Professor Maxie Reddick Files

Professor Maxie Reddick has her reasons for being sceptical of traditional policing methods, but, in between her criminology lecturing job and her Criminal Thoughts podcast, she stays firmly on the side lines of the crime solving world. Then a young woman is brutally attacked, and suddenly it’s essential that Maxie turns her words into actions; this is no longer an academic exercise - this is somebody’s life. But as she delves deeper, the case takes a sickening turn, which leads Maxie to the horrifying realisation that the attack might not have been a one-off.

Kelly Ingles's case should have been one to tug on the public's heartstrings: a young woman missing in the run-up to Christmas. But Kelly wasn't perfect - she liked to party, enjoyed a drink, didn't always make the best decisions. And when evidence of her drunken antics appears online, it becomes clear that Kelly might not just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time; she might also be the wrong sort of girl to encourage public sympathy. It's a case that's right up Maxie Reddick's street. But can she get the police and public on board before it's too late?

If Professor Maxie Reddick is honest with herself, there’s a very personal reason she pursued a career in criminology: the unsolved murder of her sister, Susan, nearly 30 years before, and her belief that the local police force let her family down. Now Maxie has been drafted in to help investigate a murder – nothing particularly unusual about that, except when a fingerprint at the scene provides a shocking and unexpected link to her sister’s suspicious death.