Child prisoner Joel Brady is facing trial for murder. If he can survive that long. ' Vivid, complex, hard-hitting and compelling' Ray Robinson In the juvenile wing of a prison in Western Australia, fourteen-year-old Joel Brady – small, girly-voiced, nicknamed ' Psycho' – is awaiting trial for his role as sidekick to child abductor Marcus Welby. Joel still isn' t sure what he did that last day at Welby' s outback house of horror; his memory has blotted it out. Is his mind playing tricks in other respects too? Did he really see the malevolent Quentin, another of Welby' s associates, in the adult wing of the prison? Or is Quentin a figment of his imagination, as Joel' s lawyers insist? A more immediate priority is hiding from the rampaging cons who have escaped the adult wing, one of whom wants Joel' s head. Will his cellmate Glenn, an arch-enemy who has become his first real friend, stay loyal? Set in an ultra-violent, alpha-male world where human connection is a double-edged sword, and interwoven with a gripping courtroom drama in which the truth about Welby' s chilling set-up gradually emerges, this powerful literary thriller marks the debut of a remarkable talent.
