Product Description

In February 1994, the bodies of seven women were uncovered at the West's house, 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester. As the true horror of what happened there unfolded it became clear that this was the most infamous series of murders in Britain this century.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134439 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 390 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Gordon Burn has already written a book about serial killer Peter Sutcliffe so it should be no surprise (apart from wondering at his stamina for this sort of material) that he has also taken on the macabre story of the Wests. This is a vile catalogue of the manner in which Frederick and Rosemary West raped, tortured and killed. It spares none of the utterly sordid details.

Burn, who has also written two acclaimed novels (Alma Cogan and Fullalove), has opted to apply some of the techniques of fiction to this grisly task. But while this approach does raise ethical questions--he sometimes recounts scenes and emotions that only the participants, and they are dead, could have witnessed--such is his obvious seriousness of intent that these episodes can be justified in narrative terms. The vast compilation of awful but indisputable facts inevitably makes the prosaic detail of the Wests' lives, like Fred's endless DIY and Rose's Sunday lunches, almost unbearably sinister. And the ghastly details of their victims' fates are unspeakably depraved. Britain has seen nothing like this scale of domestic degradation before. But while every reader must decide for themselves how much of this they need to know, and how much they want to know, it is nevertheless right and commendable that Gordon Burn has written this chilling book and thus given people the choice. --Nick Wroe

Customer Reviews

Truly horrific
This is a remarkable account of the worlds of Fred and Rose West and it pulls no punches.

I have read of life in Auschwitz and other concentration camps, as well as detailed biographies of the killers Ed Gein and Dennis Nielsen, and I can say without hesitation that I have not before encountered such a detailed account of pure evil.

The news media have concentrated, for the most part, on the women and girls that died at the hands of Fred and Rose West. This book does not speculate on the details of those killings since only one living person knows what actually happened, and she isn't saying.

Detailed and graphic accounts of the child abuse suffered by the West's young family are included and I found these to be truly sickening. Including such details may sound voyeuristic but there is no titilation here, just horror.

It is a well crafted read and Gordon Burn should be commended on handling such a subject with sensitivity.

People will read this book and cry.

Grotesquely Fascinating
This is a grotesquely fascinating book about a grotesque man and his equally grotesque wife. Fred and Rosemary West will be remembered for their systematic abuse of their own children (and others) and how for many years they evaded being discovered because of the indifferent society they lived in. Gordon Burn takes his readers into a modern day Heart of Darkness in which there is no happy ending, only survivors who will never be the same again. This is not an easy book to read, it starts in a peculiar way, far removed from the West family. Instead it looks at the lives of people who at first seem to have nothing to do with the storyline, but then the threads are carefully draws in, showing the connections to Fred and Rosemary and how evil can spread its tentacles in the most unlikely of places. This is horror story that turns your stomach because it is true horror, of how a man and a woman could get away with murder for years. This book is not for the faint hearted or squeamish, it is brutal, and explicit in its search for the truth. However it is well written, savagely analytical and totally mesmerising. It is book that I can recommend but only if you have the stomach to read it...

Shocking, gripping, desperately sad.
A well researched and highly detailed account of the lives of Fred and Rosemary West and of the desperate lives of their children. I couldn't put it down. The detail of Fred and Rosemary's own childhood experiences was surprising and insightful. If you want a book that goes towards trying to understand why and how they could do what they did then read this, there are also some valuable perspectives from their surviving children. Brace yourself though, it can be difficult reading.