The Element of Need: Penguin Special

Book excerpt: Beneath its peaceful exterior, the city of Adelaide and its surrounding areas have a dark history. From the disappearance of the Beaumont children to the Snowtown killings in the 1990s, it has been home to a long series of brutal and baffling killings and abductions. In The Element of Need, acclaimed author James Bradley uses this long history of violence as the basis of a fascinating exploration not just of his own childhood and adolescence, but of the psychic landscape of this most haunted of cities.