Red

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From award-winning writer and journalist Felicity McLean comes Red, a spirited and striking contemporary retelling of the Ned Kelly story

It's the early 1990s and Ruby 'Red' McCoy dreams about one day leaving her weatherboard house on the Central Coast of New South Wales, where her best friend, Stevie, is loose with the truth, and her dad, Sid, is always on the wrong side of the law. But wild, whip-smart Red can't stay out of trouble to save her life, and Sid's latest hustle is more harebrained than usual. Meanwhile, Sergeant Trevor Healy seems to have a vendetta against every generation of the McCoys.

Told in Ruby's vivid, inimitable voice, Red is part True Grit, part Blue Murder. It's a story of police persecution. Of dodgy deals and even dodgier cars. And of a family history that refuses to stay in the past. A sharp, provocative and savagely funny novel.

'This electrifying and unique revamp of the Ned Kelly myth will leave you breathless. The accumulative prose of rusted car doors and sliding suburban loyalties make way for an unforgettable female protagonist who is as fearsome as her life is young. Winton meets Tarantino in Woy Woy and it all makes perfect sense to me. I loved this book - a truly wild ride.' Brendan Cowell, Plum

'A striking new voice in Australian fiction' Adelaide Advertiser

'Filled with simmering tension, Red is both tragic and darkly comedic ... By drawing inspiration from Kelly, McLean shines a light on the idea that, though over 100 years have passed, too many ugly truths stay the same.' Books+Publishing

Author Bio

Felicity McLean's debut novel, The Van Apfel Girls are Gone, has been published in more than half a dozen countries. It was a Barnes & Noble 'Discover Great New Writers' pick in the US, and was shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards, and longlisted for the UK's Dagger Awards, and the Davitt. Her book, Body Lengths, co-written with Olympian Leisel Jones, was Apple Books 'Best Biography of 2015' and won the 2016 Australian Book Industry Awards 'Reader's Choice' for Small Publisher Adult Book of the Year.