Lifeguard
by Andrew Gross, James Patterson
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Book Reviews of Lifeguard
Book Review: Somewhat forgettable Patterson, suspenseful but implausible plot: OK beach book.
Summary: 3 Stars
One suspects that the summer release of "Lifeguard" was absolutely intended for the beach, and if so, it met its goal! Although the leading man, Ned Kelly, a college grad drifting along right now as a lifeguard, indeed works at a Palm Springs beach, the story quickly moves into an art heist gone bad that sets our boy into a lam headed for his hometown Boston. It seems Mr. Kelly, son of a professional thief (apparently not a great one based on living half his life in prison) has some petty crimes on his resume, and looks to score the big one ($1 million) for his share of stealing three priceless paintings from a rich beach resident. While Ned's four friends break into the house, Ned is running around town setting off house alarms just to occupy the police. But things go totally sour when Ned is called by one of the friends and waved off. Just hours later, his four compadres are dead, as is (seemingly unrelated) Ned's new one-day girlfriend; and guess who the leading suspect is?
Meanwhile, FBI Agent Ellie Shurtleff, who happens to be an art crimes expert, latched onto Ned but believes his tale of woe and spends the whole book trying to defend and clear him; indeed, he abducts her instead of she apprehending him. Given this ridiculous implausibility, it was tough to swallow much of the tale. But as one might presume, The real story of who wanted the paintings and why and why all those people were killed unfolds and the book ends mostly in predictable fashion.\
Patterson seems to be pumping out a lot of books in the past few years. While his Alex Cross novels, which we hasten to note he writes completely by himself (presumably), maintain the quality that keeps JP unfailingly on the best seller list, his use of co-authors for this and many of his other recent novels leads us to believe the money machine is getting more important than giving us consistently great efforts. While "Lifeguard" is a typical suspenseful Patterson outing, it's not a story you'll remember for ten minutes after its conclusion. We'd prefer a few less books and more careful word and plot craft, to warrant keeping JP on our top shelf. Summing up, "Lifeguard" was best for the beach after all!
Book Review: Great beach read, instantly forgettable.
Summary: 3 Stars
Ned has it made. Dream job in a dream location, and the dream girl of all dream girls has walked into his somewhat directionless life. There's the prospect of a little cash - in fact quite a lot of cash - to go with it. His loyal pack of lifelong buddies from school have gotten together and plan on pulling off a sweet little deal from which they all will pocket a million each for their involvement. Ned's input is minimal; he has to set off the alarms in a few of the houses in the rich oceanside suburb in order to have the local cops occupied while the real robbery, an art theft, is underway. Most of the well-heeled of the town will be out, attending a ritzy charity function, so that should make the houses unoccupied. As usual, things that sound too good to be true ARE too good to be true.
The robbery goes wrong and a panicked phone call from one of his buddies has Ned hightailing back to visit the scene of the crime. His crew have all been killed, and his new lady love has also been brutally murdered in the hotel room that was the scene of afternoon delight for both of them earlier in the day. Every cop available is after him and Ned has to go into hiding. Someone set them all up, and Ned wouldn't put it past dear old Dad, a lifelong criminal, to have had a hand in it somewhere. His father is dying but that doesn't put him out of the running. With the bodies piling up around him Ned has to act fast to clear his name and seek revenge for his loved ones.
"Lifeguard" is exactly as you would presume; great beach or holiday fare that will fly past in an enjoyable afternoon's reading. The trademark Patterson short and sharp chapters feature and do the job of which they surely must have been designed for - to suck the reader into going that one chapter further more each time. There's nothing like a racey little chase novel for you when you've got some time for yourself and "Lifeguard" won't be leaving you with anything more lasting than memories of a pleasant, lightweight read.
Author Andrew Gross also co-authored with Patterson on "The Jester" and books two and three of the Women's Murder Club series, "Second Chance" and "Third Degree".
Book Review: Patterson seems to be back in stride...
Summary: 5 Stars
The last couple of James Patterson novels have given me hope that titles like London Bridges were an aberration... that he hasn't lost his touch. At least in my mind, Lifeguard is my proof that he's back to running on all eight cylinders (with the help of Andrew Gross). This was a great recreational read...
