The US edition

Releasing May 5th, 2026

A bookseller must escape the infamously haunted library that holds her darkest secrets, but with a murderer in her tour group, escaping alive is not as simple as it seems, in this twisty locked-room thriller from the bestselling author of You Are Fatally Invited.

He’s trying to dig up the skeletons in her closet. She’ll do anything to keep them buried.

Aria Stokes is finally feeling settled—she lives in a tiny New York apartment, works as a bookseller at a local shop, and has even taken a leap of faith in love by indulging her attraction to bookstore regular Jasper. And he seems to already know her so well.

As a Valentine’s Day surprise, Jasper gets the two of them tickets to an exclusive, after-dark tour of the Daedalus Library—the grandiose establishment famed for its immersive genre-based reading rooms and, more notoriously, its rumored hauntings. While Aria normally loves all things ghastly, this place holds more dark secrets than she’d prefer Jasper to know. Like that the last time she was here, she left a body behind.

But when the automatic-door entry malfunctions and Aria, Jasper, and the five other people in their tour group become trapped in the library, they are forced to venture through the storied rooms and hidden passageways of the Daedalus in search of escape . . . and Aria quite literally has nowhere to hide from the shadows of her past. Then the group learns there’s a murderer in their midst.

Now, as she tries to break out of the library’s intricate reading rooms, Aria has to decide who she can trust—and what secrets are best kept buried—if she wants to make it out alive.

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In the centre of New York stands the city’s most notorious library.

It has a history of mysterious disappearances and freak accidents. But tonight, it opens its doors to welcome a group of strangers for an exclusive after-hours tour.

The famous author. The journalist. The professor. The bookseller. The architect.

They are here to see a legendary book – one of the most valuable in the world. But each visitor also has other, more sinister reasons for being in the library after dark.

As the tour takes them deeper into the building, one of the guests meets a gruesome, inexplicable end – and the others realise they are living on borrowed time.

The search for the murderer forces them to confront awful truths about themselves and decide which secrets are worth dying – or killing – to keep.

The UK Edition

Releasing May 14th, 2026

Preorder From the UK

  • “Irresistible—bright and sharp and rife with danger, like a shard of mirror. And what a splendid library Ande Pliego has constructed here! A bibliophile's haunted house, crawling with secrets: in the shadows beneath the shelves, in the darkness behind the doors... and, of course, in the heart of our heroine.”

    —A. J. Finn, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

  • ‘Atmospheric, chilling and brilliantly clever. With its gorgeous haunted library, creepy happenings and fresh twists, The Library After Dark is a true modern Gothic thriller. Do not read this one after dark!’

    —Sian Gilbert, author of She Started It

  • “A brilliantly plotted locked-room mystery steeped in gothic atmosphere and fairy-tale menace. The Library After Dark is Agatha Christie by way of the Brothers Grimm.”

    —Kelsey Cox, bestselling author of Party of Liars

  • “Twisty, atmospheric, and wickedly clever—The Library After Dark is Ande Pliego at her absolute sharpest. A locked-library bloodbath laced with dark romance and secrets that cut deeper than any blade; I devoured it in one breathless, brilliant sitting.”

    —Ryan Pote, author of Blood and Treasure

  • ‘Richly imagined and wonderfully atmospheric, The Library After Dark captures the dark heart of fairy tales in this fast-paced, locked room thriller.’

    —Mary Watson, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Cleaner

  • "Yikes! Stephen King meets Agatha Christie in this brilliant total immersion locked library thriller! The incredibly talented Ande Pliego has managed to concoct a gripping genre-bending mix of fairytale, horror story, and murder mystery in one of the most hauntingly cinematic and cleverly plotted novels I’ve read in a long time. In the best of all possible ways, this is the stuff of nightmares— and a triumph of gorgeously written, twisty, and gasp-worthy suspense. All I can say is: whoa. Do not miss this. (But fair warning: Read it with the lights on.)"

    Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author of All This Could Be Yours

  • “Ande Pliego’s twisty thriller is more breakneck than a guillotine, with all the foreboding of a dark fairytale. Smart, edgy, and utterly unique, The Library After Dark will beckon you in… but it might never let you out.”

    —Tara Goedjen, author of Please Enjoy Your Stay

  • “Ande Pliego's sophomore novel affirms her position as a master of misdirection and spellbinding plots. The Library After Dark propels readers through a labyrinth of twists and turns, secrets and fairytales, turning a nighttime tour of a museum-like library into a chilling and highly addictive locked-room thriller. Sit down, open the book, and get ready for a ride!”

    —Darby Kane, #1 internationally bestselling author of Pretty Little Wife