The Library After Dark: A Novel
by Ande Pliego
A bookseller must escape the infamously haunted library that holds her darkest secrets, but with a murderer in her tour group, escaping alive is not as simple as it seems, in this twisty locked-room thriller from bestselling author of You Are Fatally Invited.
Not all fairytales were meant for children.
Aria Stokes is finally feeling settled—she lives in a tiny New York apartment, works as a bookseller at a local shop, and has even taken a leap of faith in love by indulging her attraction to bookstore regular Jasper. And he seems to already know her so well.
As a Valentine’s Day surprise, Jasper gets the two of them tickets to an exclusive, after-dark tour of the Daedalus Library—the grandiose establishment famed for its immersive genre-based reading rooms and, more notoriously, its rumored hauntings. While Aria normally loves all things ghastly, this place holds more dark secrets than she’d prefer Jasper to know. Like that the last time she was here, she left a body behind.
But when the automatic-door entry malfunctions and Aria, Jasper, and the five other people in their tour group become trapped in the library, they are forced to venture through the storied rooms and hidden passageways of the Daedalus in search of escape . . . and Aria quite literally has nowhere to hide from the shadows of her past. Then the group learns there’s a murderer in their midst.
Now, as she tries to break out of the library’s intricate reading rooms, Aria has to decide who she can trust—and what secrets are best kept buried—if she wants to make it out alive.
5 out of 5 fairies
I’ll warn you now, this is a dark, twisty read that will keep you guessing til the very end. There are quite a few characters involved, and we get to know more about them in small bits. I loved how the chapters rotate between the characters, and their voices are so distinct it’s easy to follow along with who they are. My heart really went out to Aria, given her history with the place, although most of the people there had some kind of tie to the library. The mystery itself tugs you forward, because even though breadcrumbs of who people are, and their pasts are revealed, you still want to know more. By the time the murders begin, you’re thoroughly hooked. Definitely recommend if you enjoy tense mysteries set in atmospheric libraries.
“Irresistible—bright and sharp and rife with danger, like a shard of mirror.”—A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window
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Ande Pliego began writing stories when she discovered she could actually wield her overactive imagination for good. A lover of stories with teeth, she writes books involving mind games, dark humor, general murder and mayhem, and most importantly, finding the hope in the dark.
When not reading or writing, she can usually be found dabbling in art, scheming up her next trip, or making constant expeditions to the library. Born in Florida, raised in France, and having left footprints all over the globe, she is settled in the Pacific Northwest, USA, with her little son. Ande Pliego is the bestselling author of You Are Fatally Invited and The Library After Dark.