Camino Island
A Novel
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4.2 • 5K Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Soak up the sun—and the intrigue—with the first novel in John Grisham’s beloved Camino series.
“A happy lark [that] provides the pleasure of a leisurely jaunt periodically jolted into high gear, just for the fun and speed of it.”—The New York Times Book Review
A gang of thieves stage a daring heist from a secure vault deep below Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Their loot is priceless, but Princeton has insured it for twenty-five million dollars.
Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. He makes his real money, though, as a prominent dealer in rare books. Very few people know that he occasionally dabbles in the black market of stolen books and manuscripts.
Mercer Mann is a young novelist with a severe case of writer’s block who has recently been laid off from her teaching position. She is approached by an elegant, mysterious woman working for an even more mysterious company. A generous offer of money convinces Mercer to go undercover and infiltrate Bruce Cable’s circle of literary friends, ideally getting close enough to him to learn his secrets.
But eventually Mercer learns far too much, and there’s trouble in paradise as only John Grisham can deliver it.
Look for all of John Grisham’s rollicking Camino novels:
Camino Island
Camino Winds
Camino Ghosts
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
John Grisham’s 36th novel takes place in the world of antiquarian book-dealing, bookstores, and writers—a notable departure from his bestselling legal thrillers. Camino Island starts with the daring heist of a priceless literary treasure: a set of original F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts. It’s wonderfully fun, with Grisham’s quick-paced action keeping us hooked from the first page to the last. All the entertaining intrigue is set against the backdrop of a sleepy Florida island, making it a perfect summer read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The opening chapters detailing an elaborate scheme to steal five F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts from Princeton are the best part of this thriller from bestseller Grisham (The Whistler). A sophisticated gang pulls off the theft after faking a campus shooting that causes widespread panic. The university's insurance company, liable for millions, reaches out to unemployed academic and struggling writer Mercer Mann, who has just lost her position at the University of North Carolina and is in desperate financial straits. Mercer grew up spending summers on Florida's Camino Island, where Donna Watson, the shadowy insurance company representative, believes the stolen manuscripts are; she thinks they're in the possession of Bruce Cable, who runs a successful independent bookstore there. Despite Mercer's initial misgivings about functioning as a spy, she agrees to return to Camino Island and insinuate herself into its literary community as a precursor to gaining Bruce's confidence and determining whether he has the stolen goods. But after this promising setup, the plot follows predictable lines to a conclusion that genre fans have seen before. Author tour.
Customer Reviews
A Pleasant Step Away From Legal Thrillers
Apparently, I'm the second person to have actually read the book and review it. I almost never write reviews because I don't figure people need my opinion to decide whether they'll like a book, but seeing the poor rating this book has because of two weirdos who haven't even bothered to read it, I decided to throw my 2 cents out there.
What you need to know is that this is not a legal thriller. It's actually a nice divergence away from that for Grisham. It's certainly not a deep or philosophical read, and I got through it in about 3 hours. I also figured the end story about halfway through. But it was enjoyable and didn't become preachy, like I've found some of his books to be.
Overall, I'd call it an easy, breezy summer read.
Intriguing story
Well written, good solid plot that has the reader hoping the end will be a they would like but not quite sure. I enjoyed the book immensely and spent every moment I had to pick it up and continue reading. Hated to see it end.
Campaign Island
A bit disappointed in that the read was very simplistic, and there was some repetition that bothered me. It seemed contrived. I've always liked your work but didn't think this was your best effort.