RedHanded: An Exploration of Criminals, Cannibals, Cults, and What Makes a Killer Tick

Suruthi Bala · Hannah Maguire

Sep 2021 · Hachette Audio · Narrated by Suruthi Bala, Hannah Maguire, and Denise Mina

About this audiobook

Based off Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala's popular podcast of the same name, RedHanded explores real-life true crime cases to help answer once and for all if a killer is born or made.

Features an audiobook exclusive interview: Suruthi and Hannah interview award-winning author Denise Mina on the "the less dead", equality and bigotry in crime, the justice system and the media.

After meeting at a house party in London, where they discovered a mutual obsession for all things true crime, Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire drunkenly promised to one day start their own murder podcast. Six weeks later they ordered their first microphones and the rest is history. From the hosts of the hit podcast RedHanded (dubbed by Anna Paquin as her “all- time favorite true crime podcast”), Bala and Maguire have amassed a cult following of “spooky bitches.”

What is it about killers, cults, and cannibals that capture our imaginations even as they terrify and disturb us? Do we find these stories endlessly and equally compelling and frightening, because they hold up a mirror to society’s failings and to the horrors that we humans are capable of? RedHanded rejects the outdated narrative of killers as monsters and that a victim “was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Instead, it dissects the stories of killers in a way that challenges perceptions and asks the hard questions about society, gender, poverty, culture, and even our politics.

With their trademark humor, research on real-life cases, and unflinching analysis of what makes a criminal, Bala and Maguire take you through what drives the most extreme of human behavior to find out once and for all: what makes a killer tick?

About the author

Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala are co-hosts of the smash hit true crime podcast RedHanded, which offers a weekly dose of murder, wit, and WTFs delivered with facts, anecdotal tangents, serious scrutiny, and real British flavor. RedHanded prides itself on looking past sensational headlines and getting to the truth of every murder, cult, and serial killer.