Allan Hall (1) (1957–)

Account of Austrian Natascha Kampusch, seized aged ten, and held in a cellar by the strange Wolfgang Priklopil for eight years. Hampered somewhat by the victim's refusal to be interviewed, the authors must necessarily rely on the words of her associates and press releases. The exact relationship that was forged with her kidnapper remains ambivalent: one thinks, though, of the many adult abuse victims who continue to retain feelings for their abuser, to realise that the eight years in which show more Priklopil was her sole link to the outide world would necessarily result in some kind of bond.
The authors question her family life (divorced parents; slightly errant mother, with a host of lovers...; father, drinking at the kidnappers's preferred pub. Did they know each other?) and comments on the strong, controlling personality of the girl, which enabled her to survive, to manipulate Priklopil into doing things her way...
When Natascha - finally- got away, Priklopil threw himself under a train. Much will never be known. Very interesting. show less

As usual I picked my next read entirely on a whim and found myself picking up this book. I'm not sure when or where I got it from but it looks pretty new so it was probably fairly recent. I really enjoyed 3,096 Days by Natascha Kampusch and I hoped this book would give similar insights into another heinous crime.

The book starts with a look into the formative years of Josef Fritzl and Austria's involvement in the Nazification of Europe around the time of WWII. I found this section fairly show more interesting and it does shine some light on how the Austrian character has developed since those times. It did all feel a little 'clever after the fact' though and it did draw some fairly broad stereotypes.

The remainder of the book details what is believed to have occurred during the 24 years that Elizabeth Fritzl was kept captive by her father. There is no other way to describe this as pretty harrowing to read, especially where the young children are involved. As is often the case in these circumstances there were many missed occasions where his crime could have been discovered and it doesn't paint the Austrian legal system in a very good light. There were some revelations which I was unaware of. For example Josef Fritzl was jailed for rape when he was 32 but only served 18 months after which his record was hidden.

The final sections of the book deal with the aftermath and recovery process which the family is still under going. If anything it shows the triumph of the human spirit but it is also a hard read. I can't imagine what life must have been like for them for even a second and its clear that the mental scars will exist in them for ever.

The author finished off by trying to portray Fritzl as a product of Austria and it's Nazi past. While this is an interesting theory and no doubt has some merit I felt it was too simplistic. Austrian authorities no doubt failed to protect the family from Josef Fritzl but saying that society is to blame is a leap too far for me. There also seems to be motive by the author to portray Austria as a country which still supports the Nazi ideal. This is a theory that should have been left for another book, one which would be equally fascinating.

In the end the book felt like it was rushed and it contained far too many insights from anyone who would talk to the author. Whilst I appreciate that there is a thirst for knowledge about the case it probably would have been wiser to wait until the case was concluded before writing this book. show less

As if carefully plotted by a master storyteller, picture the scene: its early morning and an innocent young girl is making her way to school. Maybe her backpack is slipping from the weight of her schoolbooks as she heads unenthusiastically towards her destination. She’s already focused on her day ahead and only momentarily distracted by the sight of an indistinct white van with a single occupant up ahead. It is close to the entrance of her school so she ignores that nagging feeling in the show more pit of her stomach, which urges her to cross the street, and carries on with her original path, straight into the arms of her abductor.

Regrettably, this chilling storyline did not develop from the vivid imagination of a great writer, but is all too true and was systematically carried out by a modern day monster. “Girl in the Cellar” is the detailed account of the incomprehensible case of Natascha Kampusch. The ten-year-old girl who was stolen from the streets as she made her way to school in March of 1998.

Not your typical true crime novel, “Girl in the Cellar” chronicles the myriad of missteps made by authorities during the almost decade long search for Natascha. If this horrifying situation had been a piece of fiction, the errors of judgment and sloppy police work would be almost comical. Only this wasn’t fiction and the mistakes had very real consequences as Natascha spent her formative years locked in a one room dungeon.

After the abduction, the natural course of life began to take hold and the worldwide media frenzy slowly died down on this subject. Only a few held the slim hope of Natascha’s safe return while others prepared for a different form of closure. No one could foresee what was to happen on August 23, 2006 when a waif of a woman, skin and hair dull from lack of sunlight and nutrients arrived at the police station stating that she was indeed eighteen-year-old Natascha Kampusch.

Though Hall and Leidig were unable to meet with Natascha face to face, this astonishing account is filled with intimate interviews with her family, authorities and those who had contact with the very real monster, Wolfgang Priklopil. While he took the coward’s way out—committing suicide upon her escape—questions to this day remain unanswered as Natasha, now quick tempered and with an understandably stunted maturity level, refuses to discuss many aspects of their relationship. As readers slide through the pages, Hall and Leidig successfully manage to return Natasha to her rightful position of innocent victim.

Reviewed by Suspense Magazine
www.suspensemagazine.com show less

This review is going to be very short because it just didn't do anything for me. I love reading storys about kidnappings and crimes and hearing survivors storys. This story wasn't told from the victim Natascha's perspective and instead told from two journalists perspectives, which made it feel very cheap in the respect that I feel like a lot of the aspects of the story were made off assumptions and here-say instead of factual information.

Because there were two differenet authors I felt like show more a lot of information was repeated and irrelavant at that. I feel like the story would have been better if told from her perspective or at least with one authors voice versis two.

This book just didn't kept my attention and was very mundane unfortantally.. show less