Friends Helping Friends

Bunny Simpson is at his usual post behind the counter at a Denver cigarette store when his volatile friend Jerry presents an opportunity: 500 dollars to beat a guy up. Jerry has been dealing steroids to Helen, a lawyer, who is getting rapidly stronger just as she gets more erratic, vengeful towards her cheating ex-husband who she asks Jerry to attack. Bunny’s relatively solid conscience isn’t enough to stop him from biting -- Ray, his beloved quasi-uncle, is behind on rent for the apartment they share, and Bunny will do anything to bail him out. And it’s a small favor; just friends helping friends. Right?

Not quite. When Bunny and Jerry arrested, Bunny finds himself faced with a choice: Go to jail for years, or take a plea deal to go undercover in a white nationalist group under federal investigation. Bunny obliges, and soon he finds himself witness to a new world of startling violence, toxic masculinity, and warped conceptions of discipline, religion, and patriotism. If these men discover that he’s a snitch, they’ll kill him without blinking. His life is at stake, but so is his freedom. Soon Bunny is embroiled in a criminal enterprise far darker than he could’ve imagined -- a wasp’s nest with eyes on him from all sides -- and he needs to penetrate it at its center.

Patrick Hoffman, critically acclaimed author of Every Man a Menace and Clean Hands, is at his brilliant best in these pages. A wholly unique portrait of friendship, extremism, and the dual power of technology and money, Friends Helping Friends is an electrifying thriller from a veritable talent.