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

For over a decade, I’ve been interested in Elizabeth Báthory, who allegedly killed dozens (if not hundreds) of girls in early 17th-century Hungary. I learned of her story through the band Ghost’s song “Elizabeth,” on their debut album from 2010; I’ve also seen a movie about the supposed serial killer. Despite the allegations and persisting legends, what is the truth about the infamous Countess? Shelley Puhak separates fact from fiction in her fascinating new book, The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster.

What I Liked:

• Sets the scene with the myth and ongoing presence in media. The rumors about Elizabeth Báthory range from simple, cold-blooded murder of girls who worked in her castle to bathing in the blood of virgins to retain a youthful complexion. These myths have circulated for four hundred years, and this image of Elizabeth Báthory has made its way into countless books, movies, music videos, and songs (including the Ghost track I mentioned above). Many of us have heard about these gruesome crimes, but as Shelley Puhak demonstrates so well in The Blood Countess, it may all amount to the biggest and most successful smear campaign in history.
• Building up Elizabeth Báthory’s true character and her place within Hungarian society. The author goes into great detail about Elizabeth Báthory’s family line, marriage, and children of her own, as well as what her role Countess meant and how she was perceived. Politics and religion do play a big role, as does her ownership of land. Overall, I found it interesting that the Countess was generally well liked and that she was so caring for her children. What a contrast to the murderess she was made out to be later!
• Who wanted her downfall? If Elizabeth Báthory was innocent, as she always insisted she was, who would have wanted her committed for such crimes? Who would frame her for all of this and go through the effort to do so? What would they gain? The author here goes into the many rising tensions and why certain men ultimately turned so many people against her.
• How her servants were manipulated into confessing Elizabeth Báthory’s alleged crimes. Looking at the notes taken of their interviews, it’s clear that these accusations came out of torture, leading manipulation, and, frankly, sloppy detective work.
• Misinterpretations of written texts. Words written by or about Elizabeth Báthory have frequently been misinterpreted or misrepresented, adding to the idea of her as a murderer, when the reality was so often much more mundane. This comes down to language evolving and phrases that have multiple meanings. It’s amazing how things can be interpreted so differently—enough to change if we view a woman as a murderer or not, for example.

Final Thoughts

The Blood Countess was an eye-opening account of one of history’s most infamous women. While the persisting stories about Elizabeth Báthory are morbidly transfixing, she has long deserved for the truth about her to come out. Was she really a vain murderer, or was she simply a woman who was in someone’s way and got framed for it? This book completely changed my perspective on the Countess. I’m curious to read more books like this and see what other women in history have been misrepresented.

Special thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster here – it’s available as a hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster by Shelley Puhak
Audience	Adult
Setting	Nonfiction: History; True Crime
Number of Pages	304
Format I Read	Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	February 17, 2026
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Official Summary

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.