#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A delightfully lighthearted caper . . . [a] fast-moving, entertaining tale.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette A gang of thieves stage a daring heist from a vault deep below Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Their loot is priceless, impossible to resist. Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. … 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 unsavory ventures.
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 monetary offer convinces Mercer to go undercover and infiltrate Cable’s circle of literary friends, to get close to the ringleader, to discover his secrets.
But soon Mercer learns far too much, and there’s trouble in paradise—as only John Grisham can deliver it.
Praise for Camino Island
“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
“Sheer catnip . . . [Grisham] reveals an amiable, sardonic edge here that makes Camino Island a most agreeable summer destination.”—USA Today
“Fans will thrill with the classic chase and satisfying ending; and book lovers will wallow in ecstasy.”—The Florida Times-Union
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Entertaining beach read for that upcoming vacation! Not the standard Grisham novel but a great read overall. Crack open this book while you sit on the beach or by the pool.
As an author, I most enjoyed the part of the novel that included the bookstore and the author. It was a fun way to mesh a truly unique (literary!) heist with my writerly world. I loved the unique writers in this book and would love to read more about them in the future.
This is a great beach read and those who can appreciate the printed word. I loved that so much was tied to a book store.
Being a Public Historian working in an archives, I immediately connected with this story. I enjoyed Grisham’s format of layering the story, so that the archival pieces are the story’s focus throughout. I am also a lover of books and First Editions, so I found Grisham’s tale thoroughly believable, especially when he writes the end characters’ attitudes, actions, behaviours, and desires. I do find it humorous that Grisham really despises Texans and casts them as negatively as possible, portraying them as idiots. It does get rather pedantic and tiresome, though. Otherwise, it is a nice plot with good twists, though too much time was spent on Bruce and Mercer’s relationship, Another good psychological who done it that is well-researched and written. I am curious as to how much of Cable’s ‘ how not to write list” is really Grisham’s list? A good summer read!
Of all the Grisham books this may be my least favorite. It just didn’t grab my interest.
This isn’t the typical Grisham thriller – but it is fast-paced and fun. . . especially if you love a literary mystery and a heist story. Definitely worth a read.
This is an oh-so-fun book for bibliophiles, writers, and anyone else who likes a John Grisham mystery. Instead of the typical legal thriller, Grisham writes a mystery centered around a theft of expensive manuscripts by art thieves. Add in a hunky, mysterious bookstore owner, an out of work writer who hasn’t dated in years, and FBI and insurance company on the hunt, it’s a fast-paced read. I listened to the audio book which was about eight hours; the print edition is a reasonable 380 pages, short for Grisham. The author builds in all kinds of trivia and background from the literary world about famous authors and books which adds to the interest. If you’re looking for a fun read and diversion from the serious, this book is for you. It makes a great beach read. Loved it.
This is the tale of Mercer Mann, a struggling write who had a well recieved first novel and now suffers from writers block. She’s just lost her job as a teacher due to budget cuts and can’t see to crank out the next page on her current work. At the same time burglars break into Princeton University and steal five manuscripts written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The insurance company is about to pay five million dollars for each of the manuscripts. Through a mysterious woman they contact Mercer Mann with the suggestion she get close to Bruce Cable, the owner of a bookstore on Camino Island with a reputation throughout the country of dealing in rare books. The story was interesting but Mercer was, for me, a difficult protagonist to like. That said I enjoy Grisham’s work and Camino Island makes a nice summer read.
This book started with a bang. The theft and immediate aftermath made for very exciting reading…but that soon petered out into long descriptions of the rare book business and endless introspection by Mercer, the female lead.
Not one of Grisham’s best.
I found it to be a little slow for John Grisham . Wanted it to be a little more unpredictable.
Not one of his better page turners. Seemed almost like a documentary or narrative.
I was very disappointed in this book. Grisham used to write such wholesome books, but now includes sex and vulgarity in his books. I used to list him as my favorite writer but may have to change that.
I was expecting a better effort out of Grisham. Camino Island is complicated, slow moving and unbelievable. Stolen hand-written first drafts of the works of Fitzgerald are priceless to Princeton, but insured for $25 million. Two of the gang are caught within days, but the rest of the gang and the manuscripts are not found.
