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.