Start gifting
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Make the switch
Gift audiobook credit bundles
You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.
Start giftingThe Shotgun Rule
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreThe 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 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.
Charlie Huston is the bestselling author of The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death; The Shotgun Rule; the Henry Thompson trilogy, which includes the Edgar Award–nominated Six Bad Things; and the Joe Pitt Casebooks. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the actress Virginia Louise Smith.
Charlie Thurston is an actor and Earphones Award–winning narrator. He holds an MFA in acting from Brown University / Trinity Rep and has appeared on stages across the country with Trinity Repertory Company, Chautauqua Theater Company, Creede Rep, and at Riverside Theatre and Redmoon Theater, among others. His favorite roles include Edgar in The Completely Fictional—Utterly True—Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen in The Long Christmas Ride Home, Tuzenbach in The Three Sisters, and Tony in You Can’t Take It with You.
Reviews
“What a righteously nasty imagination Huston has. If you don’t know this perfervid writer of thrillers and comic books, this stand-alone novel is a great place to start…[With] an explosive ending…Huston terrifically re-creates the time period.”
“Huston’s strengths are the brutal efficiency with which he sets a scene and the breakneck pace he maintains throughout…[A] compelling depiction of aimless teenage boys trying to rise to manhood. In Huston’s hands, it’s Greek tragedy on speed.”
“One of the most memorable crime novels of this year.”
“Moving like a fireball, this is an engrossing read that feels kind of like a shot of cheap tequila, in the fun way.”
“Huston adds depth and pathos to already likable characters. As a result, the brutality and intensity of the remainder of the book hit hard. This is Huston’s first stand-alone…and it’s a winner.”
“Huston has developed a reputation for his own brand of noir fiction, by turns side-splittingly funny and gruesomely violent and repugnant. Any male over the age of twenty will recognize elements of adolescence they had unconsciously buried—and will cringe or howl at the accuracy of this rendering of his childhood.”
“Memorable characters, hard-edged dialogue, and graphic violence make this searing portrait of evil an exciting addiction to new crime fiction.”
“Huston is a monstrously gifted purveyor of suspense…This book raised blisters on my fingers—and I still couldn’t put it down.”
“One of the crime genre’s rising stars, Huston delivers a stunning, darkly comic coming-of-age novel…Huston’s natural gift for dialogue shines as he recreates the language of teenage males, in all its crude and often hilarious glory. Most importantly, Huston has the courage to both unsettle and entertain the reader, and his story resonates long after its disturbing final scenes.”
“Fast-unfolding plot…Huston demonstrates a great feel for characters on the cusp of maturity—which helps readers connect with their adolescent aches even when they’re being a pain. But just when it seems this might be a mislabeled YA yarn, the book delivers a fully realized elder generation as well. Huston also manages to minimize the racially charged aspects of the teen showdown by making one member of the foursome a Latino punk rocker who steals more than his share of scenes.”
Expand reviews