THE LIBRARY AFTER DARK

A library science student gets trapped inside a mysterious New York City library where she must confront both a psychopathic killer and unfinished business from her past.

When horror-story enthusiast Aria Stokes is invited by a charming architect named Jasper Knox to view a famous 19th-century manuscript of fairy tales at a library once owned by purported serial killer Evangeline Riordan, she’s shaken to the core. The manuscript, published as The Dark Hearth Tales, and the Daedalus Library are part of a past she would rather forget; but the prospect of romance beckons. Aria accepts the date only to find that five other bookworms—Callum Greene, a Scottish professor; Michelle Baudelaire, a middle-grade fantasy author; Piper Kingston, a journalist; Ruth Howard, a retired nurse; and Weston Martinez, a schoolteacher—also have tickets for the evening tour. The event quickly goes awry when the automatic door system malfunctions and the group gets imprisoned inside the Daedalus. Fear and tensions rise; one by one, group members meet gruesome ends in impossibly beautiful reading rooms filled with deadly objects, including toxic wallpaper that sickens Aria and a guillotine that surely isn’t just for show. Moving among the perspectives of the attendees, Pliego spins a complex narrative about secrets, betrayal, and revenge that eerily resonates with stories from The Dark Hearth Tales. Nothing and no one is quite what they seem. As a real serial killer stalks the Daedalus, Aria is forced to plumb the depths of an emotionally brutal past while coming to terms with a library she once called home and her relationship with Evangeline, a woman she once loved “with [her] whole…heart.” Intricately plotted and unique, Pliego’s novel seamlessly blends fairy tale, romance, and horror to create a richly textured reading experience.

A spine-chilling gothic thriller that explores the twisted ties that bind love and family to murder.