Inside the Law: 25 Years of True Crime Writing

Vikki Petraitis had no idea that writing one book about a murder on Phillip Island would give her a second career that has run alongside her chosen profession for 25 years.

A school teacher by day, Vikki has spent thousands of hours with experts, victims, survivors and families, to tell the true stories of real people, real horror and real grief.

She has accompanied crime scene professionals and police on active duty, and become biographer to two well-known former cops, and to one of the many victims of institutional child abuse.

Her writing career has resulted in 14 books and counting, with subjects and titles as diverse as The Frankston Murders, Crime Scene Investigations, Forensics, Cops, The Dog Squad, Once a Copper: The Life and Times of Brian 'The Skull' Murphy, and the one that started it all, The Phillip Island Murder.

Inside the Law is a behind-the-scenes look at Vikki's life of true crime writing. It's a collection of her favourite or most memorable true crime stories with a fresh narrative thread of the why, when and how she came to write them.