Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio

From M.L. Rio, author of If We Were Villains, comes a short but engaging novella about a misfit group of acquaintances who encounter an open grave in the graveyard where they meet for a break during the lonely night.

"Graveyard Shift" by M.L. Rio - Illustrator: Teagan White - Designer: Pete Garceau

A perfect quick read for a cozy autumn night, Graveyard Shift pulls you in with a ragtag group of strangers in the night who know each other only as fellow night owls united by a mystery worth solving. It's giving Scooby-Doo, yes, but this story is hardly as simple.

A journalist major, a hotel receptionist, a bartender, a rideshare driver, and the wayward man that lives in the ominous church that overlooks the cemetery where they meet for companionship in the wee hours of the morning find an open grave where there shouldn't be. When the mysterious gravedigger returns to fill the grave with dead rodents covered in a strange fungus, the group decides to solve this mystery. Even if the answer is one they'd rather not know.

Author M.L. Rio

M.L. Rio has suffered from insomnia for the better part of her life, and this little gem lie dormant in her psyche until the opportunity to release a novella was presented. She was intrigued with the idea of a story about sleep and the lack thereof which would take place in the span of only one night. Her ability to weave the perspectives of five individuals into this short adventure is impressive, though it lends to the frustration felt with the story ends. Some folks take that frustration to mean that the story was incomplete to a fault, some of us enjoy being left wondering about the ramifications of the friend's discovery.

The story could have been even shorter if not for the interesting voyage into the study of fungi and what could have caused these growths on the dead rodents. Who was testing these animals? To what end? What does this mean for the friends? The intersection of art and science is intriguing for some, and off-putting for others. Overall, I found this an engaging read. One that left me thinking well beyond the last page.

I recommend this one to anyone who enjoys allowing their mind to wander.

Graveyard Shift is available now in bookstores.