Found this on the Help Yourself Table at Morden Depot 2 days ago. Look interesting, so registering it ready for reading. Plan to read and release.

I found this book rather odd. I think that is because it was written and published very early, after Natascha's freedom and without her direct imput. It is also very repetative (I think to make the book long enough to publish). The authors used the same direct quotes to make the same point in various places in the book.

But it did provide me with a little more information than I knew, from hearing of the story on the news. It also made me very angry about the mistakes made in the search and police investigation. There were leads that had the poilce followed up on would have narrowed their search right down and most likly have ended her ordeal much earlier!

I am also very curious about exactly what went on during her captivity. The book hints that others may have been involved. Natascha aparently said that they went somewhere on the way to his house on the day she was knidnapped. And the supposed S&M angle. Bizare

And I can't believe that they were seen together, in public, towards the end, went skiing, shopping and stuff!

So after reading this book I did a quick search and very worringly found that Natascha's case is not so unique afterall. There are other cases of even longer captivity, serious sexual abuse and multiple births as a result! It makes me scared for all those who must still be captive.

Natascha has written a book of her ordeal. I would be interested to see what she has to say. This book is reserved for Maid-of-Kent in The Netherlands (to be posted soon as the Post Office is open).

This book is now in the care of Royal Mail. Hopefully It will arrive safely and quickly in The Netherlands for Maid-of-Kent to enjoy.

Thanks a bundle Shahrun. Royal Mail has triumphed again ;-)

I found this very well written although agree with Shahrun that some parts were repetitive. But hey, at my age, I don't mind that. :-). I, too, would now be interested in reading Natascha's own story.

On OBCZ bookshelf.

Picked this up at the York bookcrosser's monthly meet up at Ye Olde Starre Inne in York. I know it has warnings of true crime mixed with abused child sad story, but it might well be an easy read for the holidays.

I picked this up for "light" reading for kind of current affairs/true crime reading. I just feel sometimes that I should know more about what's going on in the world than I do. And this book certainly helps with that. It will tell you one thing, then repeat it several times throughout the rest of the book to make sure that you have remembered it! I'm sure that's not the reason why they've done it like that; it'll have more to do with the fact that they needed to bump this up to a book-length piece of writing, and also because of the style of writing it is. It's very journalistic writing, like you're reading a paper, nearing the tabloid style of writing. They say it's an impartial representation of the facts, but then you get these inserts repeated here there and everywhere about this innocent young girl who didn't know it was to be her last day of freedom, the last of an innocent childhood, whilst the evil man sat in his van with his demonic plans that he had been plotting for years. It was to be the beginning of his dream and the start of her nightmare.... ok, I'm not quoting directly from the book, but it does have moments when it goes into that mindset. The front cover is very manipulative as well. It's obviously aiming for that bookshelf in popular booksellers - true life stories of abused children, poverty childhoods etc etc

I certainly have a better understanding of the case and what happened, although there's a lot of gaps. I don't even know whether her own book would fill everything. Her business when she is released - all the media and the organising, the refussal to talk about certain things because it's private and irrelevant, and anyway, lets make plans for a charity to support battered women... it all screams that she's avoiding the issue and distracting herself from something awful that she can't even bare to think about. I suppose with something like this, where the criminal committed suicide, and you only have a messed up victim left, you're never going to get a completely impartial and total account of events. For starters, we'll never know what was going on in his head. She's been raised by one nasty man and contact with the media through tv and radio - I don't know where you'd begin trying to get your mind back together and trying to live a "normal" life after all of that. But apparently it can be done. They mention a Russian girl who was also kidnapped and locked up by a sadist for four years, and she's since moved on.

With all the criticism about the media, Natascha needing to step away from it all and get her life etc etc, this book is actually just a part of that as well. And I suppose we are too for having read it!

And the really sad part is that this isn't an isolated case. Lots of people get kidnapped and their lives taken away from that as if they're nothing more than livestock. And since Natascha's case there's been the Fritzels, which was, if you can imagine it, even worse. It's horrible what people think they have the right to do to other people.

Sending to a bookmoocher in France.