City of Lies

Twelve-year-old Goldie, impulsive and bold, relies on her skills as a liar and a thief to try to rescue her captured friends from the child-stealers running rampant in the City of Spoke.

A gripping fantasy adventure: the exciting sequel to Museum of Thieves. Six months have passed since the Great Storm, and Goldie Roth is trapped at home again, this time by the invisible chains of love and guilt. But when Toadspit's sister Bonnie is abducted by a mysterious criminal called Harrow, Goldie must leave home in a bold attempt to rescue her friends ...

In the last few months she had had more than a dozen messages from the museum, asking when she was going to take up her position as Fifth Keeper. Tonight she would reply. 'Never.' Goldie Roth is a trained thief and a skilful liar. She's supposed to be one of the keepers of the mysterious Museum of Dunt, along with her friend Toadspit. But although she desperately wants to be a keeper, her parents are ill and she will not leave them. Then Toadspit's sister Bonnie is stolen, and Goldie is forced into action. She and Toadspit follow the child-stealers to the neighbouring city of Spoke. Along the way, Toadspit is also captured, and Goldie discovers some dangerous secrets - secrets that the child-stealers will kill to protect. She will need all her skills as a thief and a liar if she is to survive and save her friends. But survive she must. Because the Fugleman has returned to Jewel, and the Fifth Keeper will soon be needed more than ever ...

About the Author

Lian Tanner is a children's author and playwright. She has worked as a teacher in Australia and Papua New Guinea, a tourist bus driver, a freelance journalist, a juggler, a community arts worker, an editor and a professional actor. It took her a while to realise that all of these jobs were really just preparation for being a writer. Nowadays she lives by the beach in southern Tasmania, with a small tabby cat and lots of friendly neighbourhood dogs. She has not yet mastered the art of Concealment by the Imitation of Nothingness, but she is quite good at Camouflage.