The Library After Dark

An off-hour tour of a fabled New York City library turns deadly in this overstuffed mystery from Pliego (You Are Fatally Invited). The Daedalus Library is known for its neo-Gothic architecture and for housing the last remaining copy of The Dark Hearth Tales, a controversial collection of 19th-century fairy tales. After Evangeline Riordan, the library’s founder and patron, dies under murky circumstances, the library decides to host an exclusive “after dark” tour. Bookseller Aria Stokes’s new boyfriend, Jasper, surprises her with a ticket, and she accepts, despite her dark history with the library. Aria and Jasper are joined by five other guests, including a retired nurse and a Scottish professor, with whom they navigate locked rooms, secret passageways, and possible paranormal activity. Then a lock malfunctions, trapping the group inside, and a member of the tour group turns up dead, prompting the others to fear there’s a killer among them. Pliego alternates between first-person chapters from each tour member and spooky passages from The Dark Hearth Tales. Unfortunately, she does little to differentiate the characters’ voices, and a third-act pileup of secret identities and narrative rug pulls grows exhausting. Eerie atmosphere aside, this misses the mark. Agent: Hannah Schofield, LBA Literary. (May)