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2000s: Six children held captive for two weeks. Five of them got out alive.
2000s: Six children held captive for two weeks. Five of them got out alive.
The newspapers called it The Bad Place. A remote farm out on the Thames estuary, where six children were held captive for two weeks. Five of them got out alive.
That was twenty years ago. Now adults, they meet up annually to hold a vigil for their friend who died. The only rule is that no-one can talk about what happened the night they escaped. But at this year’s event, one of them witnesses a kidnapping. A young girl, Sammi, is bundled into a van in front of their eyes.
DI Sasha Dawson, of Essex Police, is certain that the key to finding Sammi lies in finding out the truth about The Bad Place. But she also knows that with every second she spends trying to unlock the past, the clock ticks down for the missing girl..
There’s a new crime series in town and it’s set in and around Southend and the Essex landscape. This is where The Bad Place is – a fictional farm known as Baden Place which has come to be known as The Bad Place.
Essex and Southend feature heavily in the story – from the Wallasea wetlands to the River Crouch to the West Cliff area. Some such as the Bad Place are however fictional (luckily!)
Six young kids are taken when their kidnapper hijacks the minibus they are travelling in. Five out of the six escape – why not six? What did happen there when they were held there? And why do they all meet each year on the day in question to pay homage to the one that was left behind?
2o years later, the group meet and there’s a new kidnapping – DI Sasha Dawson, of Essex Police, is certain that the key to finding Sammi lies in finding out the truth about The Bad Place.
An interesting new crime series set in Southend on Sea. Why this works particularly well is that the landscape, wetlands and association with this place as a seaside town of family fun…has now been transformed into a bad place…..
It’s where children go missing and where 20 years later, the survivors meet to hold a vigil for their one friend who didn’t escape. But is this story as straight forward as it might be? Who are these youngsters, now adults and what secrets do they hide?
DCI Sasha Dawson is on the case but she has just as many issues as the victims themselves. She’s the one to tell the story together with Karin, one of those who disappeared.
It’s a twisty tale of kidnap, secrets and more secrets piled on top of each other. A dogged detective with complex family issues and an overall net of intrigue to grab you and drag you in to the Bad Place yourself.
Destination: Essex, Southend on Sea Author/Guide: Mark Hill Departure Time: 2000s
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