Onyx reviews: The Bang-Bang Sisters by Rio Youers

Reviewed by Bev Vincent, 08/10/2024

They don't call themselves the Bang-Bang Sisters when they're playing hard-rocking cover songs in bars and clubs across the country. For those gigs, they operate under a variety of names. They transport their gear in a van: Jessie's lead guitar, Flo's bass guitar, and Jessie's sister Brea's drums, along with the requisite microphones and amplifiers.

Their existence as a three-woman band is also a cover, for hidden among their concert gear is an astonishing assortment of weapons: pistols, rifles, blades and martial arts tools that they use for their real paying gig as assassins for hire. As the Bang-Bang Sisters, they're moral assassins, like Dexter of Billy Summers, the kind that only kill bad people who have escaped arrest or evaded prosecution. They get their assignments from a hacker network on the Dark Web, and they usually investigate their targets fully before executing a precision operation that has them in and out with as little muss and fuss as possible. Of course, everything doesn't always go as planned and there is the occasional fuss. Or muss.

At the top of their TBA (to-be-assassinated) list is a serial killer who calls himself "the wren," who operates in Reedsville, Alabama, killing with impunity. Readers are introduced to him in the book's prologue, an idiosyncratic man who inhales oxygen through a nasal cannula and leaves bodies stuffed with feathers and haikus written in blood at the scenes of his murders. The trio of assassins is just about ready to take a break from the road and call it quits for a while—maybe even permanently—when they get a solid lead to the wren's location. Their obsession with this killer allows them to be lured into a trap laid by a wealthy and prominent mobster who has a bone to pick with the them. One of their earliest jobs wasn't a work-for-hire—it was personal, and Chance Kotter wants payback.

The book takes an unexpected change in direction (and it isn't the only major surprise the novel has on offer) when the trap is sprung. Once Kotter has the women in his grasp, he doesn't exact immediate revenge. He's a betting man who likes a good game, so he creates an unthinkable challenge for the "sisters," forcing them into a deadly contest by kidnapping their loved ones and setting a deadline for them to complete this terrible task. They are released into the wilds of Reedsville and forced to hunt each other until one one is left standing. Kotter invites business colleagues to attend the two-day, winner-take-all contest and place bets on the outcome.

As tight as the three women are, the situation puts them in an untenable situation. The rules are strict and seemingly unbreakable. Their locations are tracked with ankle monitors, as well as by a roving band of observers. They cannot contact the outside world for help, and the head of the local police is Kotter's sister, so there's no help there, either. They can't work together. They can't even kill themselves to put an end to the terrible contest. If their loved ones are to survive, they must play out the game to the end. And Reedsville, a dismal, impoverished and corrupt town, seems to determined to kill them any way it can.

However, they're extremely resourceful, feeling there must be a way to get out of the dilemma and yet willing to do whatever it takes to survive. The book is full of scenes of high-octane action, carefully orchestrated and unflinchingly violent. People are shot, stabbed, pummeled and dispatched in all manner of gory and grueling ways. The sisters—and readers—get little chance to take a breath during the next forty-eight hours of nonstop action.