The Maroon Candle - Book Launch Event. June 4th, 2026
The castle doors are open! The Maroon Candle is now available HERE or autographed versions HERE.
Read the full reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Booklife Reviews. Visit the Goodreads page for ARC reviews.
Amber’s dream wedding at Mayguard Manor—a renovated castle on Lake Superior—unravels when a notorious pyromaniac killer reappears, leaving maroon candles as a chilling signature. A brutal storm isolates the island, and the castle’s tragic history resurfaces with unsettling force. As suspicion spreads and alliances fracture, Amber must confront the manor's violent past and its connection to the killer before the next candle appears.
If you like thrillers and suspense from authors Sarah Pearse The Sanatorium or Alice Feeney’s Rock Paper Scissors, and Lucy Foley’s The Guest List, sprinkled with classic Agatha Christie, you will love The Maroon Candle. A classic throwback to the thrillers of the eighties with modern day sensibilities.
UPCOMING EVENTS/APPEARANCES
June 19th - 5pm to 7pm - Ohio Brewing Company, Columbus, Ohio. Book release event. Book sales and signings. Click HERE for more information.
July 7th - 12th - The Garage, a new play by Laura Holloway, at Cookeville Performing Arts Center. Click HERE for more information.
July 18th - 2pm, 4pm - Night at the Museum, at Cookeville Performing Arts Center. Celebrating the 250th birthday of America. Click HERE for more information.
Goodreads Book Giveaway
The Maroon Candle
by Michael Evanichko
Giveaway ends June 13, 2026.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Michael Evanichko is an author, playwright, screenwriter, and actor whose work mixes psychological tension with quirky, dark‑edged humor. He writes stories set in liminal spaces—castles, supermarkets, landfills, and knapsacks. He loves to highlight the odd and unsettling in ordinary moments.
He created The Trilogy of Life, including Life in a Supermarket Basket—praised by Kirkus Reviews and a 2023 American Fiction Awards finalist—plus Life in a Savage Landfill and Life in a Neon Knapsack. His newest novel is the psychological thriller The Maroon Candle, praised by Kirkus Reviews as, "A fast, fun, and fiery mystery-thriller to be consumed in one sitting."