Speed Demon by
Goldie Guttenberg
pbk out October 05
at £5.99
Mary Hill was well known in her Florida community for being a reckless
driver. On 7th August 2000, whilst driving her teenage daughter and her
classmates home from school, she took a bend at almost seventy miles an
hour and lost control of her car.
Hill, who wasn't wearing a seatbelt, was catapulted through the open side
window and survived. Her fourteen year old daughter and her daughter's
friend Carrie died at the scene and a third passenger, Zak, was in a coma
for three days.
The case went to court and she was convicted of one count of vehicular
homicide and one count of manslaughter and sentenced to fifteen years in
prison. She was subsequently freed on appeal.
Though the actual crime lacks the intrigue of, say, a serial killing case,
the author makes up for this by examining Mary Hill's marriage to a
multi millionaire and her relationship with her children and step children.
The message of the book is that, to an extent, we choose whether to be
happy or not. Hill could have enjoyed her lavish lifestyle but instead
opted to concentrate on her husband's infidelity. She became clinically
depressed and took to driving at high speeds, presumably as a means of
feeling alive again. Ironically, she told her surviving daughter that she felt
happier in prison as she was now free of the drugs which were killing her
in the outside world.
Speed Demon by
Goldie Guttenberg
