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The lifeguards : a novel  Cover Image E-book E-book

The lifeguards : a novel

Summary: "The bonds between three picture-perfect, viciously protective mothers are tested when their sons uncover a horrible crime in this provocative novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Jetsetters. In Austin's Zilker Park, vigilance and money are enough to keep one insulated from the world's problems and inconveniences. Here, three mothers-Whitney, Annette, and Liza-have grown thick as thieves, and so have their fifteen-year-old sons. While each of them has their own set of values and backgrounds, they share the belief that they can shelter their boys from an increasingly dangerous world. They've raised their families together, and their three sons are about to begin a carefree summer as lifeguards. Their friendship is unbreakable--as safe as the neighborhood where they've raised their sweet little boys. Until the body is found. One night, the three women have been chatting away, drinking wine, when their boys come back with a harrowing story about finding a young woman dead beside a swimming hole in the Greenbelt, a swath of hiking trails and dim wilderness areas that runs through their neighborhood. They swear they haven't done anything. They agree not to call the police-because who would want to cause a scene, to topple their fragile images and arouse suspicion? What choice do mothers have but to believe their sons? All families harbor secrets. Privately, none of them is sure that the boys are telling the truth. And with each woman questioning her son-and her friends' sons-each wonders how many lies they've told each other. The Lifeguards is a riveting, high-stakes novel about the secrets we tell to protect the ones we love-and how sometimes your closest neighbor and ally can become your most dangerous foe"--

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780593159446
  • ISBN: 0593159454
  • ISBN: 9780593159453
  • Physical Description: 1 online resource
    remote
  • Edition: First edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Ballantine Books, [2022]

Content descriptions

Source of Description Note:
Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
Subject: Texas -- Austin
Murder
Mothers and sons
Mothers
Female friendship
Family secrets
Families
Secrets de famille -- Romans, nouvelles, etc
Mères et fils -- Romans, nouvelles, etc
Meurtre -- Romans, nouvelles, etc
Mères -- Romans, nouvelles, etc
Familles -- Romans, nouvelles, etc
Amitié féminine -- Romans, nouvelles, etc
Austin (Tex.) -- Fiction
Family secrets -- Fiction
Mothers and sons -- Fiction
Murder -- Fiction
Mothers -- Fiction
Families -- Fiction
Female friendship -- Fiction
Genre: Electronic books.
Detective and mystery fiction.
Fiction.
Psychological fiction.
Psychological fiction.
Detective and mystery fiction.

  • Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2022 March #2
    *Starred Review* For struggling single mom Liza, high-powered real estate agent Whitney, and new American citizen and wife to an oil heir Annette, their 15-year-old sons are the center of their perfect worlds, best friends like their moms are best friends. So when Charlie, Xavier, and Bobcat come back from the green belt claiming they found a woman's body, they close ranks to protect their own. Austin Police detective Salvatore Revello, a recent widower with two kids of his own, is under pressure to solve the case. The green belt is home to Austin's popular swimming holes, though some areas are known more for drug deals and shady paths that lead nowhere. As the dead woman's identity is uncovered, so is a surprising connection she has to one of the boys. Ward (The Jetsetters, 2020) balances a police procedural with domestic suspense, and by alternating narrators among the women, their sons, and Salvatore, she keeps the focus on the emotional toll the crime takes on everyone, while a chorus of Austin mommies add humorous commentary. Touching on issues like class, gentrification, and opioid abuse, The Lifeguards is a rich piece of relationship fiction and a summer thriller in one. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.
  • Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2022 November #1
    When three boys discover a corpse on the bike trail, the warm alliance between their moms begins to fracture. Ward's latest showcases three women from the upscale Austin, Texas, suburb of Barton Hills. There's Whitney, a real estate mogul who, along with her British husband, sells underground bunkers to billionaire tech bros who are thinking ahead to climate apocalypse. There's Liza, a struggling single mom and a food writer who is barely making rent with odd jobs and dog walking. She's desperately clinging to her membership in the rich mom's club, praying no one finds out how broke she is or asks her anything at all about her past. And there's Annette, a basketball superstar from Laredo turned reluctant trophy wife to the obnoxious heir to a West Texas oil fortune. Over the years of raising their sons together, these women have forged what they believe to be an unbreakable friendship, and as the book opens, they have sent the boys off together to their summer jobs as lifeguards at Barton Springs, an iconic Austin swimming hole. When the trio comes home panicky and panting, reporting that they found a dead woman's body on the greenbelt, their moms are 100% sure the boys didn't know her and had nothing to do with it. That doesn't last long. Ward does a great job of skewering the particular bougie lifestyles and Austin milieux she evokes. She smoothly manages a large cast of characters with a constantly shifting point of view; the disconnect between the kids' reality and the moms' naïve understanding is spot-on. Comic relief is provided by an ongoing text conversation among the Barton Hills Mamas—chardonnayismyjam, teslaluvr, marykaymom, and the rest—for whom gossip knows no limits of decency or taste. But after all the suspense and ticking of the clock, the ending is a head-scratcher. Plausibility aside, what even happened in the final scene? And to the guilty party? The happy ending is nice but, in this case, feels incomplete. A knowing, clever, and entertaining visit to the sinister underside of motherhood, good friends, and sunny days. Copyright Kirkus 2022 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
  • Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2021 November

    The lifeguards in Ward's latest are the three teenage sons of close friends Whitney, Annette, and Liza, starting cool summer jobs in their well-to-do neighborhood in Austin, TX. Or are the lifeguards the mothers themselves, different in background but alike in their eagle-eyed, talons-out protectiveness of their children? They're so protective that when the boys come home one night and reveal a shattering secret, the women find their friendship imploding as they decide what to do. Following The Jetsetters, a Reese's Book Club X Hello Sunshine Pick.

    Copyright 2021 Library Journal.
  • Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2022 February #1

    Ward (The Jetsetters) delivers an arresting story of three Austin, Tex., mothers whose teenage sons find a dead woman on the first night of summer. Liza Bailey, single mom to Charlie, has found safety in the "rich mom circle" even though she's scraping by to live in wealthy Barton Hills as she contends with her comparatively more humble origins and Charlie searches for his father. Annette Fontenot, who was born in Mexico and educated at UT Austin, works toward passing her citizenship test as she attempts to placate her white husband's masculine expectations of their son, Robert, and find some genuine happiness. Whitney Brownson appears to have the perfect life with beautiful twins, Xavier and Roma, and a thriving real estate business, but she, too, has cracks in her own foundation. Something seems off about the boys' story of finding the body, and as the police investigate and the moms lawyer up, each woman must decide between friendship and family. Ward does a good job exploring her characters and keeping the reader guessing, though some of the twists and coincidences border on forced. Still, like a cool lake on a hot day, this story hits the spot. Agent: Michelle Tessler, Tessler Literary. (Apr.)

    Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly.
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