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    The Swimming Pool
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    The Swimming Pool
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    The Swimming Pool
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Swimming Pool

    Written by Holly LeCraw

    Narrated by Kathe Mazur

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A heartbreaking affair, an unsolved murder, an explosive romance: welcome to summer on the Cape in this powerful debut.

    Seven summers ago, Marcella Atkinson fell in love with Cecil McClatchey, a married father of two. But on the same night their romance abruptly ended, Cecil's wife was found murdered-and their lives changed forever. The case was never solved, and Cecil died soon after, an uncharged suspect.

    Now divorced and estranged from her only daughter, Marcella lives alone, mired in grief and guilt. Meanwhile, Cecil's grown son, Jed, returns to the Cape with his sister for the first time in years. One day he finds a woman's bathing suit buried in a closet-a relic, unbeknownst to him, of his father's affair-and, on a hunch, confronts Marcella. When they fall into an affair of their own, their passion temporarily masks the pain of the past, but also leads to crises and revelations they never could have imagined.

    In what is sure to be the debut of the season, The Swimming Pool delivers a sensuous narrative of such force and depth that you won't be able to put it down.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 6, 2010
    ISBN9780307712264
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for The Swimming Pool

    3/5

    142 ratings49 reviews

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    • 4/5
      After finishing the book, it was hard to believe that this was LeCraw's freshman work. The story centers on Marcella, a divorced woman who finds herself in a relationship with Jed, the grown son of the man with whom she had an affair seven years before. LeCraw builds the characters so well, that even secondary ones like Marcella's daughter Toni and Jed's sister Callie have developed storylines that really let the reader feel they are a part of this inner circle. The book gives you a almost-voyeuristic view into the emotions that drive all the characters' actions. The decisions they make would under other writers' hands turn into a story best left to afternoon talk shows and tabloids. LeCraw magnificently delves into the psyche of each character and their choices, and thereby makes the reader empathize with each. The relationships, of Jed and his sister, Marcella and her ex-husband, are explored on more than just a surface level. The story is told in vignettes bouncing from past to present, and while I usually find that annoying, the forgeous prose that LeCraw uses made the transitions almost seamless. This is a story of love, hurt, betrayal, forgiveness, and secrets. The characters are on the precipice of falling into a dangerous unknown, and I found myself cheering them on to find ways off their ledges. Even when they indulged in selfish deeds, I still loved them all.The novel does have a bit of sexual content, but this did not distract from what a great book it is. I would have loved to have the ending a bit more developed, but overall this would definitely be a book I recommend for a summer read!
    • 1/5
      My Take: I tried to like this book I really did. But as is so often the case whenever everyone seems to LOVE a book I really just didn't get the whole thing. Was the writing good? yeah Was the story good? Eh. I could not find myself liking any of the characters whatsoever. I sympathized with Callie alittle bit but I really just wanted to slap her and tell her to grow up (although I know post partum depression is a real thing as I had it myself ) I just found her very whiny. Jed, I felt was just trying to compete with his father in some way and I found Marcella the least likable person in the whole book. I really found the whole lot of them a spoiled rich people who did whatever they wanted and didn't really care about who they hurt in the process. As I said other have liked this book and it is not a book that I would tell anyone to run away screaming from but it definately wasn't my cup of tea. I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
    • 3/5
      A novel told from multiple voices, unraveling the mysteries surrounding the death of Cecil and Betsy McClatchey. Betsy was murdered one night when she came home alone and found a robber in the house, waiting for her. Suspicion immediately fell to her husband, Cecil, who had been out of town on a business trip - but the maid at the hotel where he was staying reported that when she cleaned up his room in the morning, nobody had slept in the bed.

      Cecil has an alibi, but he won't even tell the police what it is: he was with Marcella, a married woman with whom he was having an affair. He knows he's innocent and he thinks he can keep silent and wait for the cops to pin down the real murderer. But little progress has been made, and then Cecil dies in a car crash. It looks like suicide, since he drove head-on into a tree, but it may also have been a heart-attack. Many people think that the car crash is proof of Cecil's guilt.

