Secrets in the Cellar: A True Story of the Austrian Incest Case That Shocked the World

I had super high hopes for this book. The entire case completely fascinated and disturbed me at the same time. So I bought the book and settled in for a good read. 3 months later after picking up the book at different times and reading more I realised that the book for me just lacked something I had loved in other true crime stories....it lacked the sense of tension and true horror that should have been there.The book goes into a lot of detail, if you love that in a book you might well enjoy this. I found some of it was irrelevant to the telling and lost me as a reader somewhat along the way. Whilst really keen to know this story and the awful case that it was, I have to admit I struggled to want to keep picking this one back up again.I am keen to see if there are other books written about this heinous case that I may try in the future. I see mixed reviews of this one and I think some will really love it but it just didn't really do it for me. 3 stars.

Disturbing but fascinating read and overview of what really happened.

great

Fast delivery, good service, happy with product, Thanks !

Perfect

Excellent

The book is an okay read, but the style of writing it rather dull.

On the morning of August 28, 1984, in the small market town of Amstetten, Austria, eighteen year old Elisabeth Fritzl, at the request of her then forty-nine year old father, Josef, accompanied him to the cellar of their house, ostensibly to assist him in some mundane chore. Little did she know that she would not see the light of day again for nearly twenty-four years.This is the story that gripped the world when it first came to light. It was a story as bizarre as it was unbelievable. Josef Fritzl had kept his beautiful daughter Elisabeth trapped in a soundproofed concrete and steel reinforced cellar for twenty-four years. During that time, he made her into his sex slave and fathered seven children with her. Meanwhile, Elisabeth's mother, Rosemarie, lived upstairs with her husband, having been led to believe that her daughter had runaway to live with a religious cult, never knowing that Elisabeth still lived at home, albeit in the cellar.Over time, three of Elisabeth's children would appear in infancy on the Fritzls' doorstep, ostensibly having been abandoned by Elisabeth, who was supposedly still living in a religious cult. These three children would be brought up by Rosemarie and Josef, while three others continued living in the cellar, a fourth having died shortly after birth. The three children living upstairs had no memory of their brief life below in the cellar.In April 2008, Elisabeth's nineteen year old daughter, Kerstin, became so ill that she was close to death and taken to the hospital, after Elisabeth pleaded with Josef to save her life. This was the first time that Kerstin had ever left the cellar in her entire life. It was shortly thereafter that Elisabeth and her family were freed, and the truth that shocked the world came to light, resulting in the arrest of the now seventy-three year old Josef Fritzl.The book explores the lives of those involved in this shocking story, as well as the events that led to Elisabeth's eventual imprisonment in the cellar, the lives that were lived below ground, and the aftermath with its many problems and issues. While this book is not well written, the story is so unusual and shocking that the reader cannot help but be gripped by its inherent pathos and horror. There is certainly a place in hell for Josef Fritzl.