Synopses & Reviews
He's come to do a job.
A job that involves a body.
A body wrapped in duct tape found hanging from the goal posts at the end of the football field.
You Killed Wesley Payne is a truly original and darkly hilarious update of classic pulp-noir, in which hard-boiled seventeen year-old Dalton Rev transfers to the mean hallways of Salt River High to take on the toughest case of his life. The question isn't whether Dalton's going to get paid. He always gets paid. Or whether he's gonna get the girl. He always (sometimes) gets the girl. The real question is whether Dalton Rev can outwit crooked cops and killer cliques in time to solve the mystery of The Body before it solves him.
Sean Beaudoin (Going Nowhere Faster, Fade to Blue) evokes the distinctive voices of legendary crime/noir authors Dashiell Hammett and Jim Thompson with a little bit of Mean Girls and Heathers thrown in in for good measure. It'll tease you, please you, and never ever leave you. Actually, that's not true. It's only a book. One that's going to suck you in, spit you out, and make you shake hands with the devil. Probably.
Review
"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!”).... [I]n the end, none of the stylistic pastiche and slick patter would matter if they weren’t hitched to such a propulsive mystery, with enough doublecrosses and blindsiding reveals to give you vertigo. Moreover, the opening “Clique Chart” might just be the funniest four pages you’ll read all year." Booklist (starred review)
Review
"Beaudoin’s razor-sharp rhetorical wit plays smartly with the generic conventions of the hard-boiled detective novel, but the story is shaded throughout with typical adolescent male anxieties, making this parody more engaging and complex than the exemplars it plays off of.... The hipster slickness of the narrative makes the accompanying glossary a welcome aid even though most of the terms are evident in context; like the glossary in Frank Portman’s King Dork, it provides as much supplemental comedic value as it does genuine information." BCCB (starred review)
Review
"[T]his dark, cynical romp is full of clever references and red herrings, which will delight the adult noir fan and pique the curiosities of the observant outcast teen who’s looking for a way to infiltrate the in-crowd." Kirkus
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About the Author
Sean Beaudoin has used his B.A. in film/photography as a springboard into the following jobs: construction laborer, circus roustabout, busboy, used book buyer, hotel desk clerk, outdoor education counselor, statue repairman (really), seller of jazz vinyl, and a nine-day stint as The World’s Worst Telemarketer.
He’s had stories and articles appear in numerous publications, including; the Onion, The New Orleans Review, Glimmer Train, Narrative, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Rumpus, Opium, Barrelhouse, Redivider, Bayou, Another Chicago Magazine, Bat City Review, Swill, Instant City, Ballyhoo, Identity Theory, Heliotrope, Danger City, and Spirit — the inflight magazine of Southwest Airlines. He is also a regular contributor at The Nervous Breakdown.com.
Sean Beaudoin likes to list his publishing history in the third person, as if someone else — a pimply young assistant, for instance — were writing it for him. He loves blueberries, garlic, hot sauce, bagels, almonds, and Turkish coffee. He hates the phrase "It is what it is." When people say "It is what it is," he snaps back, in a much deeper voice than necessary, "NO, IT ISN’T!" When they look at him quizzically and say "Excuse me?", Sean yells "DON’T EVEN GO THERE, GIRLFRIEND!" He also likes old vinyl and French movies and books about unhappy people from the Fifties. He’s not particularly crazy about police procedurals, ketchup, rap-metal, Shia "The Bouf" LaBeouf, cell phones, or Escalades.
Unless Cadillac wants to sign him to a highly lucrative endorsement deal, in which case he loves Escalades.
(You can visit Sean on his website and also find him on Facebook.)