultuous historical moment at which she met her demise. Puhak gives Bathory the trial she never received in life, revisiting and uncovering evidence that could liberate the famed Blood Countess.