That Night in the Library is a locked room mystery featuring seven students at a small Vermont college. Davey, the instigator, gathers several other undergraduate and graduate students, all hurtling toward tomorrow's graduation ceremony, to sneak into the rare book section in the basement of the library for an ostensibly classical Greek ritual after which none of them will fear death. It goes pretty much how you would expect with that kind of setup.

The book opens with a variety of points of view, so you can get to know the characters. They're a pretty standard cross section of spoiled rich kids, awkward nerds, overachievers, and townies. It's hard to sympathize with any of them, since they mostly come off as selfish, self-absorbed, and unpleasant, but a little easier if you focus on how young they are. Unfortunately, not all of them are going to have time to mature.

There's so much set-up that at first I was pretty sure we'd get just a single murder (despite the blurb's "body count rises" hint), but once things get started, it's a gory time until morning, when the library will open and someone will surely come to intervene. It's established pretty early on that drugs will figure into the night's events, and the outcome of this terrible choice is both inevitable and only believable if most participants are having very bad trips.

If I had been more interested in or cared more about any of these characters, especially Faye who gets most of the POV time on page, this would have been a lot more compelling. The seven students have motivations, but they mostly seem skin deep, even when we're in their heads. There was only one that I was invested in, and their fate made me so crabby that for the rest of the book I figured it was fine with me if they all died eventually. Especially given the way they damaged some of the rare books. These students seemed pretty replaceable, but those books weren't!

A clever story, deftly told, but so cold that I didn't think the author cared about anyone dying either. I think there is probably a big audience for this book, but it wasn't for me.

That Night in the Library is The Maidens meets The Secret History in a locked room whodunnit where nothing is as it seems.

At a rare books library, a library technician with a penchant for ancient Greece decides to perform a ritual inspired by the Demeter Persephone story involving 6 students/employees of the library over night. Locked in the basement stacks, with no lights, cameras, security, or Wi-Fi, what could go wrong? When one of the attendees mysteriously dies, panic and mayhem ensues as there may be a killer hiding amongst them. With no one to turn to but themselves, everyone is a suspect, with their faults, secrets, and ruthless academic ambitions on full display.

I really enjoyed this thriller. It's got both a dark academia vibe with its Greek rituals and shadowy library setting and a classic whodunnit plot whereby we do not know who the killer is, and which narrator to trust? I thought the setting of a rare books library was ingenious and provided the perfect backdrop for a murder mystery. The tension and fear along with the trippy atmosphere induced by the ritual made this book hard to put down. I thought the twist and revelation at the end to be shockingly good and offers up some interesting questions as to how much the ritual may have played a part in the final outcome.

If you are a fan of the tv shows The Traitors or One of Us Is Lying, then 'That Night in the Library' should be your next read.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

It’s Dave’s Kebede’s last shift at the library (maybe.) The William E. Woodend Rare Books Library, to be precise. He, and two others, have interviewed for a full time position there, but he hasn’t heard whether he’s gotten it yet (he’s sure he did) but tonight is his last shift as a graduate student before graduation and he’s planning to make it a memorable one. He’s invited a select group of other students (and their friends) to participate in an all-night ritual within the library that is based in the Eleusinian Mysteries with “chanting, re-enactments, spirituality and a lot of drugs.” And “obviously no one dies in the ritual” which you know means someone dies in the ritual. Hilarity ensues.

So, maybe this wants to be THE SECRET HISTORY lite, only bloodier, but the ritual doesn’t really get started. The participants are locked in with no phones (and the obvious answer only occurs to them after far too much time has passed, and contains a plot holes a mile wide). An interesting segueway though. So I kind of liked it. Oh, and very diverse characters, but not used all that well.

A good mystery that really kept me going. This is a great weekend read to escape in. Thanks for the opportunity to read as I thoroughly enjoyed.

Based on its premise, I thought this book would be very exciting and thrilling to read, but it was not. The idea of a locked basement in a rare books library, a group of 7 very different college students, and a night of adventure before they all depart the next day sounds like a winner. When one of the students ends up dead early in the locked-in evening, everyone seems to lose all sense of reason. Admittedly, drugs are involved, but not for everyone. I found the writing hard to follow and the characters difficult to tell apart. I did like the very clever ending concerning the early death. Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC.

Welp, that was a wild ride...I'm kind of undecided about the ending-it was either horrible or brilliant but I don't know which.

Thanks to Poison Pen Press and NetGalley for the free eARC in exchange for my unfettered opinion.

Seven young adults gather in the basement of the rare books library as the doors lock electronically for the night. About to graduate college (all but one, anyhow), they are about to have one last great adventure. They'll reenact an Ancient Greek ritual -- one of the mysterious ones involving Persephone –– and emerge no longer fearing death. They begin (most of them) by dropping acid.

From there, it's a vicious take on Agatha Christie's <I>And Then There Were None </i> by way of <I>American Horror Story <I/>. Twisty, turny, bloody, and satisfyingly mean-spirited, the story will delight those with an appetite for the (ever so active!) banality of human evil.

Plus old books, which makes it just that little bit more brutal.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was a fun little closed room mystery! My interest was waning in the beginning due to the characters, but once the action got started it picked up. The ending was a little jarring in a "gotcha!" Wink nudge kinda way, but it was all in all a fun quick read.

A locked door murder mystery set in a rare books library? YES PLEASE!! I couldn't read this gothic thriller fast enough. As a librarian/archivist who has worked at the Thomas Fisher rare book library in Toronto (just like the author), this one was a pure delight! Twisty and dark and it kept me guessing right to the end. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

What an interesting premise for a book! Locked inside a cage in the basement of the library with no way out until morning is the basis of the novel. With characters coming from multiple backgrounds and perspectives, the motivation behind what is driving the decisions of each character become very important. But, the most important question of all is can you survive until morning?

This is a CRAZY novel. Enter this gothic library if you DARE!
Seven grad students gather in the basement of the rare books library to recreate an ancient Greek ritual focusing upon Persephone. When one of the students falls ill, fingers are pointed and it's a tense, chaotic scrum to get out of the library before it's too late. Very interesting, very unique, That Night in the Library is a great thriller/horror story! #EvaJurczyk #ThatNightinthelibrary #poisonedpenpress #

Couldn’t finish this. Unlikeable characters that aren’t interesting or amusing.. Long descriptions of irrelevant matters. Tedious pacing.