And out by the cliff edge, in a darkened cave away from the eyes of the world, the cries of suffering go unanswered. He doesn’t know who he can tell about his fears, so he begins his own investigations digging deep into his family’s ancestral past.īut as the days pass by in Port Arbello, the menacing dark cloud remains over the once happy sea-side town. And now something about the past is clawing its way back. Things have never been quite right in their family. And trouble quickly starts to brew as unfounded suspicions and loose-tongued accusations begin to turn violent.īut Jack Conger is beginning to face up to his own worries. The local police officer is baffled by the events taking place. The community’s stretched emotions are all on edge as the town’s collective anger at the abductions continue to escalate. Deeply traumatised by the unspoken crime that had befallen her, Sarah is now psychologically fragile only ever interacting with her older sister Elizabeth.Īnd then one by one the children of Port Arbello start disappearing. After their daughter Sarah suffered a traumatic experience in the very same woods as the young girl had been raped and murdered, the young girl has remained mute ever since. The house, having been passed down through the generations, now rests with Jack and Rose and their two children - six-year-old Elizabeth and thirteen-year-old Sarah.īut the once prestigious family have their own troubles. Now, one hundred years later, Jack and Rose Conger are living in the same impressive home located at the very top of the hill that the murderous father had once lived. And now wracked with the guilt of raping and murdering his own daughter, the man casts himself off the top of the cliff edge into the punishing sea below. His heinous crime over with the man looks down at the lifeless corpse of the young girl. And so he drags the girl into the woods, raping and killing her. The man can’t hold in his brutal desires any longer. However, unbeknown to the young girl, she is being closely watched. In the picturesque seaside town of Port Arbello a young girl is out playing close to the nearby woods. But most importantly, the novel formed a good solid platform to start off a long and reasonably prosperous career for the author. The novel sold particularly well, with over a million copies sold worldwide. First published back in 1977, ‘Suffer The Children’ formed US author John Saul ’s first published novel (but far from the first novel that he had written), introducing the world to this now well-known genre writer.

Suffer the Children by John Saul