      The novel takes place years after Betsy and Cecil have died, when their two children - Callie and Jed - decide to visit their summer house on Cape Cod. Left to the family by a northern uncle, it's about a mile away from the beach, built around a swimming pool. Callie and Jed are adults now, no longer teenagers, but they are still suffering from the deaths of their parents and recent events make both siblings unravel

      Callie is suffering from severe post-partum depression. She's just had a new baby and feels little attachment to it, and her marriage is on the rocks. She decides to spend the summer up on the Cape, hoping that she will feel some connection to her dead mother there. Jed has made his way throuhg college and law school and is working as a lawyer at a firm in Atlanta, but he feels detached from his own life. He decides that he wants to go up to the Cape and spend the summer helping his sister with her new baby.

      Once on the Cape, Callie's depression deepens while Jed finds an old swimsuit in storage at the house and recognizes it as Marcella's. Jed doesn't know that his father Cecil had an affair with Marcella, but he was half in love with her himself. He decides to seek her out.

      Marcella is living alone a few hours away. She's divorced from her husband, taking care of her daughter, planting a beautiful garden, taking long walks on the beach, and cooking. She's a native Italian and works as a translator. When Jed shows up, Marcella is attracted to him but realizes that the thing Jed wants most in the world is to find out who killed his mother, and why his father died. Marcella confesses that she was having an affair with Cecil, and that they were together on the night of his mother's murder. Despite this confession, Jed decides to act on his continuing attraction to Marcella and the two begin an affair.

      What Marcella doesn't tell Jed is that she knows who did kill Betsy: her husband, jealous about the affair, hired a hit man to kill Cecil. But something went wrong, and the hit man killed Betsy instead. Jed is thinking about telling his sister Callie that he has proof that their father is innocent, but he doesn't: he can tell that she's already in a dark place and he knows that Callie never suspected their father, while Jed did. It's the state of knowing-but-not-telling that forms the center, and fulcrum, for the novel. LeCraw is writing about secrets, very dark and painful ones, but ultimately concludes that in most cases, keeping those secrets is for the best.

      As the summer ends, Callie's post-partum depression spikes and she barely resists a strong impulse to kill her baby. But, having overcome the ultimate demon, she's able to hold herself together better in the future. Jed's affair with Marcella ends abruptly, for no obvious reason since both are still strongly attached to one another; Marcella just calls it off. Jed goes home, resumes his life, finally finds a new girl he can marry. Marcella's ex-husband Anthony starts coming around again; Marcella confronts him about the assassination that he ordered and he says he doesn't understand, since the hit man was ordered to kill Cecil with a gun, not Betsy with a knife. Still, his guilt is probable. But Marcella lets him spend time at her home and finally he asks her to marry him again, and Marcella accepts.

