Familiar to genre fans through two high-octane, slash-and-spatter series (the Hank Thompson trilogy and a sequence of novels featuring vampire detective Joe Pitt), Huston burnishes his hard-boiled reputation with this stand-alone thriller, a dark and dangerous coming-of-age tale set in suburban California in the early 1980s. The story follows four troublemaking teenagers through a summer of delinquency that culminates in a blood-soaked standoff with a family of murderous Mexican drug lords. As the confrontation turns deadly, a series of unstoppable events brings to light shocking secrets buried in the past -- secrets that will change the boys' lives forever. With its strong language and over-the-top violence, The Shotgun Rule may not be for everyone; but fans of George Pelicanos, Adrian McKinty, Ken Bruen, and other practitioners of neo–pulp noir fiction will find this book impossible to put down.