Pretty Boy Red

A haunting literary crime novel about memory, guilt and the search for justice

Fourteen-year-old Joel Brady is awaiting trial for murder. Trapped inside a brutal juvenile prison and haunted by memories he cannot trust, he must face a courtroom determined to uncover the truth about the crimes that brought him there. A gripping literary crime novel about trauma, memory and justice.

What if the only witness to the truth can no longer trust his own memory

Fourteen-year-old Joel Brady is awaiting trial for murder.

Locked inside the juvenile wing of a Western Australian prison, Joel has become known simply as 'Psycho'. Feared by other inmates and abandoned by almost everyone else, he struggles to piece together the events that led him to the isolated outback property of child abductor Marcus Welby – and the violent confrontation that left Welby dead.

As Joel prepares to stand trial, the courtroom becomes another battleground. Lawyers, psychiatrists and witnesses all have their own version of events, while Joel's fractured memories refuse to settle into a single truth.

Told through Joel's unforgettable voice, Pretty Boy Red is a powerful literary crime novel exploring childhood trauma, memory, justice and the fragile line between victim and perpetrator. Blending an intense courtroom drama with a haunting prison narrative, Derek Byrne's remarkable debut asks whether the truth is ever enough to deliver justice.

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