M.L. Rio

The highly anticipated new novel from M. L. Rio, bestselling author of If We Were Villains and Graveyard Shift A nostalgic love-letter to the 90s rock and roll scene, Hot Wax follows a band of rocker misfits, rivals and trailblazers on the tour that could have catapulted them to super-stardom, if it all hadn't come crashing down. COMING 2025

Éramos sete nessa altura, sete almas fulgurantes com futuros prodigiosos à nossa frente. Estávamos sempre rodeados por livros e palavras e poesia, todas as paixões ferozes do mundo… Oliver Marks era um jovem ator a estudar Shakespeare numa escola de artes de elite, um sítio mágico, isolado e elegante onde o calor ainda provinha da lareira e as palavras se guardavam entre capas de couro. Oliver cedo reparou no quanto os seus colegas se assemelhavam na vida real aos papéis que assumiam em palco - o vilão, o herói, o tirano, a sedutora. Ele, porém, parecia condenado a representar personagens secundários. Mas quando os professores decidiram agitar as águas e trocar a ordem pré-estabelecida, a rivalidade amigável depressa deu lugar a sentimentos mais mesquinhos, e a ação ultrapassou a esfera do teatro… para culminar numa trágica morte em plena noite de estreia. Dez anos passaram, e Oliver acaba de cumprir pena de prisão pelo assassinato de um dos seus melhores amigos. À sua espera está o homem responsável pela sua detenção, que não desiste de saber o que realmente aconteceu. Pois algo naquela história não bate certo… Estará Oliver finalmente preparado para contar e verdade?

Author of sales sensation If We Were Villains returns with a story about a ragtag group of night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery to unearth the secrets lurking in an open grave. Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story. One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom? Before they go their separate ways, the gravedigger returns. As they trail him through the night, they realize he may be the key to a string of strange happenings around town that have made headlines for the last few weeks—and that they may be closer to the mystery than they thought. Atmospheric and eerie, with the ensemble cast her fans love and a delightfully familiar academic backdrop, Graveyard Shift is a modern Gothic tale in If We Were Villains author M. L. Rio’s inimitable style.

Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail - for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he's released, he's greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago. As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.

La autora de Todos somos villanos, éxito de ventas a nivel internacional, regresa con una historia sobre un grupo variopinto de trabajadores que se reúne una noche en el cementerio local para desenterrar los secretos escondidos en una tumba abierta. Cada noche, en el antiguo cementerio de la universidad, cinco personas se reúnen mientras trabajan en el turno de noche: un camarero, una taxista, la recepcionista de un hotel, el guardián de la iglesia en ruinas que se cierne sobre ellos y la redactora jefe del periódico de la universidad, siempre en busca de alguna historia. Pero, una noche oscura de octubre, encuentran en el cementerio olvidado un agujero que no estaba allí antes: una tumba recién abierta donde no debería haber ninguna. Pero ¿quién la ha excavado y para qué? Antes de separarse, el culpable regresa. Al seguirlo, descubren que quizás sea la clave para esclarecer una serie de extraños sucesos que ocurren en la ciudad y que han sido noticia en las últimas semanas..., y puede que estén más cerca del misterio de lo que pensaban.