Life is good for Ned Kelly. He's just met a girl he's crazy about. He's working as a lifeguard on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world and has just gotten his big break. At least if all goes according to plan.

Seems simple enough at any rate. All Ned has to do is run around town setting off alarms in various locations to distract the police from where the real action is. In the meantime, his friends will be stealing three paintings that will net them a payoff of $5 million. Then he's home free.

As is usually the case, easy money is never easy and something goes wrong. Before he knows what's happening, Ned's friends are dead, his dream girl is dead, and Ned is a wanted man on the lam, not knowing who's a friend and who's a foe.

As Ned frantically tries to get to the bottom of the killings and the heist gone wrong, the FBI is hot on his trail. But the FBI has one agent who is not so sure of Ned's guilt, and if he can just gain her trust, he might have one person on his side in this whole mess.

It's a race against time as Ned tries to find out who's behind the double-dealing that's taking place and who's sending hired killers to make sure Ned never finds the answers he's looking for.

Using beautiful Florida beaches and posh neighborhoods, homes and hotels as the setting, LIFEGUARD is a fast-paced page-turner. There's lots of action and the reader will be trying to figure out exactly who's behind an all-out campaign to make Ned's life miserable if not extinct. This is the first James Patterson novel I've read --- but if this is representative of his usual work, then he has just won himself a new fan.