Boys will be boys, whatever the era, and in the 1950s, Maxine Trottier reminds us, they were even more so: trawling the main drag for action, farting, belching, lusting after girls in pointy brassieres, and obsessing about going all the way.

Trottier, the author of dozens of books for children and teens, sets her new YA novel in Erie View, a town closely resembling Port Stanley, Ontario, where she lives. Her story of the summer of 1956 pits four local kids who call themselves the Lakers against a much more sinister trio known as the Sultans. Gord, leader of the Lakers, just wants to date Mary, but he must fend off increasingly vicious attacks by the Sultans’ malevolent leader, Lancer. The rivalry soon stops being funny when it becomes apparent that Lancer is an incipient Paul Bernardo.

Trottier lingers lovingly over her material – to the point of indulgence. She peoples her lakeside town with uptight parents, ancient codgers of 60, traumatized veterans, and Gord’s mentor, a native pool-hall janitor who speaks ironically in the idiom of Tonto. But the exuberantly scatological male goofiness masks a darker reality: these 16-year-olds are trying to rock ’n’ roll in a time still emotionally scarred by war. Trottier further ratchets up the stakes when she kills off her most vulnerable character, setting the scene for revenge.

The mix of comedy and pathological violence, common in mystery writing, feels disturbing in this coming-of-age tale. Family tragedy sits uneasily alongside the slapstick antics of lust-addled youth; Shakespeare made it work, but Trottier doesn’t quite pull it off.