The Library After Dark

Daedalus is, of course, the famous Athenian inventor, sculpture, and craftsman, as well as the father of Icarus. So it’s quite appropriate to name a grand research library after him. The library depicted here is a bit of mash up, with references to many literary genres and many libraries, including New York Public’s vast research library at 42 second street and the infamously creepy Mütter Museum and Historical Medical Library in Philadelphia. Enter Aria, who rather relishes creepiness, and whose life is looking up these days. She’s moved to New York, has been hired to work as a bookseller, and even found her own micro-apartment. And then Aria’s boyfriend invites her to join him on Valentine’s Day for an after-hours tour of the Daedalus. What fun! Until the Library’s automatic door-entry closes shut, sealing their little tour group down in the lower decks. With time to reminisce until being saved, all the terrifying stories about the Daedalus start to tumble out. And then the inevitable happens: there’s a murder in their little group. And suddenly it would seem that no one is getting out alive. Campy, gothic-y, and a tad humorous, The Library After Dark takes the traditional closed-room novel, twists it inside out, then offers readers something quite different to enjoy