One-Liner
A disgraced magistrate fights to regain his law license and uncovers a 50-year conspiracy to control the legal system (Adult fantasy, 106,000 words).
Read If You Like…
- Courtroom dramas
- Legal thrillers
- Fantasy Noir
- A bit of mystery
- Skyships!
- Gay MCs, love interests, and LGBTQ rep
- Very slow-burn romance (coworkers to lovers)
- Love triangles
- Heists
- Happy endings
Plot Summary
Is love worth destroying his reputation?
Ten years ago, the theft of his codex destroyed Talio Rossa’s career as a magistrate in the four cities. But when his ex-wife—finally willing to forgive finding him in bed with a man—presents him a long-shot legal case, he has the chance to get his career back on track.
While fighting to rejoin the legal community, Talio uncovers a conspiracy so big it threatens the origins of the four cities themselves. Their prosperity is only thanks to their connection by magical floating waterways and the brilliance of their legal system, now regarded as near scripture.
To save his career, Talio must work with both the one who doomed his marriage and the hooded, heretical man who sets his heart aflame but is determined to plead guilty to a murder he didn’t commit. To stand a chance of winning the case, saving his career and the man of his dreams, Talio will have to uncover an explosive secret destined to blow the legal system apart.
Publishing Links
- Publisher: Space Wizard Science Fantasy
- Publication Date: July 16, 2024
- Buy!
- Goodreads: Here!
Content Warnings
Note: This is a legal fantasy thriller – fantasy noir. I usually write cozy or cozy-adjacent fantasy, so you might want to take a look at these content warnings…
- Angst (intense emotional scenes)
- Discrimination (religious and sexual orientation/gender)
- Dubious consent
- Explicit sex scenes
- Infidelity
- Murder (not onscreen, but there’s a homicide trial)
- Cultural/Religious conflict
- Social stigma (facial scarring)
- Suicide (mention)
- Substance use (alcohol, alcoholism)
- Violence (two brief attempts on one character’s life)
- That said, there’s a happy ending – promise!
Excerpt
Talio Rossa’s dowsing rod jerked sideways.
He looked up from the spot where he’d been concentrating. All the other scavengers were bent over their own long, narrow strips of pale blue mineral. None had reacted. This was his discovery alone, then. If he could trust the magic in the dowsing rod.
He knew every bit of his rectangular strip of merinite. False merinite, rather. Absolutely worthless, found in abundance, and identical in every way to the priceless specks of true merinite that could still be found here and there. The dowsing rod would only react to true merinite. Talio hadn’t seen it twitch this violently in years.
He rubbed his aching lower back and looked past the roped-off sections of false merinite, into the forest beyond. A ragged line of stones inscribed with runes marked the boundary. Talio could just make out the creatures and beasts beyond the translucent barrier. A hovering wyvern. A half-human, half-dragon creature banging its head against the shimmering wall. An immense coiled snake watching him with intent eyes. And beyond them, the Impassable Forest. The bodies of the mages. And if he strained his eyes, Talio could even see the old Royal Palace. The last remnants of the War of the Cities. Live creatures, dead mages and a crumbling palace imprisoned in the Impassable Forest for all time.
Talio bent down again and passed the dowsing rod carefully along the watery-blue merinite. And then the rod touched a woman’s beaded dress. He looked up and his former wife, Gawani, stood before him.