      SWIMMING POOL is a quiet, domestic novel with a bite. It's well-written, pitched to readers who like a difficult moral (in this case: sometimes it's better not to tell a secret) and sophisticated writing. However, it's very slow, and the big revelations about who killed whom and why are obvious very early on. On the whole, I wasn't impressed.
    • 2/5
      I got this book as an Early Reviewer selection and for some reason felt the necessity to read the entire book despite the fact that I wasn't impressed with it. I guess I hung in there to see if it would ever redeem itself. Unfortunately, it did not. Improbable plot, unlikely sexual encounters, horribly stilted dialog, unlikeable characters, paper-thin plot--this book had it all. Total waste of time.
    • 3/5
      This novel takes us into the lives of the family members that were victimized by an unsolved mystery that took place years ago. When Betsy was found murdered in her Atlanta kitchen she leaves her children, Jed and Callie, and her husband Cecil, to deal with the aftermath of the event.The book opens in a summer home that the McClatchey family has always owned on Cape Cod. Even though both of their parents are gone, Jed and Callie decided to keep the home in the family. Callie has married and has two children of her own while Jed can never seem to be a part of a committed relationship. It is clear that Jed and Callie are both a couple of broken, disheartened souls and they have decided to spend the summer, along with Callie's husband and children in the Cape Cod home.Jed finds himself drawn to Marcella, a woman that he vividly remembers from his youthful days when his parents were alive and the neighborhood in the Cape was bustling with fun and energy. When he confronts Marcella it is quite a surprise to find that they are both full of passion for one another. This summer affair will lead to secrets revealed, some secrets kept, and finally a tragedy that is unavoidable.I have to admit that I didn't really enjoy this book, but it still kept me turning the pages. It held a very depressing element to the storyline and the affair between Marcella and Jed seemed quite unrealistic to me. I can understand why Jed would find himself attracted to the older woman that Marcella was, but would he really stay attracted to her once he found out that his own father had an affair with her years before? And as far as Marcella goes, would she really have an affair with the son of the man that she claimed to love years ago? I guess this is a possibility considering how broken all of their lives were, but it just didn't add up for me.Like I said earlier, I found that I couldn't put this book down for I had to see how this scenario was going to end. The most broken character in this novel appeared to be Callie and I wish we really would have gotten to hear more of her story, rather than focusing on Jed and Marcella's affair. This is one of those books where I can say I didn't find a liking for any of the characters, but I have found in the past that if the writing is good I can still find enjoyment of the book. I obviously did find a substantial amount of enjoyment but I didn't particularly like the writing style either. It didn't seem to flow well and was also a bit choppy for my taste. But after reflection of the storyline it could be that this is what the author meant to accomplish.
    • 3/5
      A tad confusing and hard to get into at first, but overall a great novel
    • 2/5
      I finished this book several months ago. I packed the book away and now I can't find it to thumb through to do a thorough review. The story was not compelling because I don't remember the narrative. Ms LeCraw must have potential as a writer because there are beautiful images I remember - Jed finds the stripped bathing suit covered in tissue paper; Jed in the shimmering pool watches Marcella lying alone on a chaise lounge; Marcella confronts her ex- husband on a bleak windswept beach.With hard work and continuouse production, Ms LeGraw may well begin to craft more memorable stories.
    • 4/5
      I do not often read mysteries or novels about rich people with beach houses, so I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. Though the story itself is somewhat common (adultery, mysterious death, sex, lies, etc) it is Holly LeCraw's beautiful prose which truly made it worth reading. I think her words were almost musical or poetic at times, even in the hottest scenes. I also appreciate the way she illustrates the story of a young mother's post-partum depression, and the complexities of familial relationships. I believe this is her debut and look forward to seeing more of her works. Excellent beach vacation read, especially if you love the New England coastal life. Personally, I have never been there, but she describes it well, and brought it to life for me.
    • 4/5
      This is a wonderfully written book about all the ways our actions can have unintended consequences. The story of an affair and the ripples it leaves in the water, Ms. LeCraw has given us spare and beautiful prose to tell a story that contains equal parts tragedy and joy.Set variously in Cape Cod and Atlanta, the book tells the story of two families, interconnected by an affair and the events in its aftermath. It is also the story of Jed and Callie, brother and sister, orphaned and spending the summer together - each supporting the other as best they can. Callie's battle with postpartum depression, Jed's inability to connect to anyone, and the way the two keep getting up in the morning and putting one foot in front of the other make them both admirable and interesting characters - neither is perfect, but both are very real.Less well drawn are Marcella, her ex-husband Anthony, and daughter Toni - a family broken apart by Marcella's affair with Callie and Jed's father. The connections between these three people are so very tenuous and the characterization of Marcella, a major character in the book, feels half-finished - this is one flaw of an otherwise beautiful story.The plot of this book isn't what makes it special - it's the writing and the characters - read it for that.
