Rio Youers - Read Online Free Books Archive

No Second Chances

Sat, 09 Jul 2022 19:30:31 +0300

From Rio Youers, the acclaimed author of Lola on Fire, comes a blistering high-octane thriller about desperate love, vengeance, and the precarious pursuit of fame.

"A rip-roaring Hollywood noir that smashes the pedal to the metal and keeps it there. The best villain since Ian Fleming's James Bond novels . . . This one is hot." –Stephen King

Luke Kingsley's glory days are behind him. A star on the rise, his life and career imploded after his soul singer wife, Lisa Hayes, disappeared without a trace, silencing a very public and tumultuous marriage. Most people, especially an avenging PI, think Luke got away with murder. The last thing he expects is to be pulled back from the brink by a starstruck stranger.

Wannabe actress Kitty Rae has chased her dreams all the way from Kentucky to Hollywood. Saving a washed-up actor's life wasn't one of them, but she believes in Luke—as much as she believes her own career is just...

Lola on Fire

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 19:22:09 +0200

British Fantasy Award nominee Rio Youers combines vengeance and deceit, love and bullets, secrets, and twists in this high-octane action thriller with a vibrant emotional core.
Brody Ellis is short on luck and even shorter on cash to buy the medication his sister Molly needs.

Desperate, he robs a convenience store, but on the way out, he bumps into a young woman and loses his wallet. Just when he expects the cops to arrive, the phone rings. It's Blair Mayo—the woman he bumped into—and she's got the missing billfold.

Brody will get it back, but only if he does her a favor: steal her late mother's diamonds from her wicked stepmom. But when he gets to the house, he finds a gruesome crime scene—and a security camera. Brody knows he's been framed.

Back home, the terrified young man gets another call. The police won't get the incriminating video footage, Blair says. Instead, her daddy, the notorious mobster Jimmy Latzo, will...

The Bang-Bang Sisters

Mon, 26 Aug 2024 07:55:42 +0300

"If you're looking for a fun, thrilling read, look no further. The Bang-Bang Sisters is a rip-roaring delight of a novel – pulpy, fast-paced, and absolutely unputdownable." – New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay

From critically acclaimed author Rio Youers, an action-packed crime novel featuring three kick-ass heroines—bandmates who moonlight as vigilantes.

Blood. Bullets. Rock and roll.

Meet the Bang-Bang Sisters: Brea, Jessie, and Flo. Together, they're a killer rock band with an unbreakable bond.

But that's only half the story. Offstage, they're highly skilled vigilantes, traveling the country in their beaten-up tour van to exact justice on criminals who have slipped through the system. Part rock stars, part assassins, they're a force to be reckoned with.

Drawn by a tantalizing lead, the sisters head to Reedsville, Alabama—a city crawling with destitution and...

Point Hollow

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 12:03:28 +0200

Point Hollow, NY. A town with unspeakable secrets. To the tourists that visit each summer, it is quintessential America. They stroll through its picturesque streets and hike its stunning trails. No one sees the cracks in the town's veneer. No one knows its terrible history: a secret that has been buried—forgotten. But Abraham's Faith, the mountain that overshadows Point Hollow, doesn't forget so easily. It booms, wicked and controlling. It is filled with the bones of children. Oliver Wray is Point Hollow's favourite son, its most generous benefactor, admired by all. But Oliver, like the town, has a secret: Abraham's Faith speaks to him, and he has spent a lifetime serving its cruel needs. He believes his secret is safe, but one person has glimpsed the darkness in his heart . . . Matthew Bridge hasn't set foot in Point Hollow for twenty-six years. Something horrifying happened to him there. Memories of an ordeal that flicker and taunt, but cannot be recalled. Now, trying...

Halcyon

Tue, 26 Nov 2002 14:04:21 +0200

HALCYON is the answer for all Americans who want to escape, but paradise isn't what it seems. A beautiful island in the middle of Lake Ontario—a self-sustaining community made up of people who want to live without fear, crime, or greed. Halcyon is run by Valerie Kemp, aka Mother Moon, benevolent and altruistic on the outside, but hiding an unimaginable darkness inside. She has dedicated her life to the pursuit of Glam Moon, a place of eternal beauty and healing. And she believes the pathway there can only be found at the end of pleasure.On the heels of tragedy, Martin Lovegrove moves his family to Halcyon. A couple of months, he tells himself, to retreat from the chaos and grind. He soon begins to suspect there is something beneath Halcyon's perfect veneer and sets out to discover the truth—however terrible it might be—behind the island and its mysterious founder, Mother Moon.

