League of Liars

In this fantasy thriller, four teens charged with murder and caught up with the illegal use of magic band together to devise the ultimate jailbreak. Now in paperback.

In the city of Kardelle, anyone can call forth magic but with consequences that are often catastrophic, even deadly, the use of edem--extradimensional magic--is outlawed. No one knows this better than seventeen-year-old Cayder Broduck, who once succumbed to edem’s lure himself. Now Cayder is on the straight and narrow, and his dream is to become a prosecutor to ensure edem abusers are punished to the fullest extent of the law.

To learn how best to prosecute them, Cayder takes an apprenticeship under a renowned defense attorney so he can understand the tricks of public defense. But when he arrives at Vardean prison, built at the heart of a tear in dimensions from where all magic comes, things aren’t so black and white. The criminals he’s meant to defend are teenagers like him, and their stories are complicated. Cayder hadn’t expected to be affected by their stories or to question a justice system he once thought had saved him. And he definitely never expected to plot the ultimate jailbreak, risking everything to free them. But, too late, he realizes no one is who they seem to be and everyone is guilty of something.

Astrid Scholte was raised on a diet of Spielberg, Lucas and Disney, and knew she wanted to be surrounded by all things fantastical from a young age. She’s spent the last fourteen years working in film, animation and television as both an artist and a manager. Career highlights include working on James Cameron’s Avatar, Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin and Disney’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her fiancé and two cats, Lilo and Mickey.