Ordinary Wife

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen and his daughter Morgan Olsen, the gripping true-crime story of America’s Lady Bluebeard—a seemingly ordinary wife accused of poisoning husband after husband, who very nearly got away with all of it.

On a hot August afternoon in 1920 at Blue Lakes Ranch in Idaho, a new bride set out three saucers of flypaper on the boarding house porch. By nightfall, her husband was on the floor of their canvas tent, clutching his stomach in agony. Within days he was dead.

Lyda Trueblood was everything a wife should be: beautiful, charming, an excellent cook. Men fell for her easily. They also died easily around her too—poisoned by arsenic. One husband, then another, then two more. Her brother-in-law. And, then there was her two-year-old daughter—whose death no one could ever fully explain.

Six deaths in five years, and a 1921 trial that made Lyda Trueblood a national sensation. But what turned a Missouri farmer’s daughter into a methodical killer—and how did she elude justice for so long?

Drawing on court transcripts, prison records, and Lyda’s own unflinching statements, the Olsens go beyond the lurid headlines to reveal the woman herself—calculating, charismatic, and chilling to the last.

Acclaim for Gregg Olsen:

“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

“Out of the Woods is Olsen’s most important work... 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

“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

“Out of the Woods: A Girl, a Killer, and a Lifelong Struggle to Find the Way Home, is a heartbreaking tale... 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