Charlie Huston is an author I’ve really enjoyed reading in the past. The Hank Thompson trilogy is one of my favorite modern noir stories I have read. I also read the first Joe Pitt book, Already Dead about a hardboiled private investigator that happens to be a vampire. This is also very good, and I enjoyed the mixing of urban fantasy with classic noir. I found The Shotgun Rule on sale for my Nook and had to snag it up.

This book is a noir coming of age tale revolving around four friends. Two are brothers, the younger one is a genius and the older one is the leader of the gang. We also have a Latino with a Mohawk who loves punk rock music and a boy who has lost his mother and has a strained relationship with his father. When the youngest brother gets his bike stolen, the gang knows it is the family of criminals down the street. When a fight ensues and the bike thieves go to jail our gang explores the house to find a new meth lab. As our story progresses we find a lot of interesting characters, including a drug dealing aunt, a father with a mysterious criminal past, a friend that has never truly grown up and a fat drug dealer who likes to use a scooter rather than walk.

This is another very good book from Huston with some interesting dialog and a twisting violent story line. I enjoyed the mixing of coming of age tale with a gritty crime saga. If you have never read Huston before I would start with Caught Stealing, and if you are already a fan of Huston and have not read this book, I think it is worth your time.