I'm No Monster

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 21 SEPT. 2009

Proving beyond a reasonable doubt the falsity of the title, London Times writers Marsh and Pancevski detail the internationally infamous life and depraved crimes of Josef Fritzl. Born in Austria in 1936, married in 1956 and the father of seven, Fritzl saw himself as a hardworking family man. In reality, he was a rapist (convicted in 1967) and a tyrant, routinely beating his wife and children. He began sexually abusing his daughter Elisabeth when she was 11 and later imprisoned her for 24 years in a secret bunker beneath the family home, during which time she bore seven children. (Fritzl told everyone she had run away to join a cult.) But when one of Elizabeth's daughters became gravely ill, requiring a trip to the hospital, his plot unraveled, and he was sentenced to life in prison in 2009. Through interviews with family acquaintances, doctors and prosecutors, Marsh and Pancevski not only portray a "sadistic" Fritzl, but also Elisabeth's courage in surviving and attempting to protect her children. The authors also indict police and social service agencies for ignoring clues that something was terribly amiss in the Fritzl household.