I would like to thank NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

This is the first book I have read by Eva Jurczyk and WOW, I'm impressed! This book has everything you could want in a mystery/thriller: group of outcasts, locked room mystery, ancient Greek ritual, rare-books library, and spiraling paranoia fueled by hunger and drugs.

The book gets off to a bit of a slow start, but we get loads of character development as we meet the 7 members of the group. Davey - the so called "leader", Kip - the guy no one really likes and Soraya's BF, Soraya - Davey's crush and Kip's GF, Mary - social media guru, Faye, social outcast, and Umu & Ro the only ones who don't work at the Library and are best friends.

So these 7 kids lock themselves into the Library's basement the night before graduation to have a "party" which is actually an ancient Greek ritual. But before they can even get started, one member of the group drops dead under suspicious circumstances. Disconnected from the outside world, panic, paranoia, hunger, suspicion, and hallucinations ensue. They begin to suspect and blame each other, often taking things into their own hands (with disastrous results). The group begins to get picked off One by One (very Agatha Christie And Then There Were None vibes here) in various ways as the night goes on and they try to figure out who the killer is before they're all dead.

The twist in this one is actually really good! I mean, all of the kids in the book are REALLY DUMB. So many bad decisions were made. But it makes for good reading! I will definitely be recommending this one to my book club!

That Night in the Library is Eva Jurczyk's sophomore mystery novel.

This book sounded great; a locked room mystery in the basement of a rare book libarary? Count me in! The execution of the story was...not so great. I was definitely disappointed with this one.

Told from multiple points of view, grad students on the eve of their graduation, the only plus was that the characters were racially diverse. But those characters weren't well-developed, we didn't have a good background on any of them. When they started dying, I wasn't affected at all, I didn't care about any of them. The story was slow to start, and only sped up for the last 15-20% of the book. For being a mystery novel, there wasn't a lot of suspense, or anything, really. People started dying and the other characters didn't really seem
concerned that they were in a locked sub-basement with a killer.

The writing itself wasn't bad, the story just needed more...stuff. More character development, more suspense, more hints to keep the reader interested, more plot. They were supposed to be doing a ritual, but no description of said ritual materialized.

All in all, I would have to say to take a pass on this one. There may be some readers who will like this, but unfortunately I don't think they'd be in the majority.

Thank you to @PoisonedPenPress and @NetGalley for a digital copy for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.

I stopped reading this book at around 50%. It was just boring and all the characters were insufferable. I looked up how the book ends and I'm glad I stopped because I would have been so disappointed.

This was a big old nope from me. Unlikeable characters, unlikely story. And the ending, wait, what? Far too gruesome to be just a mystery.

This one fell short for me. I liked the main premise of the story, however it was not very well executed, in my opinion. The kids being on acid and then the story being told left a lack of coherence and understanding throughout. While there were a lot of twists and turns, I felt as if my head were just spinning and trying to gain traction throughout. I’d rate this 2 stars.

When I was a high school senior many of my friends and I were in Honors English. Because of the assignments in those classes, we sometimes went to the university library to do research. One of the English teachers at our school warned us, "Don't go into the stacks alone." When we pressed her for the reason behind her warning she eventually told us that she was worried that college students might get fresh with us. So we always went in pairs or groups, to prevent the sexual harassment she seemed to think might happen if we were alone.

That teacher had never read this book, obviously, and neither had we. If it had been published back in the day (no, I am not naming a specific year), then we would have had much more specific reasons to be afraid. Jurczyk has created a self-contained world down in the stacks, after hours, with the exits locked. The people gathered there to perform an ancient ritual each have their own reasons to participate. Ostensibly they all want to see if this ritual can actually "free those who take part in it from the fear of death." This last night before graduation and their next step into a wider world seems the perfect time to cut loose their fears.

Instead, one death follows another. Different causes for the deaths have the survivors of each fatality accusing one another, forming alliances that shift with each new event, and coming up with theories about who is behind the deaths and what their motivations are. For soon-to-be college graduates, none of them seem very good at communicating. Readers can see what the characters are reacting to and what their conclusions are, but they don't make their reasoning clear to each other and always hold things back, making their answers seem suspicious and self-serving. Eventually the readers and characters all wonder if anyone will be left alive when the library opens in the morning.

If you enjoy stories that take place in supposedly civilized settings (after all, what can be more sedate and safe than a library), but where the action turns that possible safe haven into an increasingly hysterical and frenzied fight for survival - then pick up a copy right away. But read it with the lights on.

That Night In The Library by Eva Jurczyk is chilling and intense, with some scenes clearly there for shock value. When five almost-strangers get together for a Greek ritual in an old library, events start to unfold quickly. Not everyone makes it out alive.
The end does tie it all together nicely in the end, but I was definitely not the main targeted audience.

love libraries. Not surprising, as a reader. But I also love books about libraries or that take place in libraries. So when I saw the title of this book, I was already hooked.

That Night in the Library is about a small group of college students who are invited by one of the students to perform an ancient ritual together after-hours in their college library. on the eve of graduation. As the group of curious folks gather for something they are not 100% sure it is.

As I read the book, I I thought it would be a "Breakfast Club" type experience - each person, at this liminal time of life, would share their vulnerabilities and insecurities. Plotwise, I was totally WRONG. I did not expect a murder mystery! That threw me and it further hooked me.

