House of Secrets

By: Lowell Cauffiel

Narrated by: J. Rodney Turner

The epic horrors of psychopathic mastermind Eddie Lee Sexton from the New York Times bestselling author who "knows how to dramatize true crime" (Elmore Leonard).

For years, Eddie Lee Sexton ruled his large family like Charles Manson. The depraved patriarch dominated his ragged brood of twelve children mentally, physically, and sexually, and enforced every cruelty imaginable, from vicious beatings to raping his daughters and fathering their children. Finally, in 1992, Sexton's eighteen-year-old daughter Machelle, seeking refuge in a women's shelter, revealed the shocking, sordid details of her father's abuse to authorities.

As the law attempted to catch up to Eddie Lee Sexton, he moved his family to a mobile home in western Florida. Ultimately, Sexton's efforts to escape prosecution led to two grisly murders in his own family. Yet Sexton's sick genius almost helped him elude the justice he deserved. Lowell Cauffiel's true-crime masterpiece vividly exposes the horrors of Eddie Lee Sexton's psychosis and the shattered lives of those who survived.

Contains mature themes.

©1997, 2014 Lowell Cauffiel (P)2023 Tantor

House of Secrets

A sick and sad story of a dysfunctional family. As sick as their story was still a good story to have read. I had no clue about this family. I only wish the survivors the best in their future.

If peanut butter could talk.....

it would sound like the narration in this book!... It sounded like he had a stuffy nose, also he pronounced words like the stapler guy in office space. Like his voice was being filtered through a jar of mud. Very distracting. I would have returned it but I bought it on sale so I had to endure it. I think I'll start listening to the samples of books before I purchase them to avoid this in the future.

children's abuse

very upsetting to hear about all the childrens abuse in such detail, and how long it went on.

Low volume warning

Despite being an avid listener, this is LITERALLY the first book in 10 years and almost 600 books that required full volume to actually hear what the narrator was saying. While not a big deal overall, it was EXTREMELY annoying to go from the smooth, Smokey voice of the narrator to literally screaming in your ear if you didn’t manually lower the volume.

poor narriator

I do love the huskiness of his voice and it would have been good, but it was just a little too deep and quiet that, to my ears, he sounded as if he had a mouthful of marbles. Maybe just some audio tweeks could help greatly. I feel like I missed a lot of the good details bc of not being able to hear, even at full volume or trying to decipher what he had said. Also I think I just had audio fatigue from the voice. I know I would love this book with just a few little tweeks!

- like it's a passing conversation -

So. Well. Done. If you want to throw up in your mouth and be unable to turn it off, choose this. Plus the bonus thick, rich, deep voice = great great great!

Good writing, poor narration

The narrators voice is not pleasant to listen to. Throughout most of the book you can also hear him wheezing through his nose, which is gross

A taboo subject that does need to talked about for the victim’s sake.

The narration was excellent as he told this unsettling story. Held my attention from beginning to end.

Not a bad story

didn't like the voice of reader. would have been more interesting if other voices would read like a play versus someone who sounds deep monotoned and put me to sleep.

Gripping!

Gripping! Well researched and detailed. Narrator sounds like Boris Karloff with a head cold; but is perfect for macabre nature of story, if you can adjust to him. May leave many wondering about the family dynamics of some kid(s) they knew in school.