An ordinary family house in a quiet West Country town - 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester - is now known throughout the world as the House of Horror: the home of Fred and Rosemary West and the scene of one of the most shocking cases of serial murder England has ever seen. United by acts of unimagingable cruelty, the West's partnership was one of the most deadly in criminal history.

Serial killers are increasing at an alarming rate. Triggered by either sexual fantasies or a need to inflict pain and fear, their sadistic addiction to frenzied killing is the most horrifying of all crimes. However, with the formation of the world's first National Centre for the Analysis of Crime in Virginia, made famous in the film "The Silence of the Lambs", the methods of tracking down these elusive killers have been revolutionized.

Using their privileged access to the Centre's sophisticated techniques of psychological profiling, the authors have produced a comprehensive study of this terrifying modern phenomenon.