Description

‘A Western like you’ve never seen before: a story of reinvention, sex work, found family, and queer self-discovery’ Harper’s Bazaaar, Best Queer Books of 2023

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

Publisher Review

A Western like you’ve never seen before: a story of reinvention, sex work, found family, and queer self-discovery. * Harper’s Bazaar, BEST QUEER BOOKS OF 2023 * An exceptional historical tale of sex work and queer desire on the American frontier… This is a knockout. * Publishers Weekly * The fierce feminist Western that I didn’t know I needed. Immersive, exciting and brilliantly written, Lucky Red captured me from the first page and didn’t let go. I loved it. — Sophie Keetch, author of MORGAN IS MY NAME Claudia Cravens is a masterful new talent and her debut is a breath of fresh air. Red is Cravens’ subversive take on western fiction: it’s a deftly told, absorbing coming-of-age story about a young woman’s life in a Dodge City brothel, and one of the most heartfelt and thrilling books I’ve read in ages. * Lauren Wilkinson, bestselling author of AMERICAN SPY * A thrilling and surprising story of deep human hunger and desire, of the ache that lives in all of us, and the sometimes violent lengths that we will go to feel seen and loved and understood. — Lynn Steger Strong, author of WANT The Western I never knew I needed – where all the most fascinating misfit characters usually pushed to the fringe take their rightful places center stage. Cravens strikes the perfect balance here – queer, feminist, subversive, and a good old-fashioned freight train of an adventure story. * Sara Novic, author of TRUE BIZ * A renegade Western alternating between lonely darkness, feverish desire and thrilling action. Lucky Red made for such cinematic reading that I forgot it was a book! — Frances Cha, author of IF I HAD YOUR FACE I dare anyone not to thrill to this book! Lucky Red takes the western genre and shakes the life back into it. Explosive and intimate, dense with human connection, and above all seized with the need for freedom of the queer self: 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, author of SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN