Review: Camino Island

Camino Island by John Grisham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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.

If you like Grisham's books, as I do, this one will not disappoint but it probably won't blow you away either. Grisham's written so many novels now that it's hard to imagine him writing a dud and this is definitely not a dud but I was able to put it down without thinking "just one more chapter".

Essentially it's the solving of a daring heist but it also explores the murky world of rare books and collectors who don't always care where their acquisitions come from or how they were obtained.

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