Austin Lively is a struggling, disillusioned screenwriter from LA whose dreams of success seem to slip further out of reach every day. Suddenly, Austin’s life changes forever when he walks through a studio door and is unwittingly transported to a fantastical medieval realm...
Austin finds himself standing over the body of a very beautiful and very dead woman. A bloody dagger sits in his palm; he has no idea how the dagger got there. Bewildered and confused, he is seized by castle guards and thrown in the dungeon of a castle he has no recollection of. Austin begins to fear for his life, but just when things look their bleakest he passes through another doorway and is suddenly transported back to reality in LA.
Did that really just happened? Has he gone insane? Was it all a dream? Did he have a brain tumor? Austin needs answers, and quickly, so he sets out to find them and discovers that the mystery can only be unlocked by a strange piece of fiction that holds the truth about the magical kingdom. But he isn’t the only person in pursuit of the mysterious manuscript, and his rivals will stop at nothing to get it first. To complicate matters more, Austin soon discovers that he has no control over when he passes between worlds. Escaping danger in a fantasy world and now in the real world, Austin finds himself out of trust for even the simple things, like walking through doorways.
Stuck between dual realities– charged for a murder he doesn’t recall in one and running from a maniacal billionaire who’s determined to kill him in another – Austin’s monotonous life has become an epic adventure of magic, murder, and political intrigue in both the New Republic of Galiana and the streets of Los Angeles, California.
Andrew Klavan is a New York Times Best Selling author and three-time Edgar Award winner. He is the author of 25 novels, including bestsellers Empire of Lies, Killer in the Wind and True Crime, which was adapted into a film starring Michael Douglas, and directed by Clint Eastwood. His most recent works, Nightmare City and Killer in the Wind were named among Suspense Magazine’s Best Books of 2013. Andrew is also author of the young adult series, The Homelanders, is contributing editor to City Journal, and maintains a popular blog for PJ Media. Andrew’s essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and many other notable publications. He lives in Southern California.