Eli Frieden lives in the most perfect town in the world: Serenity, New Mexico. Honesty and integrity are valued above all else. The thirty kids who live there never lie—they know it’s a short leap from that to the awful problems of other, less fortunate places.
Eli has never left Serenity . . . why would he ever want to? Then one day, he bikes to the edge of the city limits and something so crazy and unexpected happens, it changes everything. Eli convinces his friends to help him investigate further, and soon it becomes clear that nothing is as it seems in Serenity. The clues mount to reveal a shocking discovery, connecting their ideal crime-free community to some of the greatest criminal masterminds ever known. The kids realize they can trust no one—least of all their own parents.
Gordon Korman was born in Montreal, Quebec. In 1970, he relocated with his parents to Thornhill, Ontario. In 7th grade, he wrote a work that went on to become his first novel in a school writing assignment. It was published under the title *This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall* in 1978, when Korman was 14 years old. He wrote and published another four books while in high school.
After high school, he moved to New York City where he studied film and film writing at New York University. In 1985 he received his B.A. in Dramatic and Visual Writing. He has written more than 75 books. He lives in Great Neck, New York, with his wife and three children.