And...we DID get to know the characters, their anxieties and their vulnerabilities. So with the suspense and the fear inducing prospect of being lock in a library all night, this book provided a very rich read, a little scary, but definitely captivating.

This book had a really cool sounding plot but the execution fell short for me. I didn’t love any of the characters and the dialogue seemed weirdly forced. This was also a confusing plot and never drummed up the excitement I had originally felt when reading the blurb. Overall this was a hard read for me and not something I’m eager to recommend unfortunately.

2.5 ⭐


I loved the setting/premise of this book. I have seen a few negative reviews about the characters being unlikable but maybe that is the point?
It didnt take anything away from my reading experience.


I kind of liked the ending how it all wrapped up. I am conflicted with my rating as for the most part it felt like it was written for a younger audience but it obviously contained many heavy adult themes.

I take most adult mystery thrillers with grains of salt. Young Adult (mystery thriller) I’m more fine with. But I’m trying to shop around and see exactly what I’ll like and dislike from Adult books. Unfortunately while this looked really good and I was interested at the start it petered out quite fast. I didn’t like the deaths, I really didn’t like the ending. I could see how it could’ve been better but unfortunately it didn’t go that way.

I liked locked room mysteries, I like it when people are getting picked off one-by-one and anyone could be the killer. This had all three but just threw it all away for an nonsensical ending. And the characters seemed to be interesting all for the first few chapters. Every time I thought I liked one of the characters they did something or said something and we were back to the beginning. The book might’ve been more interesting and likeable if Davey, the one character, just wasn’t there. He was totally my least favourite and thought himself to be the bee’s knees. I don’t think I even had a favourite, or, the character I disliked the least.

In most Adult mystery/thriller books it’s the characters I don’t like. Their personalities, how they treat the characters around them and their dialogue. I like unlikeable characters but only if they’re written well. They were well-written in here but because I didn’t like their personalities at all, it was hard to like their unlikeable personalities. I don’t know if that makes much sense.

I think this might have fallen short for me due to my age? I found the characters overly immature with barely any common sense or life-preservation skills. The locked room library premise was so cool to me, and since it was marketed with Breakfast Club vibes, I wanted to love it, but it just fell short for me. There seemed to be too many attempts at shocking twists making the plot overly stuffed and chaotic.

What a wild ride! Complete unlike the author’s first book. Had this been a movie I would not have watched it because it is a blood bath and I am a baby. As a book, this was such a unique twist on the locked room genre that I was able to plow through and somehow soften the utter gruesomeness of the situation in my mind.

I absolutely believe how easily tensions would rise in a situation like that and can complete see the events of “That Night In The Library” playing out just as it did.This book is not for the faint of heart but if you enjoy a locked room plot this is unlike anything I have ever read before.

Probably not for fans of the cozy mystery genre or for about 90% of individuals who would traditionally be drawn to a book set in a library but recommended for readers who can handle a little gore and enjoy books where a traditional method is explored in a unique way.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen and the author for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

*3.5 stars rounded up to 4*

Welcome to Vermont’s William E. Woodend Rare Books Library, a building holding thousands of valuable books & now, several dead bodies…

This novel’s premise made it seem (at least to me) that there would be more emphasis on the Greek ritual the students gathered in the basement to perform, so I was a little surprised when that part was relatively minor & it turned into more of a bloodbath than I anticipated. Nevertheless, the paranoia the students experienced from the fasting & the drugs heightened the tension as the night went on, & I did enjoy the little details about the specifics of the old maps & volumes. I also thought the final twist was particularly clever.

Thank you to NetGalley & Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. I read the first few chapters and it did not hold my interest. It is a DNF for me.

I am a fan of books about books, or libraries, or bookstores, so I was immediately drawn to That Night in the Library by Eva Jurczyk. The description of this book reminded me immediately of The Maidens by Alex Michaelides which I thoroughly enjoyed. A group of students who have been working in the library and their friends are invited for a secret overnight gathering where they will perform the Greek Eleusinian ritual that requires 7 people. This locked room mystery has dark academia vibes, unreliable narrators, and multiple points of view. Following a strict protocol of fasting and use of LSD, the members of the group secretly lock themselves in the basement of the library overnight after it has closed. With only candles and phones to light their way, what ensues is paranoia and ultimately death. Who will survive the night? I enjoyed the multi-POVs and watching the night play out through different eyes. I was pulled in early to this story as I waited to learn more about the mythology and ritual; however, I was left wanting when the story took a turn and the bodies started piling up. Once the pieces of the story came together with a crazy ending, I was left thinking about the story and the devices used to tell this story. The characters were all quite interesting and without their first-person narratives, we would have missed out on their unique voices as we tried to figure out why everyone was dying. I definitely wouldn’t agree to lock myself in the basement of a library after reading this!
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Yikes, this one has awful reviews so I will not be persevering to finish, DNF at 25% I picked this on cover and premise but this is just a wildly immature book.

Happy to include this title in “Cool It,” a recent round-up highlighting notable new mysteries and thrillers in the Books section of Canadian national culture and lifestyle magazine Zoomer. (see column and mini-review at link)

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.

Known for works like 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 definitely 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.

2.5 stars
I really wanted to like this book. I mean I love reading so a book placed in a library really caught my eye. However the book fell short for me. It had a good idea, but I felt like it was executed right. I was confused a lot on by what was going on. I felt like there were a lot of pages of information I didn’t really need. When the action scene happened it was good, but it just took a really long time to get there.