Shotgun Rule: A Book Review

excerpt: "Charlie Huston's disturbing sixth novel is further proof that he's one of the most original crime novelists at work today. Huston, who's 40, grew up in California, took a shot at acting in New York, wound up bartending and wrote a novel in his spare time. He knew nothing of the publishing world, so his manuscript gathered dust until a friend showed it to an agent. The novel began a trilogy ("Caught Stealing," "Six Bad Things" and "A Dangerous Man") that was nominated for an Edgar Award (for "Six Bad Things") and won much praise from other writers, but not legions of readers. He also wrote two droll novels, "Already Dead" and "No Dominion," about a Manhattan private eye who's a vampire. These five books are wildly inventive neo-noir that combines slapstick with dead-on dialogue and unflinching realism.

Now comes "The Shotgun Rule," a dark but brilliant portrait of the way many teenage boys live in America -- or, to be precise, how they lived in California in 1983, when Huston himself was 17. It isn't a pretty story, and some of its violence is all but unreadable, but the novel is utterly persuasive. There isn't a false word in it. "