Charlie Henry is the proud new owner of the Three Balls pawnshop, having recently returned Stateside from special-ops work in Iraq. The transition back to normal life seems to be going smoothly for him and his Army buddy and co-owner of the shop, Gordon Sweeney—until Gina, Charlie’s childhood friend, gets shot in a transaction for information from the previous owner of Three Balls. Gordon rushes to help Gina as she bleeds on the sidewalk, while Charlie roars off on a chase to catch the shooter. 

The shooter gets away, and as they dig deeper, they find that the shooting has to do with Howard Baza, the previous owner of the pawnshop, and his rather questionable morals. The Albuquerque Police Department reluctantly lets the two ex-soldiers lend a hand with the investigation. Along the way they get tangled up in gang rivalries and led astray by false identities. They discover that nothing is what it seems, and almost no one is who they appear to be. In The Pawnbroker by Aimee and David Thurlo, Charlie and Gordon must use their skills to track down the killer and find out what happened—and why.