JE: Friend of the blog (and fellow Seatlleite) Sean Beaudoin has written one hell of a super-smart, stylish, snappy YA thriller (see trailer below!), and Little Brown has given us three copies to give away! You want a copy? Take a blind stab at who killed Wesley Payne in the comments section. The first three that give me a guffaw, get the books!
Since my refusal to write exposition (or anything besides hyperbole) is well documented, I’ll let Booklist‘s Starred review do the talking:
The cliques rule the rackets in Salt River High. The two top outfits, the Balls (football players, wearers of no-irony crew cuts) and Pinker Casket (thrash rockers, most appropriate for funerals or virgin sacrifices), are hurtling toward a turf war, and all the assorted mid-level cliques (and even the crooked Fack Cult T) are constantly looking for an angle to ride to prominence. At the center of the maelstrom is a body, Wesley Payne, a former member of the Euclidians (nerds, fingertip sniffers), who was found wrapped in duct tape, hanging upside-down from the goalposts. Teenage private dick Dalton Rev arrives to sort out the murder, locate a missing hundred grand, and if everything rolls his way, ride off into the sunset with the adorable Macy Payne, Wesley’s sister. Beaudoin plays a Chandler hand with a Tarantino smirk in this ultra-clever high-school noir, dropping invented brand labels on everything from energy-drink ingredients (Flavor Flavah) to the Almighty (Oh my Bob!). Ever checking his moves against what his crime-novel hero, Lexington Cole, would do, Dalton himself is so straight hard-boiled, it’s screwy: Dalton played it cool. He played it frozen. He was in full Deano at the Copa mode. But in the end, none of the stylistic pastiche and slick patter would matter if they weren’t hitched to such a propulsive mystery, with enough double-crosses and blindsiding reveals to give you vertigo. Moreover, the opening Clique Chart might just be the funniest four pages you’ll read all year.
12 Responses to “You Killed Wesley Payne Giveaway”
February 2, 2011
JasonaustinriceI killed Wesley Payne. Duh? For real? I have to enter a contest to get one of these?
February 2, 2011
David AbramsJonathan Frazen. With his glasses.
Hey, it was a blind stab you wanted, right?
February 2, 2011
n.o.ladywesley payne.
he killed himself.
February 2, 2011
Jason A.three guys with one book…
February 2, 2011
Jonathan Evison. . .check out the slick trailer for this book:
February 2, 2011
Tom HansenA family of Minks did it
February 2, 2011
Tom Hansenmaybe that was inappropriate. I haven’t expressed my condolences yet JE. Horrific news.
February 2, 2011
Jonathan Evison. . . thanks, tom . . . i believe they are quite capable after seeing what they did to my bunnies . . .
February 2, 2011
Patrick T. KilgallonI think it’s the Balls duo although it would really take a private dick to put it all together.
February 3, 2011
Nick BelardesJeff Chuff. I think that was his name. Because the silhouette of that QB looked like the kid who socked me in the stomach in grade K.
February 8, 2011
SeanbeaudoinCan we broach the possibility, all these years later, that Young Nick might have deserved the occasional sock?
February 5, 2011
IndigoMacy killed her brother, sibling rivalry is at an all time high (this from the eldest of 6 six kids, trust me it do-able). (Hugs)Indigo