SHELLEY PUHAK is a former English professor who lives near Washington, D.C. Her second nonfiction book, The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster (Bloomsbury, 2026), is a work of true crime and feminist history about Elizabeth Bathory, the 16th century noblewoman alleged to be the world’s most prolific female serial killer.

Shelley’s nonfiction debut was The Dark Queens (Head of Zeus, 2022), the remarkable, little-known story of two trailblazing women, the rival Frankish queens Brunhild and Fredegund. The book was praised by The Times Literary Supplement for its “eventful plot, entertaining style and historical credibility” and excerpted in Smithsonian and TIME magazines.