    • 2/5
      This book was not an easy read for me. I was easily distracted reading it. The story line was pretty good, but I just had a hard tme getting into it.
    • 2/5
      I got the book in return for a review ... so here it goes ... I found it ... alright. It was hard for me to get into, I had a hard time connecting to the characters and getting involved with them. I would have a hard time recommending this book to a friend ...
    • 4/5
      This was a book I really enjoyed.It was fast paced and easy to follow and would make a great beach read. I also loved the setting of the book. I think Holly Lecraw did an excellent job with the writing.
    • 3/5
      A young man is summering at his family cottage with his sister and her children. The sister is struggling with Postpartum depression. He has started an affair with his fathers former mistress. Mixed in with all of this is a long unsolved murder of their mother, in which their now deceased father was always a suspect but never arrested. Told through flashbacks and different characters points of view. Sounds a lot better than it was. It wasn't bad, just slow and ***maybe spoiler*** the murder stays unsolved. Things just sort of fall flat. All the story lines end but don't really conclude. Not a terrible read, but not one I would highly recommend.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this story. At first I didn't really care about the characters, but I eventually felt for them even though they're all pretty messed up. This story is twisted and hot.
    • 4/5
      Cape Cod is the setting for Holly LeCraw's debut novel, The Swimming Pool.In the first chapter we are introduced to Anthony Atkinson. He has called his ex-wife Marcella to let her know that their daughter, Toni, has taken a summer job babysitting for Callie McClatchey. Callie's brother Jed will be at the cottage as well. When Jed finds a bathing suit at the cottage that he remembers Marcella wearing at one of his parent's parties, he inexplicably seeks her out. The past and the present collide as Jed and Marcella begin an affair. Marcella's affair with Jed's father Cecil was the reason for her divorce. Cecil's wife Betsy was murdered on the night that he ended the affair. The past is slowly and tantalizingly revealed to us through the memories of Marcella, Callie and Jed. The present is inevitably affected by secrets, recriminations and confessions revealed.Although the mystery of Betsy's unsolved murder is the strongest plot line, it is the interactions of the characters, their feelings, needs and fears that are the real story. LeCraw has an incredibly deft hand with description. The affairs of Marcella are described in sensual terms and never denigrate into tawdriness. However, I just never really warmed up to Marcella. I found her to be a weak woman, and somewhat pitiable, despite her magnetic attraction for men. She seemed to adapt herself to what the men in her life needed. Her acceptance of an criminal act perpetrated by her husband really galled me.LeCraw has done a superb job in drawing her characters and provoking a reaction from this reader. I honestly didn't like most of them. Callie's storyline was the one that had me holding my breath. A new mother for the second time, she is suffering from undiagnosed severe post partum depression. Her thoughts on harming her newborn are truly frightening.The Swimming Pool is definitely not plot driven, despite the description given at the beginning of this review, and the mystery surrounding Betsy's death is easily answered midway. What stands out are the prose - they really are beautiful. I found myself rereading many passages just to savour the words. A strong debut from a talented new author.
    • 2/5
      Hard to believe I made it to the end of this book. The early sex scenes were just hinted at, but hinted at in that Harlequin Romance novel sort of way. Halfway through the book, Lecraw gets up her nerve to actualy write some sex scenes, and they are excruciating. Maybe I've been doing it wrong all these years, but this sex is unrecognizable. As for the parts of the book that aren't sex, well, no more help there. The way the author treats one of the peripheral characters in the early going lets you know he's going to be the bad guy in the end, and I can't understand the attraction of the main character, the son, who the mother and daughter both fall for. Go figure.
    • 2/5
      I must say, I was attracted to this book because it's similar to other stuff I enjoy. And I really did make a concerted effort to plow through and give it a chance but overall, I just didn't like it. The storyline was okay but I really hated the characters. It's a rare book where ALL the characters tick you off for some reason or another. I gave it 2 stars because the writing style was good. But the plot? Not so much.
    • 3/5
      The story follows two families Marcella, Anthony and daughter Toni and Betsey, Cecil and their children Jed and Callie. It switches between the present and 7 years earlier when Betsey was murdered and Cecil died of a heart attack. Marcella and Anthony are divorced, a result of her affair with Cecil. The murder is unsolved, and while Jed repeatedly talks of going to the police to provide additional information, it remains unsolved. The story focuses on Marcella and Jed but brings to light how the events of the earlier time affected all the characters. An interesting read.
    • 3/5
