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The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a MonsterA March Indie Next Pick * A Barnes & Noble Most Anticipated Nonfiction Book of 2026 * A Barnes & Noble Reads Best Book of February 2026 From the author of the national bestseller The Dark Queens, an incandescent work of true crime and feminist history about Elizabeth Bathory, the woman alleged to be the world's most prolific female serial killer. There have long been whispers, coming from the castle; from the village square; from the dark woods. The
A March Indie Next Pick * A Barnes & Noble Most Anticipated Nonfiction Book of 2026 * A Barnes & Noble Reads Best Book of February 2026
From the author of the national bestseller The Dark Queens, an incandescent work of true crime and feminist history about Elizabeth Bathory, the woman alleged to be the world's most prolific female serial killer. There have long been whispers, coming from the castle; from the village square; from the dark woods. The great lady-a countess, from one of Europe's oldest families-is a vicious killer. Some even say she bathes in the blood of her victims. When the king's men force their way into her manor house, she has blood on her hands, caught in the act of murdering yet another of her maids. She is walled up in a tower and never seen again, except in the uppermost barred window, where she broods over the countryside, cursing all those who dared speak up against her. Told and retold in many languages, the legend of the Blood Countess has consumed cultural imaginations around the world. But despite claims that Elizabeth Bathory tortured and killed as many as 650 girls, some have wondered if the Countess was herself a victim- of one of the most successful disinformation campaigns known to history. So, was Elizabeth Bathory a monster, a victim, or a bit of both? With the breathlessness of a whodunit, drawing upon new archival evidence and questioning old assumptions, Shelley Puhak traces the Countess's downfall, bringing to life an assertive woman leader in a world sliding into anti-scientific, reactionary darkness-a world where nothing is ever as it seems. In this exhilarating narrative, Puhak renders a vivid portrait of history's most dangerous woman and her tumultuous time, revealing just how far we will go to destroy a woman in power.Shipping Notes
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4.7 ★★★★★
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 3
Great insight on what happened at Blizzard but...
Format: Kindle
My main issue with the book is the lack of non-american stories that explained the bigger picture. As a former Blizzard dev, there's much more than what happened in Irvine and Korea, with Europe's office mentioned almost as a footnote, and nothing else from the other regional stories. Shame but I guess the book would've been double the size.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2025
★★★★★ 5
Insightful inside scoop of Blizzard
Format: Audiobook
An intriguing, well-written exploration of Blizzard’s history and its staff, from inception to modern day, and their design decisions, successes and failures along the way. I loved the many quoted insights, and learning more than just the surface level story that might be found on typical gaming news outlets.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2025
★★★★★ 5
This book really helps organize a process that is inherently chaotic
Format: Kindle
I'm working on a series of novels about a world of talking animals that grows up after humans die out from complications of climate change. Every species has its own culture. I got through the first book and well into the second before I realized that I needed some way to codify all the cultural details. I had lots of ideas, but no way to organize them, and as I moved towards the third book of the series, which would require creating seven or eight whole cultures, I was feeling overwhelmed. Creating Life and the free templates the author provides as a download are proving to be very useful tool. I look forward to reading the other two books in this series, too.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2021
★★★★★ 5
An excellent book
Format: Kindle
I am a new fantasy fiction writer, and the detail of this book really helped me out very much. As I was searching Amazon for a book on this topic, this was one of the few that stood out. The author also offers continuous lessons on world building through his free newsletter, which I also find helpful. I highly recommend this book. Thank you Randy.
L.M. Montes
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Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2020
★★★★★ 4
Both books in this series are worthwhile reference sources
Format: Kindle
Great books--I got both this one and Creating Places. I simply stumbled upon both books online when looking for something about plotting, and I bought them both, and am glad I did. I'm a fairly experienced writer in literary genres, but fantasy/sci-fi are different. The first book I got, Creating Places, was immediately useful as I was creating a land ringed with tall mountains, and I wondered about rainfall--this book answered my question about how mountains effect rainfall! It's not like you couldn't look some of this stuff up in other ways, but having it all in one place was very useful to me.
This one still had tips I was interested in, but I agree with the reviewer who noted it did feel like it was more about world building for world building's sake (at least in this book). Plenty of things didn't apply to what I'm writing, but if you use these as a handy reference--rather than a "how to" book, I still think there is a lot of use here. (Plus, when I bought it, the book was under $3, so I figured why not?)
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Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2018