Excerpt from Graveyard Shift by M. L. Rio, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"Well," Tamar said, and stubbed her cigarette out on the nearest headstone, "that's enough nightmares for me for one evening." She stuffed the butt into the small ornamental urn they had repurposed as an ashtray, nobody quite remembered how long ago. Full of ashes anyway, or so Hannah's reasoning went. The rest of them just went along. "Going to be up late as it is."

"Need a lift?" Hannah asked. "About time I clocked back in."

"Me too," Theo said, still rubbing his hands together, though most of the dirt had come loose. Staring off into the dark. "Can I—"

"You can walk." Hannah poked her cigarette into the urn, made a show of checking her watch. Raised her eyebrows. "Or maybe run." She vanished under the oak with a perfunctory backward glance at Tuck and Edie. "Let us know if Freddy Krueger comes to call."

Theo chuckled, dirty hands on his hips. "Such a fucking tease," he said, apparently to himself. Then, like Hannah, he spared one backward glance for Tuck and Edie. "Stick together, kids."

They watched him disappear after Hannah and Tamar. Stood on opposite sides of The Hole in awkward silence. Edie did not want to walk back to the Times office. Not without some answers, not without a story. For the first time since The Lump appeared, since her waking hours stretched and her sleeping hours shrank so dramatically, she felt wide awake. Murder or not, here was something worth investigating. She stubbed her cigarette out in the urn and turned her back on The Hole.

"Where are you going?" Tuck asked.

"To church," she said.

Excerpted from Graveyard Shift by M L. Rio. Copyright © 2024 by M L. Rio. Excerpted by permission of Flatiron Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.