      [Warning: this review contains elements that would qualify as spoilers to many potential readers, though I have made an effort to leave some things unsaid.]For me, this book lagged and left more unanswered questions than I would have liked. While the characters were all right, there was no one I really came to care about or root for. Marcella is the central character and while she was generally fully-shaped as a character, her Italian accent was simply rendered by the annoying lack of contractions in her English speech (at least, I assume rendering her accent was the point of that little literary idiosyncracy) and some of her motivation for certain of her actions were left unspoken while others were quite fully examined. Other characters were less fully drawn out, though, generally, everyone seemed humanly flawed and there was no danger of anyone coming off as too good to be true.The story is non-linear, weaving from the present to different segments of the past. While it is made clear fairly early on that there has been a murder (Betsey, wife to Cecil and mother of Jed and Callie, who are now adults in their 20s) and that there has been an affair, there are also hints that something much more sinister than a mere affair has taken place. And while what is eventually revealed does constitute "more than a mere affair," it does not live up to what has been foreshadowed. Ultimately, the cause of Betsey's murder is still left uncertain. Meanwhile, there is also some progressive foreshadowing that all is not well with Callie, the mother of two young children, who appears to be suffering from depression. This is left mostly unexplored until it explodes into an attempted suicide.I often found my mind wandering as I read this. Often, I would re-read what I hadn't absorbed, not wanting to miss anything key. Usually when I re-read, I found nothing key. Perhaps I did miss some important information, and that is why I was left unsatisfied by the ending, but I doubt it.Overall, this felt like a bit of a soap opera.
    • 3/5
      The Swimming Pool follows the lives of two damaged families, alternating between the past and present as seen through the eyes of Marcella. A lonely woman, Marcella is paying the price for her long ago affair with Cicil, the result of this affair ended her marriage and damaged her relationship with her daugher. Marcella's daughter takes a summer job as a nanny for one of Cicil's now grown children. It is here that she meets Cicil's son, Jed with whom she begans a fervent affair. A passionate tale and modern tragedy that ends with some form of hope for all those involved.
    • 4/5
      I did enjoy this book. I thought it was well written and kept me interested from the beginning. It was a combination of mystery and love story all rolled into one and I agree with other reviewers that it is a great summer read. I tend not to like to read too many details of intimate encounters but that is just me. There were only a few so it wasn't overkill. All in all, I enjoyed it and read through it quickly.
    • 4/5
      After finishing the book, it was hard to believe that this was LeCraw's freshman work. The story centers on Marcella, a divorced woman who finds herself in a relationship with Jed, the grown son of the man with whom she had an affair seven years before. LeCraw builds the characters so well, that even secondary ones like Marcella's daughter Toni and Jed's sister Callie have developed storylines that really let the reader feel they are a part of this inner circle. The book gives you a almost-voyeuristic view into the emotions that drive all the characters' actions. The decisions they make would under other writers' hands turn into a story best left to afternoon talk shows and tabloids. LeCraw magnificently delves into the psyche of each character and their choices, and thereby makes the reader empathize with each. The relationships, of Jed and his sister, Marcella and her ex-husband, are explored on more than just a surface level. The story is told in vignettes bouncing from past to present, and while I usually find that annoying, the forgeous prose that LeCraw uses made the transitions almost seamless. This is a story of love, hurt, betrayal, forgiveness, and secrets. The characters are on the precipice of falling into a dangerous unknown, and I found myself cheering them on to find ways off their ledges. Even when they indulged in selfish deeds, I still loved them all.The novel does have a bit of sexual content, but this did not distract from what a great book it is. I would have loved to have the ending a bit more developed, but overall this would definitely be a book I recommend for a summer read!
    • 3/5
      The consequences of a passionate affair seven years ago reverberate through multiple generations of two families with tragic consequences. Throw in an unsolved murder, a new affair, guilt over the past and present, a tragic accident, a suicide attempt, family dysfunction, postpartum depression and secrets kept and revealed and you've got the complex stew of The Swimming Pool. Although I thought there were a few too many plot elements, LeCraw does a great job of creating believable characters and weaving the stories of the past and present into a complex, compelling mix.
    • 4/5
