House of Horrors: The Shocking True Story of Anthony Sowell, the Cleveland Strangler

By: Robert Sberna

Narrated by: Dave Clark

Winner, 2012 True Crime "Book of the Year" by ForeWord Reviews

To his neighbors, Anthony Sowell was a friendly and helpful former Marine. But they didn't know about his dark side - or the gruesome secret inside his house.

Sowell's secret life was revealed to the nation on October 29, 2009, when a Cleveland Police SWAT team entered his house to arrest him for an alleged rape. They didn't find Sowell, but they encountered a nightmarish scene: two decomposed bodies in his third-floor living room. Eight more bodies were hidden throughout the house and buried in the back yard. In the basement, they discovered a human skull. All of the bodies were female and all appeared to have been bound and strangled.

Two days later, police captured Sowell, a sexual sadist who had served a 15-year prison sentence for kidnapping, raping, and torturing a 21-year-old pregnant woman.

House of Horrors exposes the shocking details of Sowell's depraved crimes and twisted psyche. He preyed on neighborhood women, luring them to his home with alcohol and drugs. Sowell then murdered the women and lived among their corpses. After a dramatic trial in the summer of 2011, Sowell was convicted and sentenced to death.

In House of Horrors, listeners are given a rare glimpse inside the mind of a serial killer - through interviews with Sowell's neighbors and relatives, his surviving victims, and exclusive interviews with Sowell himself.

The book is published by The Kent State University Press.

©2012 Robert Sberna (P)2016 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"This book had me absolutely hooked from the first page." ( True Crime Reader)

"Rob Sberna's compelling treatment of the Sowell murders allows the case to speak for itself." (James Jessen Badal, author of In the Wake of the Butcher)

Interesting

This book was a decent pick up, I am truly shocked out how many murders this man got away with and really puts into perspective, what this poverty and drug stricken community had to endure. This had potential to be better but was not a bad book in any way.

Interesting read

This audible was very interesting to say the least. I found it very sad that so many women lost their life. It truly shows you how the system values drug addicts, poor people and the huge discrepancy between minority and whites. I never heard of Anthony sowell and now I better understand why. My heart go out to the families and even to Anthony. Maybe things would have been different if his life was different, but then again maybe it wouldn't have mattered one bit. I can't say but from all the true crime stories I've read on the subject, seems like some are just born evil.
Most Serial killers are born evil but, I think in this case he may have been made.
I recommend.

Gripping Tale That Could Have Been Better

The narrator was fantastic. I would definitely listen to another audiobook read by him. The book itself falls flat in a few ways. As others have stated, there is a lot of repetition. I think if the author stayed with a chronological recount of the events that would have fixed that issue. The book also fails to discuss what was the possible guilty plea for the case and why was it not taken. The thing that really bothered me about this book was that towards the end the author refused to meet with the killer in person to get more details. It was obvious that Anthony Sowell wanted to meet with him and answer questions he could not over the phone. The author refused because he didn't want to pay $300. It's as if the author just figured he has enough to go on. What really ticked me off was that he included Anthony's letters to him regarding the meet up just to rub the reader's noses in it. For this reason I will be avoiding any more books written by the author.

Good, not great

I only read true crime occasionally, so I don't think of myself as an authority. This book tells the story well enough and does a good job of examining the roots of the evil in this killer's life, but I just didn't find myself having to finish the book. It wasn't a gripping page turner.

House of Horrors is insane, & gripping.

Anthony Sowell, is the most evil, insane, psychotic, dangerous, & violent person, in the history, of urban America. Therefore, his story, is fascinating.

Interesting and sad

It is an interesting book, and well written. The only thing is that the author writes in present tense, which given he is talking about events in the past, is a little confusing.

very compelling book

I had never heard about this killer before. I don't know where I've been not to have heard of him. I just can't imagine what those poor women went through. It's a very scary book because it's true. God bless all of them.

Sadistic Man

The story was interesting, however, it jumped around a great deal. The summation at the end with the time line helped put it all together. Praying for this man soul. sick

I love this book!

I will most definitely listen to it again....why the hell do I have to input 15 words

Chilling story of a life gone wrong

This book does a good job of giving a face to all of Anthony Sowell's victims, even if it feels very repetitive in places. Sometimes the same information was repeated two or three times in different chapters. I appreciated that the lives of the victims where not glossed over, because a huge part of how Sowell killed so many people was because of the "type" of woman he targeted- black and often drug abusers. It really reinforces the fact of systemic racism in the US. So many of the victim's lives could have been spared if the cops had cared more about the lives of these women.

It tries to explain why he would do what he did, but you can never really know that unless the killer gives an explanation (Sowell doesn't really). The author tries to tie the violence Sowell inflicts on episodes from his childhood, but it seems more tied to his military training and failed adult relationships with women to me.

I loved the narration, Clark's voice is very soothing and the voices he gave to people in the book never seemed forced as with some narrators. Another narrator may have made the book feel even more repetitive.