An unknown firm that specializes in retreiving stolen insured objects hires an unemployed writer to infiltrate the community where they assume the manuscripts are located. Mercer, the writer, is supposed to get to know all the writers who hang out around a certain book shop. This unnamed firm is convinced that the owner of the book shop has the stolen manuscripts and wants to get them back before they are shipped over seas.
Mercer is supposed to be writing her second book, which is three years overdue. She gets to know all the players and really likes them, especially the book shop owner, Bruce Cable.
This is definitely not one of the better Grisham books. I read the story, but didn’t really become invested in the outcome. Yeah, they were stolen, yeah, they were priceless, yeah, the insurance company was going to be out a bundle, but it didn’t seem that important to me. I finished it, but it isn’t something I will be telling people, “oh, you gotta read this”.
This was an awesome & fun summer read. I live on Amelia Island – not far from the author (it’s only a 13mile Island), and the wit and hometown “in-the-know” was great for us locals – who “got the joke”.
A great gift book as it covers so many genres.
The narrator did a good job of delivering the story. I listened via Audible. This is the first of Grisham’s books I “read” and before, watched one movie created from his content. Neither of these are his typical, according to reviews. I found this story was interesting and had no problem finishing. I will say it caused moral dilemmas. At times, I wanted to shout at the characters, “Don’t do it!” If an author can elicit that response, I imagine the writing is then, effective. Though, I am not sure I am content with the end. It was tidy, but … Read for yourself and see what you surmise.
An enticing peek into the rare book collectors and writers worlds that plays out mostly on an island within a small community of readers. An entertaining legal thriller that fluctuates between fun beach life and full speed ahead.
I usually only write positive recommendation reviews, but I’m making an exception here. I love heist books & movies. They’re like catnip to me. But I expect clever planning, interesting thieves, a seemingly impossible caper, lots of twists and turns, and breath-holding suspense. The description and the newspaper reviews all sounded great. A fun, heist-oriented plot to steal F.Scott Fitzgerald’s original manuscripts from the very well guarded Princeton library. Then throw in a writer with writer’s block recruited as a spy to infiltrate the gang and find the manuscripts.
Unfortunately, it failed for me on so many levels. There isn’t much time spent on planning, the thieves (all the characters, actually), are one dimensional without the differing personalities that adds tension to heists. They pull off the caper, making one mistake that gets two of them caught early. Which made me wonder how all those other pages were going to get filled.
We leave the thieves with the FBI, and move on to the island where the manuscripts might be. The supporting characters are stereotypes, and unfortunately not suspects, which might have made their inclusion more interesting. The overweight, over-the-top Southern romance writer who drinks a lot, swears, and keeps saying she writes trashy erotica books that rake in the money; a wimpy, pale literary writer who mostly sighs; and our “heroine” who might get past her block if she actually wrote instead of drinking with the islanders and hanging out on the beach working on her tan.
The plot was tediously linear, which is even worse in a heist story. It plodded on, with hints of possible subplots that were never examined. My husband and I were listening on audio, and kept taking breaks every few days. (I read two other books during that time.) The only reason we kept listening was that I thought of a clever twist midway through that might salvage it and bring it back to a heist plot. That never happened and when it was finally over, I’d zoned out and had to ask my husband how it ended. Which didn’t make any sense to me, but I’m not saying why, because I don’t want to spoil it for those who might enjoy it, as several reviewers did. I only wish I’d read the 1 & 2 stars before using an audible credit. All those readers’ reasons for being disappointed mirror my own.
John Grishman, as always, presents a really good story in this book. Moving away from legal fiction, he dives headfirst into the world of writing, bookselling (legal and otherwise), to spin a yarn that is a great, breezy summer read. I may not be keen with the resolution of the story, but then again, Grisham a number of years ago moved from black-and-white stories to variations of gray and my level of preference for them is my issue not his.
And, if you’re a Fitzgerald fan, you will love how the story mirrors a bit the life of the characters described by this Lost Generation legend (which mirrored his own life as well). Also there’s a playful dig/shoutout in the book if you watch for it.
I liked this book but it wasn’t one of Grisham’s better ones.