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

Maguire and Bala, cohosts of the UK true crime podcast Redhanded, investigate what makes a murderer. True crime fans will draw immediate comparisons to the book Stay Sexy and Don’t Get Murdered, by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, hosts of My Favorite Murder. The two podcasts have similar origin stories, but Maguire and Bala forgo autobiography and focus instead on the killers themselves. Their conversational work explores familiar topics such as nature vs. nurture and the insanity defense. Killers are categorized as thrill-seeking, mission-oriented, power-driven, or visionary. The authors devote a chapter to the topic of misogyny and argue that law enforcement and the public at large fail to see misogyny for the killer ideology that it is, given its ubiquity. Killer couples get their own chapter, as do cults. Sidebars on, for instance, polygraph tests and postpartum psychosis are sprinkled throughout the text. Maguire and Bala also acknowledge that there is an empathy gap for victims who are sex workers, who are LGBTQIA+ , or who experience homelessness.