Camino Island

Somebody whose opinion I trusted recommended this to me as a brillant thriller. Next time I meet him we’re going to have an interesting conversation. This has to be one of the worst books I’ve ever read. It’s unbelievable on every level, from the wooden characters to the stilted dialogue, though the most unbelievable part for me is that I actually finished it. That’s a whole afternoon and a large part of the following morning that I knowingly and wilfully wasted, and at this stage life is just too short for that. The only consolation is that I now know never to read another book by Grisham, despite all the blurbs proclaiming him to be one of the best thriller writers in the world. I guess it’s a case of same planet, different show more worlds. show less

I never use my reviews to rehash the plotline - it's covered in the synopsis and most every other review - instead I prefer to share my idea of the book's strengths & weaknesses.

I used to love John Grisham books. Then I didn't. I read several in a row that felt like lightweight movie script outlines - he was just phoning it in. Then I decided to give him another try & read this book.

I REALLY liked this book. Spare in writing style, almost staccato in the beginning - the facts, just the facts, ma'am. Then, as the plot developed, the dialog interactions felt real and interesting. The main characters were interesting but not overly developed - no dramatic "inner thoughts and angst" fluff, just a straightforward story. The story just show more barrels along with no breaks in the action and a satisfying conclusion.

Recommended show less

I found John Grisham to be a great guide with his imagination, story telling, and writing style. Camino Island had a style that was direct, clear, informative and filled with characters that drove the narrative forward effortlessly. The power of Grisham's writing lies in his fierce control of sentence length and complexity and restrained descriptions and narrative development the move the action along in a natural way This sounds like something from a College Course, but how he can control my heart rate and build suspense with a series of short statements and then play me equally well within romantic moments by using long languid ones to mimic the intensity of a romantic moment are lessons I will be taking with me. More than once, at show more the end of a section, I went back to see how he was able to manipulate my feelings without me noticing how he did it. show less

Though a fast read and my first JG read it was kind of a disappointment. He's very good w plot but it reads like a newspaper article. Characters were like they were out of a Clive Cussler novel, thin and over done. Where it could of got interesting he wrote the bad guys off quickly at the end without them getting their hand on the book dealer. Guess I have been spoiled by too many Michael Connelly novels.

An elaborate theft happens in the special collections room in the Princeton library. Five men work together to steal some first edition manuscripts including one for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”. Two of them are caught right away, but the other three get away, and the manuscripts are gone.

When author Mercer Mann is approached by someone named Elaine to help them find the manuscript, she hesitates. Elaine and Co. are pretty sure the manuscripts (or at least some of them) are with a bookseller in Florida where Mercer used to spend summers with her grandmother. Elaine just wants Mercer to spy and pass on any info she finds out. Mercer will fit right in to this community of authors and the bookseller who helps them promote show more their works.

I quite liked this. Like Mercer, I certainly would have had misgivings/hesitations in doing something like this. But I (mostly) liked her and some of the other characters. Not a fan of the bookseller himself, Bruce, though I believe he was meant to be friendly and charming. There is a sequel (not sure how many in this series), so I’ll give it a try. It sound like both Bruce and Mercer are characters, though I could have done without Bruce. show less

“Camino Island” starts as a fast moving, (very) stripped down, matter of fact, look how ingenious we are, heist. The plot moves along rapidly, if somewhat mechanically, executing what should have been the perfect robbery. The thieves are straight from central casting. The items being stolen, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s manuscripts, are the only original things in the opening chapters. If this had been a movie, the robbery would have taken place as a background to the credits rolling by and no one would have missed anything.

Then the flow of the book suddenly slows and we’re gently meandering through the life of our heroine, a woman with one successful novel behind her, weighed down by her student loan debt, about to lose her teaching show more job, involuntarily single and three years behind on writing her next novel.

It turns out she is the last best hope for retrieving the missing manuscripts. She accepts payment to go back the island she grew up on and spend the summer infiltrating the life of a bookseller, suspected of holding the manuscripts.

Much of the book is spent describing the books seller’s life, the lives of the other writers on the island (they are legion) the changing nature of the publishing world, the delights of good food, fine wine and antique Provençal furniture and the freedoms of an open marriage.
The dialogue is well done and the characters are clearly drawn but I felt that I had walked into a different novel (possibly written by a different author) than the one I’d started. I was less engaged that I could have been as I found the bookseller unattractive and our heroine passive and voyeuristic.

I kept reading partly because I wanted to see how this dive into Floridian book culture would connect back to the heist and partly because the writing made up for the plot.
In the end, the clever twist emerges and is well executed but it had all the emotional impact of a magician pulling a rabbit from a top hat.

The epilogue that brings the main characters together for a final resolution simply confirmed that I didn’t like or care about either of them.

This is not a bad book but it left me feeling a little cheated because the heist never got passed the cardboard cut-out stage and most of the book was as thrilling as watching strangers drink too much and talk too much at a cocktail party show less

A fascinating thriller with no blood or violent deaths. This takes readers into the world of rare books and manuscripts. Mercer is a hard up writer trying to write a second novel. She returns to Camino Island at the request of an insurance company after five original manuscripts are stolen from a university. They have a lead on a book seller and she is asked to get close to him. We'll paced and interesting.