Shotgun Lullaby

Conway Sax is an alcoholic who doesn’t like to talk or think about his past. Once a talented race driver destined for NASCAR’s big leagues, he drank away that opportunity, his marriage, and his self-respect. Now he scrapes by in gritty downtown Framingham, Massachusetts, running (barely) an auto-repair shop.

By night, Conway has another occupation: merciless enforcer for the Alcoholics Anonymous group that adopted him. When a struggling drunk wants to send a message to a loan shark or slap around a stalking ex-boyfriend, Sax does the dirty work.

Conway never hesitates when his pals ask him to take under his wing Gus Belitnikov, a 22-year-old drug dealer who’s trying to go straight but owes heavy money to the crime boss of Springfield, Massachusetts. It doesn’t hurt that Gus reminds Conway of the son he abandoned years ago; the two grow close, and Conway gets a taste of the relationship he never had with his son.

Then Gus is cut in half by a shotgun on his venture-capitalist father’s ritzy estate.
Conway Sax: heartbroken, furious. Feeling responsible for Gus’s death, he makes it his business to avenge the killing. Immediately he plunges into a cesspool of deceit, depravity and backstabbing that involves Gus’s blustering father; the father’s gorgeous trophy wife, who comes on hard to Conway despite being eight months pregnant; the Springfield mobsters, who get their kicks crucifying their enemies; and Dwayne Chaparral, a diminutive Houston blackmail artist who dresses like a cowboy and eats like a Viking.