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Lifeguard is the kind of Andrew Gross thriller that came out of the early-2000s Patterson workshop where Gross was learning the form. The protagonist Ned Kelly is a young lifeguard at a Palm Beach club whose old friends from Boston pull him into a high-stakes art-theft scheme that goes wrong almost immediately.
Gross handles the propulsion competently. The chapters are short, the perspective shifts are clean, and the closing third moves well. The character work is thinner than Gross's later solo novels, which is the Patterson-workshop signature.
Three stars. Recommended to readers who like fast thrillers and do not need much depth. Gross's later solo work (Don't Look Twice, 15 Seconds) is stronger.
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