Lucky Red

A good old-fashioned freight train of an adventure story' Sara Novic

A feminist coming-of-age tale from a debut author - playful, feminist historical fiction for readers of Sarah Waters, Charles Portis and Anna North

In the summer of 1877, Bridget is orphaned when her unreliable father succumbs to a snakebite as they're crossing the Kansas prairie. Arriving in Dodge City as a penniless orphan, she's quickly recruited for work at the Buffalo Queen brothel and befriends her bookish mentor Constance, securing her home and employment as the favourite of Sheriff's Deputy Jim Bonnie. As winter creeps in from the plains, female gunfighter Spartan Lee rides into town, and Bridget falls in love with her the moment their paths cross. Their affair threatens the balance of power at the Queen, but is interrupted when an old flame returns to the brothel, setting off a series of double-crosses that result in the destruction of the Buffalo Queen and a searing heartbreak for Bridget. Their lives in ruins, Bridget, Constance and Lila resolve to take revenge on those who wronged them - but will they succeed in their mission? In a misogynistic world of outlaws and gunfights, nothing is certain . . .

A sharply realised, caustically witty and often moving revisionist depiction of frontier life that explores through its feminist heroine queer love, female friendships and the idea of a 'found' family in a page-turning romp of a female revenge thriller.

'This is storytelling that grinds its characters in its grip, then throws them into the air to take wondrous flight. I loved it to bits.' Shelley Parker-Chan

'Lucky Red made for such cinematic reading that I forgot it was a book!' Frances Cha