The first stand-alone thriller by critically acclaimed author Charlie Huston, The Shotgun Ruleis a raw tale of four teenage friends who go looking for a little trouble – and find it.

Blood spilled on the asphalt of this town long years gone has left a stain, and it's spreading.

Not that a thing like that matters to teenagers like George, Hector, Paul, and Andy. It's summer 1983 in a northern California suburb, and these working-class kids have been killing time the usual way: Ducking their parents, tinkering with their bikes, and racing around town getting high and boosting their neighbors' meds. Just another typical summer break in the burbs – until Andy's bike is stolen by the town's legendary petty hoods, the Arroyo brothers. When the boys break into the Arroyos' place in search of the bike, they stumble across the brothers' 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 in doing so they unleash hidden rivalries and crimes, as well as 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 boys' fathers in its wake.