Belle

Belle Gunness is finally on the verge of the success she's always longed for. She owns a Victorian mansion in a bucolic town in rural Indiana, has a man who adores her, and is the proprietor of a thriving lonely hearts club business. It's 1890 and she's truly a modern, liberated woman, esteemed by everyone in town.

But life isn't exactly what it seems. Her dream house is a money pit. The man is loyal but hapless. And the business? Well, let's just say it's a good thing the house has a big front yard and the man has a strong lower back. Because the people who answer her lonely-hearts ads . . . always seem to wind up dead.

As the flow of men answering these ads increases, and Belle's efforts to accommodate each of their strange needs intensifies, the suspicious brother of one of Belle's early victims catches her scent and gets ever closer.

Belle is a story about a woman who found a way to beat the system, and the man who would do anything to stay in her orbit. It's about love, sex, and how much people will give up for just a moment of happiness. And it's about that inevitable price we pay when our sins catch up to us.

A true story . . . ish.