THE PSYCHOPATH DIDN’T DO IT
Bennie James isn’t a psychopath. But what does that matter if the entire student body of Wayne Christian High School has decided she is? After one rather incriminating incident in third grade and a string of bad choices following it, the reputation stuck. Bennie accepts how her classmates view her, even relishes their hateful stares—at least that’s what she tells herself.
“She was usually cotton candy, but sometimes, she’d take things too seriously. And every once in awhile, she would say something, and you’d find the razor hidden in the Reese’s cup. ”
But when the town sweetheart is found dead near Bennie’s house, Bennie becomes the subject of everyone’s suspicion. Soon, more girls turn up dead, girls that are all connected to Bennie in some way, leading even the adults in town to start looking at her sideways. With her bad reputation and blemished record preceding her, Bennie realizes the only way to clear her name is to solve the case herself. But she hardly knows who she is past how others view her, let alone who anyone else is beneath their proper façade.
Then her best friend (with benefits) goes missing, and all the clues she’s found become strikes against her, and her reaction to it isn’t entirely flattering. Girls in her town are supposed to be docile and polite no matter the situation, not angry and lost (and possibly a lesbian?).
As the FBI narrows in on her and the window to find her friend grows slimmer, Bennie knows she’s running out of time. But as she closes in on the case, she learns she can’t save both her friend and herself and while unearthing the truth might save her life, it may also ruin it.
Perfect for fans of After the Woods by Kim Savage and I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick, THE PSYCHOPATH DIDN’T DO IT is a 75K-word young adult thriller that grinds the expectations of Southern Christianity against the tangible teen struggle for identity.