True bibliophiles know how easy it is to get lost between the stacks of a well-stocked library. But in Eva Jurczyk’s That Night in the Library, there may only be one avid reader left standing after a harrowing last hurrah among the shelves. Many thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and Poisoned Pen Press for the advanced copy to review.
In a situation reminiscent of The Breakfast Club―minus the detention, Principal Vernon, or the insistence that anyone eat anyone else’s shorts―That Night in the Library starts with a simple gathering of students in a library. However, this isn’t just a teen dramedy where they spill a few secrets and bring members of cliques together; instead, these seven college students are about to graduate and embark on the next big chapter. Holed up in the basement of the William E. Wooden Rare Books Library well after closing time, they decide to try and grease the real world’s wheels by performing what’s called the Eleusinian Mystery ritual. The idea is to face one’s greatest fear, and, once successful, never know terror again. As in most cases, though, nothing is as cut-and-dried as it seems, and the students find themselves learning all sorts of things on the cusp of graduation, such as how fine a line resides between life and death, and how quickly fear can foster suspicion: even among friends.
As displayed in her debut―The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (2022)―librarian and author Jurczyk is known for her grasp of a good whodunit. This tale, however, introduces a new element to her repertoire: mythology. The ritual the students set out to recreate is one that they’ve learned about from studying the Greeks, who used it to free themselves from the fear of death itself. Anyone who’s been through any kind of “hell week” or the petrifying prospect of having to figure out what one is supposed to do with the rest of their life can attest to the appeal of asking the universe for a leg up. By switching points of view between equally flawed characters, the author does a great job of underscoring their desperation and the unifying aspect of apprehension and nerves that naturally accompany such a big step, all while keeping the mystery of legends close at hand for an extra layer of intrigue.
Unfortunately, intrigue turns to heart-pounding horror when the lights go out and the first victim inexplicably falls. From there, the body count rises and the plot moves forward at an almost breakneck pace. The smart thing would be to ban together and protect each other from the murderer until someone opens the library again and they can all get the hell out of dodge. But, considering they’re all alone in a place they shouldn’t have been in the first place, it has to be one of them, and tension rises quickly as it becomes more than clear that the only resources they can really rely on are the books that surround them on all sides. Readers who prefer a slow burn or a drawn-out investigation may not enjoy this aspect of the book, but will find that as the characters turn on one another, what each of them has to hide eventually comes to light, and thereby provides the type of in-depth development they might feel is otherwise missing from the plot. It doesn’t hurt that each of these revelations also makes it harder to tell who is guilty, which will titillate true suspense lovers until the very end.
For those who enjoy the slightly overdramatized pace and hodgepodge of characters found in books like Murder on the Orient Express, or the dark humor and quick-witted references to famous and obscure literature prevalent in something like the Netflix miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher, That Night in the Library should definitely be added to your summer TBR list. You’ll want to know whether or not the soon-to-be graduates (they hope, anyway) can summon the gods and make it out of the library with their lives as well as their wits intact before school’s back in session.
K. Watkins 