#Camino island how to

Mercer Mann is a young novelist with a severe case of writer’s block who has recently been laid off from her teaching position. Very few people know that he occasionally dabbles in unsavory ventures. He makes his real money, though, as a prominent dealer in rare books. Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. Their loot is priceless, impossible to resist. Still, Camino Island is not among my favorite Grishams.Join for us our next Florida history book club meeting at the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art where we will be discussing the book, Camino Island.Ī gang of thieves stage a daring heist from a vault deep below Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Overall, I enjoyed the fact that this book wasn’t about lawyers and never mentioned tort. It’s no metaphor, I’m sure, just downright cool. The vault in his basement is a dream space, climate-controlled and protective, hidden from the world and where he also goes to hide from the world. I enjoyed his fervor in searching out the next big score, and even more so his intense care for the prizes he had already collected. I was fascinated by Bruce’s local book store on Camino Island and the subculture of rare book collectors. I truly didn’t care about any of the characters in this book as much as I did the story. With all that in mind, I was a bit annoyed watching this whiney protagonist, Mercer, and her new author-friends-folks entirely reminiscent of random classmates from my creative writing class in college-complain about the sad lives they lead, drink themselves silly at dinner parties, sleep around, and share secrets. That’s the whole point isn’t it, to get one’s name out there? I was an author in a book store, ostensibly signing books! Who cares if no one knew me. Of course, I’m a reasonable person, so I didn’t view that experience as a failure. When I published my third book, I enjoyed a single book-signing event at a local book store, where I met zero “fans” and sold even fewer books. In this book, Grisham introduced me to a world I’ve admittedly thought about but in which I’ve never had much interest, namely that of the struggling young author.Ī little backstory first. The characters in Camino Island are mostly unpleasant, but the story engages. The FBI is also involved, but only in a supporting role. As the novel unfolds, the reader finds himself in a touchy-feely cat-and-mouse game with artsy snobs, most of them semi-successful authors. Once the second chapter rolls around, these thieves are all but ignored and forgotten, as Grisham chases down the story of another, seemingly unrelated character-something he does a few times.

#Camino island how to

Professional thieves heist a valuable collection of manuscripts but can’t quite figure out how to pawn them off safely and for the greatest return. For my “first second-attempt” with Grisham, however, I can at least report that Camino Island gripped me, and I enjoyed the read.Ĭamino Island begins as a real caper, which I didn’t expect. That’s what first drew me to Clive Cussler. For a while in college, he was all I read, but then I finally got burned out on reading about burned-out lawyers and their daily grinds, and I needed a bit more spice. This is my first attempt at a John Grisham novel in quite a number of years (not counting his comedy, Skipping Christmas).