Show me a parent who doesn't think the sun rises and sets with their child. This is the common thread of The Lifeguards, which is a beguiling combination of mystery and family drama. Circling around three moms and their teenage sons who are lifeguards for the summer, Amanda Eyre Ward shows us a dark side to parenting.
The three boys find the body of a dead young woman on the banks of a swimming hole near their upperclass neighborhhood of Austin, Texas. Having no phone service in this wooded area referred to as "the greenbelt", they come to their parents in a panic. One of the fathers calls in to 911 using an untraceable phone, and Austin police detective Salvatore Revello becomes the lead investigator. Chapters featuring a local mom group gossiping via text about the tragedy while simultaneously trying to promote themselves (i.e. a Mary Kay party) interject a much needed comic element.
Amanda Ayre Wood expertly keeps a running inner dialogue going for her characters. When one of the mothers, Whitney, keeps wondering what happened in the greenbelt? over and over, one can't help but get caught up in the narrative and assign blame to one of the boys in light of an autopsy showing the presence of opioids, semen and lungs full of water. But parents will protect their children at all cost. As another of the moms, Annette, hopes for her own son's innocence regarding the murder, she supposes that almost every man behind bars also has a mother who wishes for the same.
Fraught with tension and twists, Ward balances how terrifying it can be to be a parent with scenes of tender mother/child love. Ward deftly writes this plot with that parental terror at the forefront, sometimes reflecting what Detective Salvatore Revello's mother used to tell him as a child, "Look away and it will go away." The parallel plot of Salvatore's recent widowhood while trying to parent his two young kids contrast with single mom Liza's desperation to fit in with the wealthy mothers in her neighborhood. However, both situations eclipse their ability to do what's best for their children and cloud their judgement. The satisfying ending, while stopping just short of being clear, concludes a worthy and electrifying read. I give this 4/5.
コメント