Old Man Scratch

Mon, 24 Nov 2014 21:29:29 +0200

Johnny Gregson moved to the country to enjoy the quiet of his twilight years, but it seems he's got two problems. The first is the roadkill. His neighbour - Hill "Scratch" Clayton - is the second. Scratch is a hard-edged old man and a creature of habit. He mows his lawn at first light every morning, and the sound of the John Deere's engine always wakes Johnny and his wife from their brittle sleep. Come winter the ride-on mower is replaced by Scratch's snowblower. Johnny tries to reason with him, but Scratch is set in his ways. There is no compassion in his soul. Old Man Scratch is a revenge story that is often touching, often humorous, but always bound by the unknown...the inexplicable fear of what man is capable of, and the darkness of his heart. For six years he has been scraping dead animals from his driveway and tossing them to the side of the road, and for six years they have disappeared within a day or two. He often asks himself, what happens to the roadkill? Just where does it go? After Johnny's world is turned upside down, he is compelled to take drastic action. He thinks he knows a way to silence Scratch forever.

Lost Highways: Dark Fictions From the Road

Mon, 26 Nov 2018 15:04:50 +0200

Mama Fish

Sat, 22 Nov 2014 17:29:20 +0200

Technology is a 21^st Century god. It’s a monster. And the old ghosts stir … Business brings Patrick Beauchamp to Harlequin, MA. The town he grew up in. It is his first time back for twenty years. Harlequin has changed, but even so … the old ghosts stir. The secret—such a terrible secret—still lives in his heart. It is here, in Harlequin. She is here. Patrick will never forget Mama Fish. Harlequin High, 1986. Kelvin Fish was the oddball, the weird kid that no one would talk to. Except for Patrick, who was determined to learn more about this strange child, and to befriend him. But Patrick would get more than he bargained for... Mama Fish is a story about the paths we choose … about the changes in society, and in ourselves. It is told through the eyes of Patrick Beauchamp, a loving family man who, at his heart, is troubled by much darkness … a man quite literally caught between the ghost and the machine.

Dark Dreams, Pale Horses

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 08:45:29 +0200

Dark Dreams: A plague decimates South America, and an infected survivor is hunted through the shanties of Rio de Janeiro; an asteroid strikes central Australia, triggering waves of unspeakable horror; a pink Cadillac, full of screams, rumbles toward the Promised Land.

Pale Horses: A girl dreams of escaping her black and white life, into a Technicolor world where she is the star; the Shepherd of Souls keeps vigil over a dying child, while civilization clings to faith on the edge of a ruined world; an elderly lady recalls her wondrous childhood, in a present where the walls are too close, and reality uncertain.

In his debut collection, Rio Youers presents six stories—glimpses of worlds, and lives, fraught with pain, love, and hope—where the things we trust are often fractured, and where the darkest places sometimes hold the brightest lights.

Westlake Soul

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 17:49:26 +0200

The Forgotten Girl

Wed, 26 Nov 2003 17:49:25 +0200

THIS IS HOW YOU'LL REMEMBER ME. Harvey Anderson is a twenty-six-year-old street performer from New Jersey. He enjoys his peaceful life, but everything he knows is turned upside down when he is abducted and beaten by a group of nondescript thugs. Working for a sinister man known as "the spider," these goons have spent the last nine years searching for Harvey's girlfriend, Sally Starling. Now they think they know where she lives. And who she loves. There's only one problem: Sally is gone and Harvey has no memory of her. Which makes no sense to him, until the spider explains that Sally has the unique ability to selectively erase a person's memories. An ability she has used to delete herself from Harvey's mind. But emotion runs deeper than memory, and Harvey realizes that he still feels something for Sally. And so—with the spider threatening—he goes looking for a girl he loves but can't remember...and encounters a danger that reaches beyond...