Happy Like Murderers [Paperback]

Gordon Burn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 2001

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The true crime classic republished to tie in with the ITV drama based on Fred and Rose West, Appropriate Adult --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

Gordon Burn was the author of four novels, Alma Cogan (winner of the Whitbread First Novel Prize), Fullalove, The North of England Home Service and Born Yesterday. He was also the author of the non-fiction titles Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son, Pocket Money, Happy Like Murderers, On The Way to Work (with Damien Hirst) and Best and Edwards. His last book, Sex & Violence, Death and Silence, was a collection of his essays on art. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 390 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (February 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571209971
• ISBN-13: 978-0571209972
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,199,830 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Life and Times of a Grotesque kind of "family", June 4, 2004

By 

Kali "bengaligirl" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happy Like Murderers (Paperback)

This is one of the most grotesquely fascinating books I have ever read in my life. It is about a grotesque man, Fred West and his equally grotesque wife Rosemary West, two serial killers born and bred in the UK.

Fred and Rosemary West will long be remembered for their systematic abuse (and murder) 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 themselves, in a way it is quite detached from Fred and Rosemary, and I think the author did this on purpose.

Instead the book looks at the lives of people who at first seem to have nothing to do with the storyline, but then the threads are carefully drawn in, showing the connections to Fred and Rosemary West and how evil can spread its tentacles in and too the most unlikely of places.

This is a horror story that turns your stomach because it is a true horror story, of how a man and a woman could get away with cold blooded and totally calculated murder for years.

This book is not for the faint hearted or squeamish; it is brutal, and explicit in its search for truth and understanding. It is well written, savagely analytical and totally mesmerising from beginning to end. It is a book that I can recommend but only if you have the stomach to read it.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent account, February 16, 2004

By 

Katrina Csanadi (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happy Like Murderers (Paperback)

If you are at all interested in the appalling crimes of Fred and Rosemary West, this is a must have for your library. Books about Fred and Rose are rare (I have only counted 6 titles). Others include: "Fred and Rose", "She Must Have Known", "The Corpse Garden", and "Out of the Shadows". "Happy Like Murderers" gives a rich look into the lives of these sick individuals.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and different, June 21, 2008

By 

Emmysmom - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happy Like Murderers (Paperback)

This book is the first true crime I've read in ages that took a different approach to story-telling. It's unusual, told almost colloquially as if someone were verbally recounting it. I noticed the repetition that someone else in a review below complained about, and I was intially taken aback by it, but now I believe it was purposeful and effective, adding to the impression that someone's telling the story to you. If a person recounts a long complicated story, it's inevitable that portions will be repeated - that's the impression I got.

I love the way it familiarizes the reader in detail with the lives of others in the Wests' orbit - it makes the whole story three dimensional, and thus far more moving.