The first stand-alone thriller by critically acclaimed author Charlie Huston, The Shotgun Rule is a raw tale of four teenage friends who go looking for a little troubleтАУand find it.
Blood spilled on the asphalt of this town long years gone has left a stain, and itтАЩs spreading.
Not that a thing like that matters to teenagers like George, Hector, Paul, and Andy. ItтАЩs summer 1983 in a northern California suburb, and these working-class kids have been killing time the usual ways: ducking their parents, tinkering with their bikes, and racing around town getting high and boosting their neighborsтАЩ meds. Just another typical summer break in the burbs. Till AndyтАЩs bike is stolen by the townтАЩs legendary petty hoods, the Arroyo brothers. When the boys break into the ArroyosтАЩ place in search of the bike, they stumble across the brothersтАЩ private industry: a crank lab. Being the kind of kids who rarely know better, they do what comes naturally: they take a stash of crank to sell for quick cash. But doing so they unleash hidden rivalries and crimes, and the dark and secret past of their town and their families.
The spreading stain is drawing local drug lords, crooked cops, hard-riding bikers, and the brutal history of the boysтАЩ fathers in its wake.