      The Swimming Pool is a story of loss and longing and searching for answers -- answers which may not bring the closure the characters seem to seek.Marcella Atkinson and Cecil McClatchey have an affair that lasts several months. The night Cecil ends the affair, his wife is murdered and Cecil is a suspect. He dies in a car accident (caused by a heart attack?) a short time later. Marcella's husband divorces her.Fast forward about seven years. Marcella's daughter is working for Cecil's daughter. Marcella is having an affair with Cecil's son, Jed. And so the lives of the two families are once again intertwined.This is a good story. Tthe story is driven by the characters and their inner secrets and longings more than by the plot. Holly LeCraw did an excellent job of developing characters with real depth, which she reveals rather than explains, so I felt like I was gradually getting to know them.At the same time, there were enough plot twists to hold my interest, along with a web of secrets that became increasingly intriguing. There is a sub-plot about post-partum depression which is especially well done.Great writing, great characters, good story.
    • 3/5
      This is a story about an affair and a subsequent murder in Cape Cod. The book weaves in and out between the past and the present. In the past Marcella carries on an affair with Cecil at her summer residence in Cape Cod. The affair continues after the summer but eventually Cecil calls it off. The breakup happens just before Cecil's wife is found murdered in the swimming pool. Not long after this Cecil dies in a car accident. Fast forward to the present and Marcella's daughter Toni is working for Cecil's daughter Callie, as a nanny. During this time Marcella carries on a relationship with Cecil's son Jed and secrets from the past come up and drama ensues. I enjoyed the author's writing style. LeCraw really focuses on character development and you really get a sense of who the character is and how they may react to different situations. This being said, I had a hard time really feeling sympathy for Marcella. She seemed a bit cold to me and I couldn't understand why she would repeat the mistakes of the past. On the other hand, I found the character of Callie to be spilling over with emotion and I couldn't help but get frustrated with the men around her for not noticing something was very off. The book centers on the mother's unsolved murder yet I found that I wasn't completely satisfied with the explanation at the end of the novel. This could be the author's technique to help make point that the characters don't really seem to be satisfied at all. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book but it was not one of my favourites and for this reason I give the book 3 out of 5 stars.
    • 3/5
      I received this book as part of the Early Reviewers group. Its an interesting story. Part mystery. Part Romance. Part family drama. I enjoyed the book but I expected more of a twist at the end after reading the description on the back of the book. I did not agree with how one of the main male characters died. It didn't seem to fit his personality. Also, I didn't LOVE the main female character. She seemed so weak. I found the secondary story about postpartum depression very interesting and would have liked to read more about that character and her story. This book is definitely an easy quick read.
    • 4/5
      Holly LeCraw is a mastermind at creating characters. The loneliness, the innocent, the lusting, the betrayed and hurting characters are so well written you can't hate them. You sense what has driven each character to the place they are today and even though you might find some of them morally wrong it is hard to pass judgment on them when you hear how tortured they are within their own minds and how they just long to be punished. Jed's sister, Callie, I found particularly interesting. She was in college, just as Jed, when she lost her mother. Now with the lose of both parents and the arrival of a new baby, life has just swallowed her whole. This is a character I would normally hate but Holly wrote her so well I could understand her maddening world she was living in. A book of mystery. Just when every character seems to have gotten their answers and some sort of peace the book takes a twist and nothing is what it seems. Perfect beach and summer read full of mystery, love, desperation and believable characters.
    • 3/5
      The Swimming Pool by Holly LeCraw is a story of love, betrayal and murder, but it is hard to read, very slow-paced. The story follows families who have ties to the Cape that go back several years with an unsolved murder. The author does develop each character and gives a glimpse of what makes them tick. The storyline does keep us guessing till the end. I'd say that it was merely OK.
    • 4/5
      The Swimming Pool is a story about two families who are forever linked by the illicit affair of Marcella Atkinson, a wife and mother of a teenage girl, Toni, and Cecil McClatchey, a neighbor and a married man with two children. There is a murder, a suspicious accident, and then a love affair between Marcella and Cecil's own son, Jed. I found the main character, Marcella, very selfish and therefore unlikeable. She loves her daughter, Toni, but I find no redeeming qualities in her actions otherwise. A weak woman. The story jumps back and forth between present and past tense which bothered me at first. Due to the first affair, family members on both sides were deeply hurt, and after the death of her lover, it seems almost inevitable that Marcella, whom Jed had admired as a young college student, would find herself ensnared in a physical relationship with Jed. I gave the book four stars because in spite of the moral depravity (sorry if I seem too judgmental, but this is my review), the book is very well written. I believe Ms. Lecraw has a bestseller on her hands and applaud her writing ability.
    • 3/5
      The Swimming Pool is a story about complex relationships, family ties and past secrets. Holly Lecraw has a wonderful way with words and in the beginning this story pulled me right in. Although, I did not feel this way throughout the entire novel. I lost interest in the characters and story line and felt some of the relationship aspects to be unrealistic. I wanted a bit more action and a better defined ending to this story.