The Shotgun Rule - Charlie Huston

First line: "It's a bad house."

Teens George, Paul, Hector and Andy make an odd little gang, but for the most part they are good kids. Each has his oddities: Andy is George's brainy little brother. He's skipped several grades so that he's now at the same level as George and his pals. Paul has a secret at home that makes staying away the most appealing option.

When Andy's bike is stolen by the youngest of the infamous Arroyo brothers, the boys set off to retrieve the stolen property. The boys find Andy's bike, but they also find something they weren't expecting, a crank lab. The know better than to mess with the drugs, but boys being boys, Paul decides taking some of the meth is worth the risk. He pictures a new car procured with the money he could make from selling the drugs.

However, the drugs don't result in a car for Paul. Instead, a level of trouble the teens never fathomed invades their lives, unleashing their secrets as well as the secrets of the generation that preceded them.

Read by Charlie Thurston, the audiobook version of The Shotgun Rule brings out the stark contrast between the teens' youth and naivete and the gravity of the danger they find themselves in. Thurston builds up the immaturity and lack of sophistication through his light-hearted treatment of Huston's humorous scenes with the boys, including Andy's repeated references of himself as "such a dildo" and an episode about "the shotgun rule" that ends with Paul saying, "Shotgun. It's a complicated issue." Their troubles are minor and relatively insignificant.

Then when the truly serious and deadly circumstances invade the Eden of these boys' lives, the terror and pain Thurston voices is intensified. This isn't just a scary situation, it's the destruction of youth's innocence.

But the effect isn't just in the young characters, Thurston is also able to elicit that intense fear from George and Andy's mother, as well as the helplessness of their father. His portrayal of Paul's father is eerily disturbing. Thurston also does a fine job juggling the Hispanic dialect with the Southern California accent.

But his crowning performance may very well be that of the obese, vocabulary-building drug boss, Geezer. His self-assuring air, his psychopathic tendencies, his need to control everything and everyone around him comes through in a powerful, yet also humorous portrayal.

Charlie Huston is a sure bet for a complex story that dwells in the gray shadows of life. He's a sure bet for humor amid the horror. Thurston has tapped into that magic to make the shivers stronger, the goosebumps higher and the laughs deeper.

The only minor distraction for me was Thurston's tendency to emphasize hard consonant sounds at the end of words, especially sounds like "t" and "p." Those stand out to me and can often pull me from the story for a temporary beat. But the overall strength of the recording is enough to fade my single listening quirk into the background.

The Shotgun Rule is now available on unabridged audio (ISBN: 978-1482948127) from Blackstone Audio. The paperback version (ISBN: 978-0345481368) of The Shotgun Rule is still available from Ballantine Books.

Game - Barry Lyga

One of the blog goals I had set for myself this year was to read YA crime fiction in the mix of my regular crime fiction to give more diversity to the genre representation (was that wordy enough or what?). At first I was having trouble finding some YA I was willing to read--paranormal seems to be all the rage in YA these days. But I've found some I'm excited to share with you and today is the first of those. Read on...

First line: "She had screamed, but she had not cried."

Barry Lyga's Game is the sequel to I Hunt Killers. I missed I Hunt Killers the first time around, but it didn't keep me from understanding and enjoying Game.

Jasper "Jazz" Dent is the son of Billy Dent, one of the most notorious serial killers in the world. The seventeen-year-old boy lives with his paternal grandmother who is suffering from dementia and most days is a threat to herself. So when a NYC police detective shows up at his door asking for Jazz's help with the Hat-Dog murders, Jazz is resistant. Not only does he not want to get caught up in more murder and carnage, but he can't leave his grandmother alone in their small Southern town of Lobo's Nod. The detective is persistent. He believes that Jazz's knowledge of serial killers--from growing up under the tutelage of his father--is exactly what the NYPD needs to find the Hat-Dog killer.

Jazz's resistance is short-lived. The need to prove that he isn't his father, that killing isn't genetic, wins out. Jazz recruits the help of his Aunt Samantha, Billy's sister, and his best friend Howie to take care of Grandma while Jazz heads off to NYC with his girlfriend Connie.

The unabridged audiobook of Game is narrated by Charlie Thurston who does a stellar job of balancing the seriousness of a serial killer with the humor that Lyga peppers throughout. The humor doesn't diminish the authenticity of the plot, rather it enhances the authenticity of the characters. Lyga is writing about teenagers after all. And he does so without condescension.

Thurston's job as narrator is a challenging one as he volleys back and forth between the teenage issues and the adult world of crime--his careful blending of the two makes for an engaging story. And his representation of Howie is probably my favorite. Lyga has created a supporting character rich enough to take the lead himself, at times even overshadowing his protagonist, which is not at all a bad thing. Howie is both endearing and hysterically funny! Thurston nails that combination.



The relationship between Jazz and Howie is also a major strength of this series. Two outcasts of different sorts using their unique strengths and talents to compliment the other's.

There are a few elements of the novel that felt awkward to me, but I wasn't sure if these were overall awkward or if they're awkward from an adult perspective, not so much from a YA perspective. Jazz's dream scenes were one of these times as well as the teenagers' mentality that they were "adults" once they turned eighteen. Several times Connie tells her parents that she will be eighteen in a matter of months and can do whatever she wants. For Jazz, as an orphan of sorts, this makes sense. But for Connie, it isn't as straight forward. At least, it wasn't straight forward in MY house as a teenage. If I was still living under my parents' roof, then it didn't matter if I was eight or eighteen. I still had to live by their rules. So, the parents' reaction to her demands didn't exactly ring true to me. Teens, however, will likely connect with the feeling.

Lyga's grip on the teenage dialogue is strong, and Thurston enhances it even more. From humor to sarcasm to teen angst, the duo creates a smooth and natural sound.

The overall production of Game is excellent. The focus stays on the story with no distracting breaths, edits or other outside noises. It's an engaging, suspenseful novel that listeners of all ages can enjoy, whether they are familiar with I Hunt Killers or not.

Game is available as an unabridged audio download from Hachette Audio and in hardcover (ISBN: 978-0316125871) from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.