Fred and Rose

by Howard Sounes

There is a newer edition of this item available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fred-Rose-Story-Gloucester-Horrors/dp/0751577502/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549882974&sr=8-1&keywords=9780751577501 The true... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0751513229
• ISBN13: 9780751513226
• Release Date: December 1995
• Publisher: Sphere
• Length: 373 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.0" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

book I ordered

The book I ordered from this person came right away...no waiting for it at all. I was surprised at how fast I got it. Thanks. Liz

Fascinating and Terrifying but True!

I like this book because it has a family tree, a diagram of the house and useful information regarding location of the bodies. I just started this book and I find the writing to be pretty good. The author stays clear of his personal views until the end of the book. The story is horrifying to believe but reading the backgrounds of this unusual couple helps understand the crimes behind their union. They were unspeakable to say the least to include the murder of their own teenage daughter who wanted to escape. I remember watching a documentary aired on A & E with other surviving children. They knew that this didn't go on in other families and they envied families who had discipline and kept the x-rated stuff to the couples themselves rather than including their own children, strangers, and regularl visitors. The Wests' open sexuality actually probably caused more disturbances to the children who were affected most of all. They weren't loved as they should have been. They were beaten and abused physically, sexually, and emotionally. I wish the West children found solace and comfort now more than ever. They really lived in a a house of horrors beyound our imagination.

A Classic True Crime Title from Britain

This book is a classic true crime title. The case is extraordinary: an apparently ordinary and pleasant married couple, Fred and Rose West, molest, torture and murder a series of young women and girls -- including their own daughter -- bury the dismembered remains under their house, in the middle of the city of Gloucester, and continue living happily in said house for many years. The author, Sounes, broke the story as a reporter, and this is the big book on the case, which is very well known in England. Absolutely riveting and a big seller ever since published about ten years ago in the UK, though not so well known in the US. It will make your hair curl (if it doesn't already). A classic of the genre alongside Profession of Violence, Helter Skelter, and Killing for Company.

Very thoroughly written!

If you're here, you've either heard of them from a friend or you're a serial killer reader... With that in mind, this book is NOT for anyone who can't handle feeling a little queasy. As a girl who's read a lot of serial killer books, this one tops the gruesomely discussed catagory. The book is so thorough, Howard Sounes gives background even on their parents...so you really get to know these two people. The book takes us through to when they meet and then in painstaking detail describes each of the girls they forced into sadomasochistic sex torture...including their little girls. As I said, the book is very creepy and could provide nightmares...so buyer beware. Of course, it offers more than you'd ever dream of knowing about any two serial killers...and the two in this book, while following patterns of organized serial killing, as described by Robert Ressler, they are dumb as bricks. Happy reading.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

After recently reading a news story about the auction of the West household, I was compelled to read as much as I could about this travesty. Sounes' book is the definitive volume of the 20 years of terror that occurred in Gloucester. I found it strange that I had never heard of this case before, but the events sounded somewhat familiar (almost like the films Natural Born Killers or People Under the Stairs).The gruesome goings on nevertheless make for an engrossing read, where this couple (who eventually had eight children - some of which were killed, most were abused), lured people into their home, murdered, dismembered, and buried them either in the cellar or back yard.The way it captivated me was similar to Bugliosi's Helter Skelter. I'm not a fan of serial killers, but the story just holds you and scares the hell out of you - especially since it really happened.