The Lost Girl: How I Triumphed Over Life at the Mercy of Fred and Rose West [Hardcover]

Caroline Roberts (Author), Stephen Richards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2004

When Caroline Roberts accepted a job at 25 Cromwell Street, the infamous address of Fred and Rose West, she was only 16. Realizing that there was something very malevolent about the couple, she left their employment soon after, glad to be rid of them. The story should have ended there, but a month, later she was abducted by the Wests and suffered violent sexual abuse at their hands before being told that she would be killed and buried. Through a combination of luck and quick thinking, depite the trauma of what had happened, Caroline managed to escape to freedom. This is her story of those fateful days and the appalling aftermath.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Caroline Roberts was born in Gloucester in 1955, and raised in the Forest of Dean where she still lives with her husband and four children. She is a Reiki healer and works as a Project Worker for a for Substance Misuse Service. She started writing as therapy... it worked for her.

Stephen Richards, also known as The Golden Pen, is an international bestselling author of over 60 titles and his many successful self-help books have been translated into foreign languages. As a qualified clinical hypnotherapist and stress counsellor, Stephen was a former member of the British Association of Counsellors and was affiliated to their Family Sexual Division, Disaster Team and Stress Counselling for Students Division. Stephen now applies his time to self-help publications, running his property development empire and helping others.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: John Blake (February 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843580888
• ISBN-13: 978-1843580881
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,674,695 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bio of a wounded girl, February 18, 2009

By 

Gaby - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lost Girl: How I Triumphed Over Life at the Mercy of Fred and Rose West (Paperback)

Caroline Roberts is a survivor victim of Rose and Fred West. The Wests were arrested in February 1994 during an investigation into the disappearance of their daughter, Heather. They were accused of murdering 12 people (the tip of the ice-berg?) over a period of over 20 years. The verdicts from the jury followed some of the most shocking evidence ever heard in a British court. The pair had subjected their victims to horrific sexual violence before they were killed, dismembered and buried beneath the Wests' house at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester.

Caroline takes 10 years to write this book, her biography. Her experience with the Wests is quite shocking to say the least, her story is so perplexing that by the time she was reporting the events to the police, she forgets to tell that Fred raped her. In her shocked mind, Fred's rape was the least traumatic event of the whole thing. In fact, it seems that is Rose West who scarred her the most. Another thing that was very shocking and sad, was how she dropped the rape charges for the trial because she didn't had the strength to do it and the police detective was treating her pretty much like a whore. Imagine experiencing one of the most shocking events in your life and then being blamed for that experience, like a piece of crap who deserves the worst. At the end the Wests get away with their behavior and it will take years of years until they are found out for what they are, serial killers. At this point Caroline feels tremendous guilt for every murdered victim that is unburied, after all perhaps she could had stopped them a long time ago if Fred was convicted for her rape.

She was indeed a lost girl and a very wounded one, but her experiences are captivating as she struggles to make sense of her life (I read the book in one day!). We could all learn from her mistakes and story and in order to be better capable of protecting ourselves and the ones we love the most.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Just okay, July 30, 2007

By 

Kim "Kim" (Albq, NM) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lost Girl: How I Triumphed Over Life at the Mercy of Fred and Rose West (Paperback)

I was interested in this book when I found that Caroline Roberts was a survivor of serial killers Fred and Rose West. There isn't much about the Wests in this book. The book is mainly about Caroline's many sex partners, 4 kids from 3 men, and marriage to a man half her age. She wants the reader to feel sorry for her, but the only one I feel sorry for are her children.

The chapter on what the Wests did to her is horrible. Thank goodness both were punished for what they did. Fortunately Caroline was strong enough to testify against them.

Overall, not a great book, unless you are interested in Caroline's life story.