Murder She Wrote ; As Her Latest Crime Novel Is Published, Susan Hill Reveals How the Soham Murders, and the Terror Caused by Her Own Daughter's Disappearance, Drove Her to Write About What Makes a Child Killer

Mail on Sunday › May 23, 2005

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Summary

It was the summer of 1983, my eldest daughter was six and we were at a borrowed house in Stratford-upon-Avon. There was a corner shop one street away and Jessica wanted to go for sweets by herself. She wanted to prove her independence to me. Besides, our own house in the country had no shops within miles.

'I know the way very well,' she said.

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Extract

Murder She Wrote ; As Her Latest Crime Novel Is Published, Susan Hill Reveals How the Soham Murders, and the Terror Caused by Her Own Daughter's Disappearance, Drove Her to Write About What Makes a Child Killer

I thought she did too. And after all, I'd been to shops much further away before I was six. I let her go. It should have taken five minutes. After 15 minutes, I was frantic. As I ran out I saw her coming, in tears, with the lady from the shop. Sensibly, she had gone straight back there after taking a wrong turn in the lookalike streets.

My terror was not without fo...

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