The Lockhart Women: A Novel

by Mary Camarillo, Kirsten Potter (Read by)

Overview

Brenda Lockhart’s family has been living well beyond their means for too long when Brenda’s husband leaves them―for an older and less attractive woman than Brenda, no less.

Brenda has never worked outside the home, and the family’s economic situation quickly declines. Oldest daughter Peggy is certain she’s heading off to a university, until her father offers her a job sorting mail while she attends community college instead. Younger daughter Allison, a high school senior, can’t believe her luck that California golden boy Kevin has fallen in love with her.

Meanwhile, the chatter about the O. J. Simpson murder investigations is always on in the background, a media frenzy that underscores domestic violence against women and race and class divisions in Southern California.

Brenda, increasingly obsessed with the case, is convinced O. J. is innocent and has been framed by the Los Angeles Police Department. Both daughters are more interested in their own lives―that is, until Peggy starts noticing bruises Allison can’t explain.

For a while, it feels to everyone as if the family is falling apart, but in the end, things come together in unexpected ways.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798212199261
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	12/20/2022
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mary Camarillo went to work for the Postal Service after high school. It might be genetic; both her grandfathers were railway mail clerks. Her short stories and poems have been published in the Sonora Review, the Bookends Review, Lunch Ticket, and The Ear, among others. She lives in Huntington Beach, California, with her husband, who plays ukulele, and their terrorist cat, Riley, who has his own Instagram account.

Kirsten Potter, who graduated with highest honors from Boston University, has narrated numerous audiobooks and has performed for television and in theaters across the country. She has won several awards, including eleven AudioFile Earphones Awards, and been a three-time finalist for the prestigious Audie Award.

Editorial Reviews

The Lockhart women make mistake after mistake in this delightful debut novel, but that’s part of their charm. Touching on themes of motherhood, fidelity, and responsibility, this is a coming-of-age tale for both Brenda and her daughters.”

author of The Book of Jeremiah Julie Zuckerman

This is a gripping, sometimes funny, novel that will keep you turning the pages.”

San Francisco Book Review

Camarillo’s prose is lively, companionable, and quite satisfyingly observant in ways that surprise and delight.”

author of Peace Richard Bausch

2022 Page Turner Best Book Award Winner in Women's Fiction
2022 California Indie Author Project Winner in Adult Fiction

2022 American Writing Awards Finalist in General Fiction
2022 American Writing Awards Finalist in Women's Fiction
2022 WILLA Literary Awards Finalist in Multiform Fiction
2022 ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Competition Finalist
2022 Los Angeles Book Festival Honorable Mention in Regional Fiction
2022 Hollywood Book Festival Honorable Mention in General Fiction
2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner in First Novel (Over 90,000 words)
2021 American Fiction Awards Finalist in Women's Fiction

“A family is thrown into chaos in 1990s Southern California in Camarillo’s debut . . . and the novel’s ending is a satisfying one. An emotional portrait of three women dealing with unexpected change.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Camarillo’s prose is lively, companionable, and quite satisfyingly observant in ways that surprise and delight, as if a friendly someone you know well is murmuring in your ear, giving you living presences, using history as the canvas across which the drama takes place. Bravo!”
—Richard Bausch, award-winning author of Peace and Hello to the Cannibals

“The Lockhart Women is deeply and thoroughly Southern Californian—in all the perfectly detailed cities and streets and, of course, freeways, but also in the evocation of its time: the 1990s. These women in this page turner—flawed and desperate and seeking redemption—are vivid portraits.”
—Susan Straight, award-winning author of In the Country of Women

“With control, compassion, and surprising humor, Camarillo dissects how a modern family comes apart. . . . Unputdownable.”
—Eduardo Santiago, PEN Emerging Voices Rosenthal fellow and award-winning author of Tomorrow They Will Kiss and Midnight Rhumba

“Like Mona Simpson’s Anywhere but Here, The Lockhart Women sensitively illustrates what happens to children coming of age under the influence of childish parents. But unlike Simpson, Camarillo provides hope that everyone—parents and children—can grow and develop. An authentically hopeful and realistic novel.”
—Shelley Blanton-Stroud, author of Copy Boy

“. . . an intimate portrayal of a Southern California working class family that splinters apart when the father leaves. Brenda Lockhart and her two daughters are complicated and not always admirable characters, but they are relentlessly human. Camarillo laces their story with concise prose, dry humor, and flinty realism, allowing love, resilience, hope and eventual forgiveness to shine through.”
—Samantha Dunn, bestselling author of Not By Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life

"O. J.’s famous white Bronco flight and his trial for murder is the perfect backdrop for this story of a mother and her two daughters watching their lives implode. Great writing, compelling and fast-paced, The Lockhart Women is impossible to put down.”
—Diana Wagman, award-winning author of Spontaneous and Extraordinary October

“The Lockhart Women make mistake after mistake in this delightful debut novel, but that's part of their charm. Touching on themes of motherhood, fidelity, and responsibility, this is a coming-of-age tale for both Brenda and her daughters, teaching us that the indelible bonds of love can steer families through the roughest of passages.”
—Julie Zuckerman, author of The Book of Jeremiah

“This is a gripping, sometimes funny, novel that will keep you turning the pages.”
—San Francisco Book Review

From the Publisher

2021-03-19
A family is thrown into chaos in 1990s Southern California in Camarillo’s debut historical novel.

On June 17, 1994—the same day that O.J. Simpson fled police in a white Ford Bronco—Brenda Lockhart attends a party and learns that her husband, Frank, is having an affair. He soon moves out of their house, leaving Brenda to care for their two teenage daughters, Allison and Peggy, a task for which she isn’t very skilled—particularly as the household takes a financial hit. Practical, organized Peggy wants to be an accountant but ends up working with her father at the post office after she turns 18. She has an affair with an older co-worker who’s uninterested in commitment, and the fallout from the relationship further complicates her plans. Flighty Allison is dating a surfer named Kevin Nelsonthat none of her family members like, but that only seems to increase his appeal in her eyes. She lives with his family for a time, but Kevin is abusive, and Allison blames herself for his behavior. She also shoplifts and gets mixed up with Kevin’s family’s drug business—all of which eventually catches up with her. Throughout, Brenda obsesses over every detail of the Simpson case as more details are revealed, neglecting to shower or do household chores. All three women must find ways to navigate themselves out of difficult situations. Brenda comes off as judgmental and unwilling to compromise at first, and as a result, readers may find her cold and unsympathetic. However, as the novel progresses, she matures as a character, moving to a more affordable place to live, finding a job, and becoming a more attentive mother. The author uses the Simpson trial as an indicator for Brenda’s growth; by the time the verdict is rendered, she’s doing better for herself than when the legal proceedings began, and she’s less consumed by them. Peggy and Allison aren’t always likable, either, but they also learn to make better decisions, and the novel’s ending is a satisfying one.

An emotional portrait of three women dealing with unexpected change.

Kirkus Reviews