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. Perfect for fans of Six of Crows and How to Get Away with Murder.
LEAGUE OF LIARS
by Astrid Scholte
G.P Putnam’s Sons, February 2022
(via Sterling Lord Literisitc)
Ever since his mother was killed, seventeen-year-old Cayder Broduck has had one goal—to see illegal users of magic brought to justice. People who carelessly use extradimensional magic for their own self-interest, without a care about the damage it does to society or those around them, deserve to be punished as far as Cayder is concerned. Because magic always has a price. So, when Cayder lands a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to apprentice under a premier public defender, he takes it. If he can learn all the tricks of public defense, the better he’ll be able to dismantle defense arguments when he’s a prosecutor. Then he’ll finally be able to make sure justice is served.
But when he meets the three criminals he’s supposed to defend, it no longer seems so black and white. They’re teenagers, like him, and their stories are … complicated, like his. Vardean, the prison where Cayder’s new clients are incarcerated, also happens to be at the very heart of the horrible tear in the veil between their world and another dimension—where all magic comes from.
LEAGUE OF LIARS is a dark and twisty mystery set in a richly-drawn world where nothing is as it seems, rife with magic, villains and danger.
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. Her debut young adult novel, Four Dead Queens, was an international bestseller and award winner.

When Vladimir Putin becomes president in January 2000, Anton, a rich commodities trader, flees Moscow. Behind him lie eight breathtaking years in post-Soviet predatory capitalism, ahead of him yawning boredom in the well-off milieu of New York. But even at forty, Anton is still an incorrigible romantic in search of the next thrill. Then a headhunter makes him an enticing offer. Anton is to build up a steel company in Kazakhstan, which is so rich in mineral resources, with money from anonymous sources. The German embarks on the adventure and learns painfully how local clans and insatiable elites ruthlessly defend the loot they have amassed after the fall of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, Anton finds allies and makes a momentous pact.
When they meet as children, Nina and Jess form a strong bond, one that quickly intensifies when they discover they share an extraordinary power: they can swap bodies. As they grow older, they use this ability to steal into each other’s lives, unearthing secrets and betraying confidences. Nina, introspective and self-conscious, is seduced by the turbulence of Jess’ life, but also possessive of her bolder friend. Jess, meanwhile, envies the stability of Nina’s world, and wishes to seize it for herself. Now, Jess has re-entered Nina’s life after a long separation. She is in crisis after her father’s death, and says she needs Nina’s help, but Nina fears she may try to take far more than that. Over the course of this novel, they reckon with the truth, the beauty, and the horror of walking in another person’s shoes.
Jonathan Abernathy is screwed. Jobless, behind on his student loan payments, and a self-declared failure, the only thing Abernathy has in abundance is debt. When a government loan forgiveness program offers him a job he can do literally in his sleep, he thinks he’s found his big break. That is, until he finds himself auditing the dreams of white collar workers, flagging their anxieties and preoccupations for removal.
Sixteen-year-old Odile Ozanne is an awkward, quiet girl, vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decree who among the town’s residents may be escorted deep into the woods, who may cross the border’s barbed wire fence, who may make the arduous trek to descend into the next valley over. It’s the same valley, the same town. But to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. The only border crossings permitted by the Conseil are mourning tours: furtive viewings of the dead in towns where the dead are still alive.