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 troubleβand find it.
Blood spilled on the asphalt of this town long years gone has left a stain, and itβs spreading.
Not that a thing like that matters to teenagers like George, Hector, Paul, and Andy. Itβs 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 neighborsβ meds. Just another typical summer break in the burbs. Till Andyβs bike is stolen by the townβs legendary petty hoods, the Arroyo brothers. When the boys break into the Arroyosβ place in search of the bike, they stumble across the brothersβ 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 boysβ fathers in its wake.