Camino Island: A Novel

Is this John Grisham or a more ‘serious’ version of one of JanetEvanovich’s novels? Though I have not read her for a long time, I used to read her Stephanie Plum’s novels but at least there, there was not pretension to be serious …. Then they became too ridiculous and grotesque for me to enjoy but this is another story.The audio version on CD as far as I know is only available in the US, I had to buy it at Amazon.com, this is the unabridged 7 CD version by Random House and the reader January LaVoy is excellent. Most people do not mind swear words, I do not like them and this book has certainly more swear words than it is usual for the author to use …The first book I read from John Grisham was ‘the testament’ and although since then I have been trying to read all I can from this author, no other of his books so far in my opinion surpasses or can even be compared …. It seems ‘the Testament’ was a one off although the other books I read are certainly better than this one.If someone told me this book was written by John Grisham, I would not have believed it, only … it is written by him. I do not want to give too many details but this is a spoiler, so you might want to look away now …very simply this is the story of the theft of the five original manuscripts (novels) by F Scott Fitzgerald that were kept at Princeton University, despite all precautions one of the thieves hurts himself and leaves traces of blood at the scene of the crime, the FBI is on their trail …. Two of the thieves are caught more or less right after the crime, and the search for the priceless manuscripts begins …. The university’s insurance company represented by Mrs Shelby hires Mercer, a young writer as they rightly suspect the manuscripts is in the hands of a book dealer named Bruce in Camino Island. She is reluctant at first but then feels compelled to accept in order to pay her debts. Right away she is introduced, at first only ‘virtually’ to other writers on the island and bingo! She is invited into their home and guess what? The book dealer is a very handsome man, one thing leads to another and he seduces her and apparently ‘at last’, as Mrs Shelby says, they go to bed and spend the week-end together. Did I say that Mrs Shelby herself suggested and even encouraged this type of behaviour to Mercer, her ‘prodigy’?It is not clear but it is not relevant to the story if the book dealer was married to his ‘partner’ who of course is beautiful and of course they are in an open relationship and guess what? She is French …. She goes to France every year, she enjoys a French lover who is in his turn married and whose wife knows and could not care less ….I am a bit disconcerted and surprised that at this stage of his career he writes something like this, if this was at the beginning of his career perhaps I would not have been so surprised or disappointed…. This is a great missed opportunity, once he writes a book that is lawyerless and he has the talent to write interesting thrillers, he spoils everything by making this novel lose itself in cheap mills & boon that might have been romance but thankfully wasn’t. …. There is something I don’t understand …. In part of the dialogue when Mercer is sitting at a table and many literary genres are ‘presented’ to her in order to stimulate some sort of inspiration for her to start writing again, at some point she says in front of everyone that she ‘is a virgin’ … which of course we learn later in the novel that she is not …. Was it a joke? If so, I rest my case, I do not find it funny …. If the fact that she was a virgin was thought and not said, I have no way of knowing because the audio version is read without punctuation but even so, it is not possible she thought so to herself, she would not lie to herself … perhaps she said it to make herself more ‘advertising’ to the book dealer Bruce who happened to be there?… this is ridiculous and pathetic …If she really was a virgin, then I thought it very unlikely she would advertise it, I would have expected discretion, anyway I do not understand the lie, it’s not something to promote to strangers, however here the author deserves some credit as apparently no one picked up on it at the table … unless of course I understood or heard this all wrong ….The details of what she is wearing, if she is wearing bikini or not, how many times hse wears them, the slimness of her body, in my opinion are not relevant to the story and therefore should have been avoided and it is disappointing that out of all authors,he wrote this stuff unless this is an experiment in another literary ‘genre’, namely mills & boon written by talented and experienced writers who could do better.The ‘affair’ between her and Bruce is even too predictable but at that point I would have expected something …. Something elseThe end is pointless, too rushed. I do not understand the point or the purpose of the ‘epilogue’, so the main character goes back to teaching and one day she finds herself face to face with Bruce ….. He trackes her down because he wants an apology and for the sake of the time they spent in bed? In other words if I understand correctly,at the end everyone’s a winner …. Mercer, her debts paid, comes back to do the job she does not like, namely teaching, in a new school possibly with a new boyfriend and she is earning something, in the meantime seems to have found inspiration for her new novel telling the (alleged by herself) love story between her deceased grandmother and a much younger man, the university gets the original manuscripts back paying an enormous amount of money which should not have been paid, the book dealer earns a lot of money for stuff that was not his property (and he has not even made any effort in ‘stealing’ the stuff), no doubt he squanders the money in books, his ‘wife, women and who knows what else, in fact it turns out that the lovely French wife knew of the theft all along, and not only but Mercer even did them a favour because if she did not intervene when she did intervene, namely if she did not inform ‘the very ethical’ Mrs Shelby that he had at least one stolen manuscript, the FBI would not have intervened and kept an eye on the shop, Bruce would have found himself face to face with the bad boys who would have forced him to return the manuscripts to the thief almost surely, since one of the original thieves was on the trail with another bad boy to have the manuscripts back ….but do not worry our heroine has saved the day …. now that I think about it, even the french woman should kiss her feet in gratitude because if the FBI did not catch the bad boys thanks to her (Mercer’s) work, her lover no. 1 would be dead or scared out of his wits which by the way would have served him rightAlthough I do not like the bad guys, at least the original thief has done some kind of ‘work’ to have those manuscripts, he had to plan and prepare and actually steal the stuff … the comparison between Dennis, the man in question and Bruce the book dealer makes me feel more sorry for the former …. Anyway D is now in jail where he belongs. After all this dirt, Bruce wanted Mercer to apologize and only she apologized …. And oh by the way a place in his bed is still available if she wants, whenever she wants …. No mention of the fact that he too lied to her … poor man, although now he ‘turned clean’, he made his living out of stolen property …. Mercer even mentions she likes Bruce’s wife, the French woman so much … she was so sorry because she tried to put poor honest loyal Bruce in prison, where by the way he too belongs …. What planet ar we living in? what crap! This is ridiculous. If I did not know I wasted my money on this book, I could almost laugh …….

