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Behind the headlines of a sensational 1921 trial, the devastating truth about a wife who killed—a haunting true-crime story by Gregg Olsen, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of If You Tell, written with his daughter Morgan Olsen.
On August 3, 1932, a train pulled out of Denver carrying the most talked-about woman in America. In a private car, under armed guard, sat a small, composed figure. Lyda Trueblood was going home to prison.
A decade earlier, in frontier Idaho, Lyda had been everything a wife should be: beautiful, charming, an excellent cook. Men fell for her easily. They also died easily—poisoned by arsenic she extracted from ordinary flypaper and stirred into their meals. Her brother-in-law. Her husband. Her baby daughter. Then another husband. And another. Six victims in five years.
The 1921 trial made her a sensation— "Lady Bluebeard," the papers called her. But who was the woman behind the headlines? What turned a Missouri farmer's daughter into a methodical killer?
Now, on this train carrying her back after a daring prison escape, Lyda finally agreed to talk. What she revealed—and what she didn't—would haunt those who heard it.
Drawing on court transcripts, prison records, and Lyda's own chilling statements, for the first time, Gregg and Morgan Olsen go beyond the lurid mythology to explore how an ordinary wife became an extraordinary killer.
"Novelist and true crime author Olsen (The Amish Wife) paints a heartbreaking portrait of a woman haunted by her narrow escape from a serial killer…As in Olsen's previous works of nonfiction, there's plenty of rigorous research on display, but it's his empathetic consideration of what happens to high-profile victims after news cameras stop rolling that sets this apart…It's moving stuff." ―Publishers Weekly
"An unflinching look at the aftermath of unimaginable trauma and a testament to the human spirit's capacity for strength and healing." ―Oprah Daily
"Prolific true-crime author Olsen offers another exemplary narrative of unimaginable trauma that packs an emotional punch." ―Booklist
"Olsen will scare you and you'll love every minute of it." ―Lee Child
"Wickedly clever! A finely crafted, genuinely twisted tale of one mother's capacity for murder and one daughter's search for the truth." —Lisa Gardner
"Vivid, powerful, action-packed . . . a terrific, tense thriller that grips the reader."—Midwest Book Review
"Tight plotting, nerve-wracking suspense, and a wonderful climax make this debut a winner." —Crimespree magazine
"Victims of the most heinous crimes aren't always at the center of the story when the news cameras, podcasts, and true crime aficionados rush in to document the case. Often these victims are never the ones telling their story and when everyone moves [on] they are forgotten while their perpetrators live in infamy. Author Gregg Olsen seeks to remedy this situation in his newest work which considers what happens to those victims once everyone else moves on. Out of the Woods: A Girl, a Killer, and a Lifelong Struggle to Find the Way Home, is a heartbreaking tale that forces readers to confront the unbearably grim reality of survival. More than just the graphic details that happened to Shasta Groene in the Montana woods, Olsen take readers through the aftermath of what it actually means to have survived the unimaginable…An honest story at what it means to be a survivor. A story of trauma and survival that will send true crime devotees through a roller coaster of emotions and leave them shocked to their core." ―Associated Press
"This book makes a significant contribution to the literature of trauma. It's masterfully structured for emotional impact, while also urging us into better-informed discussions." ―Psychology Today
"Out of the Woods is Olsen's most important work. What happened to Shasta Groene is horrifying, and not just in the company of a sadistic, remorseless, torturous serial killer. It's hard to believe she's survived. Don't read this book all at once. Absorb it. Feel it, if you can. I'm grateful to Olsen for his patience, compassion, and talent. He's gone into a dark, inhumane place to offer us a powerful story that should have influence well beyond the arena of true crime." ―Dr. Katherine Ramsland, award-winning author of The Serial Killer's Apprentice and Confession of a Serial Killer