Ned Kelly is enjoying life as a lifeguard and go-pher for a rich Florida resident. He meets a rich socialite woman on the beach one day and falls hard for her. But before he can get beyond the first afternoon fling, she's found dead in the hotel room where they romped. What's worse, he left her to try and pull off a one-time art heist with some long-time friends that would net him a cool million. The planned burglary goes sour when they are double-crossed and all of his partners are murdered. Panicking, he goes on the run, knowing that the killings and art deal all make him look utterly guilty. He compounds the issue when Ellie Shurtleff, an FBI special agent shows up at a place he's at, and he ends up taking her hostage to get out. He tells his story, and she actually believes him. The art theft was most likely an inside job, and the "victim" is looking like he could be both the mastermind of the theft and the architect of all the killings. She needs to prove who did the killings in order to clear Ned and save her job. Other than falling in love with Ned, the complicating factor is that she can't trust her boss at the Bureau as there's someone on the inside...
Written in typical Patterson fashion (short three and four page chapters), the story speeds along at a rapid pace. While the story of "FBI agent falls for honest crook who's not guilty" might be somewhat implausible, the characters are likeable and it's easy to find yourself empathizing with and rooting for them to win. It's obvious early on that all the players probably aren't who they appear to be, but you're kept guessing until pretty much the end.
If you have a day or two where you don't want to accomplish anything important and just want to get lost in a book, this works just fine. I'm glad to see that Patterson is back...
Book Review: Great book fast paced
Summary: 5 Stars
Ned Kelly yes for those of you that are familar with Australian lore know that this is name as the australian outlaw. He comes from a hard family and a tough blue collar town of Brockton Mass. a hard neighborhood where there were fights everyday.His father a career criminal who is prison and if that is not bad enough one of the fathers jobs turns bad and it results in the death of Ned's older brother.
Ned is working and living down in Palm Beach Florida along with a few of his hometown friends who might as well be his brothers. They are all working different jobs to get by in a community where there are the super rich where they throw parties that are attended by heads of states and people in the know ( high society ). Things seem to be turning around on the luck side for Ned during his lifeguard job he runs into a woman who he thinks he rescues and turns into a relationship with what he thinks is the ultimate rich chick and he along with his friends are going to pull a one time job they will go to an area nicknamed billionaires row and take a few paintings namely a Picasso a Cezanne and a Jackson Pollock it is supposed to be a easy deal they perfect layout and instructions and somebody to fence the paintings it will be an easy 5 million and this will give all five a new life a startover.
But of course things donot go as plan when Neds friends get there to steal the paintings they are gone somebody has set them up.Ned gets the call to go back to his friends house to regroup but when he gets arrives there are police and ems vehicles his friends have been murder and the woman he thinks he has fallen love with happens to be murdered too. Is it just a fluke or is there a connection between the murders?
Ned has to find out what has happen who set his friends up how is he going to clear hisa name and who took the paintings ,along the way he will have some help from an unlikely source a female Fbi agent who specialtly is high dollar art. This is a fast paced from start to finish and definitely recommend it
Book Review: Twists and turns galore and actually a good book
Summary: 4 Stars
Lifeguard is James Patterson's book of the month for July and is a collaboration with Andrew Gross. Ned Kelly is the main character of the book, a man from a family of criminals who is trying to go straight but is drawn into one big crime with his childhood friends for the chance at a million bucks. Something goes wrong and suddenly Ned has no money and is on the run from the FBI because they think he stole a $60 million worth of art and killed 5 people.
FBI agent Ellie Shurtleff is an art specialist who links the missing art, the murder of Ned's friends and the murder of a sexy woman Ned was seeing together. Ellie joins in the pursuit of Ned and through her investigations begins to think Ned might actually be innocent.
That's enough plot detail. Now for my opinion on the book. There is some depth to Ned's character, but really none to Ellie's and this is a problem since the two basically team up to solve the mystery of the book. Also, I don't know if Ned ever was a lifeguard. I guess he was at some point. There are a lot of twists and turns and the book follows the usual Patterson style of short chapters, tons of italics, and cliffhangers at the ends of several chapters. Also, at several times, Ned or Ellie makes a key discovery and what they discovered isn't revealed until later. This can be a problem because I started wondering if I missed something.
For a change, this Patterson novel actually has a good climax with some twists that are surprising. As much as Patterson's books seem to blend together, I actually like this book and recommend it. The plot is fast moving and fun and the twists keep coming and are somewhat interesting. If you want something to read on a vacation, pick up this quick and easy read from Patterson/Gross.