John Grisham

Camino Island: A Novel

Melissa Palmer

Book #46 Read in 2017
Camino Island by John Grisham

This is the first by Grisham which I have read in a long time and I read it in a day. Different from his usual lawyer-focused books, this one tells the tale of manuscripts by F. Scott Fitzgerald which were stolen from the Princeton Library. The authorities are after the thieves but their main priority is to find the missing manuscripts. To that means, they contact Mercer, a young, struggling writer, and want to use her to get information on a suspect, Bruce Cable, a bookstore owner. This was a good, quick read and had an engaging storyline. I recommend it. I borrowed this book from the public library.

Jonathan Tysick

Great beginning and ending, but the middle dragged and felt too much like a "chick-flick." Any bibliophile will love the premise.

Colleen

2 Stars

This review contains spoilers.

I was excited to read Camino Island. Really, I was. And I liked it at first. It started fast with a high-dollar heist but then slowed way down. It was almost like Grisham tried to turn it into character driven literary fiction. But since the characters were flat and boring, it just did not work. For such a short book, it still took me four days to get through because I lost interest.

After the initial heist, the first third of the book introduced seemingly random characters with no sense of how they all tied together. It was hard to know who to root for. Sure Grisham has done many morally ambiguous characters, but I really had no idea who the main character was supposed to be. Still, I gave it the benefit of the doubt that the random characters would all converge and that the plot would pick back up.

The middle slowed down painfully and became character driven but without any character development or depth. It was basically a bunch of egotistical writers drowning in their own narcissism. Occasionally the heist was mentioned, but it mostly got sidetracked.

Somehow the story comes to focus on Mercer Mann, a struggling writer with no personality and massive daddy issues. She did have some potential to be interesting; there were certainly things in her past that could have been developed. But all of that was shoved aside to focus on her developing “relationship” with the smarmy older married guy, Bruce Cable. Mercer became more and more of a pathetic sadsack as the book went on. I absolutely hated her by the end. (view spoiler)[She basically started a relationship with Bruce because she was bored, horny, and liked the attention even though he was a philandering douchebag who open admitted to sleeping with any remotely willing female. Mercer ended up sleeping with him on the pitifully flimsy excuse that it was inevitable that she would sleep with him so she might as well start sleeping with him. Yeah, that was the amazing logic of our wretched heroine. The whole thing screamed DADDY ISSUES at ear-bleeding levels. And the descriptions of the two of them getting it on literally made me nauseous. My skin is crawling again just writing this review. (hide spoiler)] She made bad decision after bad decision, and between her complete lack of complexity and character development and her utter uselessness, I just wanted it to end.

I still held out hope that all of this was building up to a good climax. Boy was I wrong! The book never regained any momentum from the beginning of the story. It started out like a bright, shiny balloon. Then the air slowly leaked out until finally the last of it burst out in a flatulent spurt in one of the worst endings I have ever read. Yes, all of the characters did come together. But they were so boring and lacking in character development that I did not care what happened to any of them. By that point the plot had been MIA so long I had forgotten there had even been one. There certainly was no dramatic tension or suspense. I hesitate to even shelf this as a thriller because it was so lacking in plot and so slow paced. And the grand finale? Well, it read like a shoddy outline that was hastily thrown together and never fleshed out. (view spoiler)[How do you go from a good, four star heist at the beginning to one of the most boring heists ever written? And even worse was that it did not stop there. No, there was a sad little prologue-ish ending where that creeper Bruce tracks down Mercer basically just to hit on her again. And she once again said that it seemed inevitable that she would sleep with him again. And that is the ending, Ladies and Gents. (hide spoiler)] I cannot help but ask myself what the point was. This book was such a mess!

I am giving Camino Island two stars only because the beginning was good, but overall it was a one star read. If you want something good, go read some of Grisham's older books. They probably should not even be compared to this drivel. What a massive disappointment! 


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 2 Stars
Writing Style: 1 Star
Characters and Character Development: 1 Star
Plot Structure and Development: 2 Stars
Level of Captivation: 2 Stars
Originality: 1 Star

Andrew Louis

First Grisham book but this one has almost no legal drama so probably the wrong one to try.

Sonja H

Ich weiß nicht wirklich, was ich zu diesem Buch groß schreiben soll, außer „Was bitte war das denn?“

Es begann wie ein Thriller mit einer guten und spannenden Idee.
Im Mittelteil gab es dann lediglich feiernde und Alkohol trinkende Autorinnen und Autoren und gegen Ende eine unglaublich kitschige Bettgeschichte.

Vermutlich soll der Roman ein wenig an Fitzgerald und „The Great Gatsby“ erinnern, anders kann ich mir diesen furchtbaren Plot nicht erklären.

Muss man nicht lesen.

Selly Thakkar

An exciting, fun packed, thrilling book. I have read quite a many grisham’s books so I have to say it’s not his finest works but overall it’s an interesting read. I quite liked the main characters and other characters too, because they had a personality and story were likeable. As a fan of books, it felt new to understand the inner working of writing and publishing and authors’ world. 
Plot was a good set up and paced nicely. The ending could have been more interesting because at some point it felt a little flat but was okay- satisfying nonetheless. 
A nice read for some timepass. Although it took me some time to finish it (wasn’t so gripping) but a worthy read. 

I originally read this back in 2017 and liked it because it is very focused on the world of authors, publishing, and dealing in shady books. 3 of my favorite things, lol. I gave it 3 stars and said it was a good book but didn't like some of pacing issues. 

Cut to 2020. I don't remember what happened in this book, though I did remember the 2 romance writers and that something shady had happened. I wasn't sure if Camino winds would include references to this book, so I decided to do a quick reread.

I think it was great. Almost 5 star, loved the author shop talk and the lifestyle. I have been more into F. Scott Fitzgerald as the years go on so I liked the discussions and some other plot points included around that. There are some weird points that just don't flow well. The characters don't seem to stick to their development for some reason. They kind of abandon what they've been said to do, which was a little jarring.

I think it's a great, fast read though. I see people wondering if Grisham wrote it. I kind of do too, but I liked it anyways. Having given up on Rooster Bar recently, I'll take a ghost written one if that means I like it more.

Shreerag Plakazhi

Perfectly alright. Beach thriller as someone commented to me, a refreshing change of pace in between serious novels.

***The Sunday Times 'Thriller of the Month', Mail on Sunday 'Thriller of the Week' and Sun 'Best for Mystery-Lovers'*** Someone is about to make a killing The most daring and devastating heist in literary history targets a high security vault located deep beneath Princeton University. Valued at $25 million (though some would say priceless) the five manuscripts of F Scott Fitzgerald's only novels are amongst the most valuable in the world. After an initial flurry of arrests, both they and the ruthless gang of thieves who took them have vanished without trace. Now it falls to struggling writer Mercer Mann to crack a case that has thwarted the FBI's finest minds. ************ THE INNOCENT MAN by John Grisham is now a major six-part documentary series on Netflix ************ Praise for Camino Island 'A bewitching blend of high-stakes spying mission and summer romance, with a fascinatingly ambiguous central character' - The Sunday Times 'The gripping plot will have you devouring the chapters in such a frantic fashion you'll begin to wonder if you are somehow complicit in this perfect crime' - Heat 'Grisham shows charm, wit and a light touch' - The Times

Camino Island

Vijayasarathy Muthu

Interesting read

It was a page turned. Well written book. Definition worth reading. All the characters are well written. Good work. Definitely recommended!

Les Reynolds

A rollicking read. Not quite as good as his best, but very fun, with a satisfying ending.

Camino Island: A Novel

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