IntroductionCamino Island is a novel about the theft of five original, hand-written F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts from Princeton’s Firestone Library by five cunning yet nerdy guys, well except the one psychopath, which goes south rather quickly after the heist, when the FBI discovers a small drop of blood left by one of the thieves.There are rumors that Bruce Cable, a Camino Island bookstore owner bought the manuscripts. Elaine, an investigator for a mysterious and covert company hired by an insurance company that holds a policy on the manuscripts for $25 million, hires Mercer Mann. Mercer is a down-on-her-luck writer, who has just lost her teaching job. Elaine wants her to get close to Bruce and his wife, Noelle Bonnet, an antique dealer, to possibly discover if they have the manuscripts.Summary of Camino Island a NovelMercer is the “perfect” woman for the job as she is young and beautiful, newly unemployed and up to her eyeballs in student debt. Elaine offers to pay off for her, plus $100,000 for a six-month assignment, during which time she can finish the novel she has not even started writing yet and is three years overdue. She will get half up front and the other half at completion. Another component that makes her ideal for the situation is that she spent nearly every summer with her grandmother, Tessa on Camino Island. Though she has not been back since her grandmother’s passing, the beach cottage is still in the family and available for use.Mercer fits right in with the crowd of Bruce’s friends on the island, mostly writers with storied pasts and stories about each other, as writers are notorious gossips. At least, they are in this story. Her plan to spend the six months writing her passed due novel does not necessarily go as planned. However, the discussion she has with Bruce about writing turns into a story that draws them closer together. One of Bruce’s past girlfriends was writing a story about a love triangle between F. Scott Fitzgerald, his wife Zelda, and Ernest Hemingway before his ex-girlfriend committed suicide and he begins giving Mercer the details.While Noelle is in France buying antiques, they have a romantic fling. Despite Bruce and Noelle’s open marriage, Mercer feels a bit guilty about it, but not enough to stop.NarrationThe narrator is the storyteller, the bard, or Mr. Grisham, whichever you please.SettingThe first setting of this novel is the Firestone Library at Princeton, then the cabin in the Poconos where the thieves hide out for a while, but the setting for most of the story is modern day Florida, Camino Island, in the small, sleepy tourist town of Santa Rosa.ThemeTo me, the overall theme of this novel is not to let greed rule your life. The thieves wind up dead, in jail, or on the run because of greed. Mercer sells her moral standing to discover if Bruce has the manuscripts, mainly because she has no job, no money, and a ton of student debt. Elaine’s company and the insurance company do not want to pay the $25 million they insured the books for, and Bruce gives up a cushy, comfortable, and prosperous life on a resort island and possibly risks everything for the excitement of dealing in stolen goods.GenreThis is a crime fiction dealing with rare books and manuscripts.AuthorAs all Grisham fans know, he is a notable trial defense and courtroom drama writer with very few exceptions. From his very first novel, A Time to Kill to The Rooster Bar, and some top-rated titles in between, such as The Frim, Sycamore Row (the sequel to A Time to Kill), and The Pelican Brief most are courtroom dramas. Many of these titles became major motion pictures. Even his Young Adult (YA) series of Theodore Boone books were courtroom drama based. And yes, he did stray from the genre with Playing for Pizza, Calico Joe, The Tumor, and a few others, but crime drama or legal thriller, at least to me, is his forte! After all, he was an attorney.Well, this is not the usual John Grisham courtroom drama, but you could refer to it as a legal thriller because much of the storyline deals with criminal elements within the underground rare books and art trade.My Opinion & RecommendationMy favorite character was Bruce Cable. I cannot imagine having a more perfect life than as the owner of a successful bookstore and coffee where you are the barrister. I mean come on, you can wear any outfit you want, even with a bowtie if you are into such things, and no one thinks you are weird because, hey you own a bookstore. You go to “work,” make some coffee, grab whatever book you choose from the shelf, and sit down and read until someone comes in. You have a huge collection of first edition books autographed by the authors, most of whom you know personally; and then, you meet and marry a beautiful and beguiling antique dealer, who fills your home with Provençal furnishing. I could not imagine wanting much more, but then there are the nefarious deals with rare books to keep things exciting.To me, this was a good story, not a great John Grisham page-turner novel like many of his legal thrillers, but it is a superb crime fiction. If you are looking for a compelling story that forces you to turn the page in anticipation, this is not it. Although, I do believe it is a must-read for all Grisham fans, and it did not become a New York Times Bestseller and reach number one just because it was Grisham who wrote it; still and all, I'm sure that helped. Plus, his going on tour for the first time in twenty-five years to publicize the book probably helped as well.I think non-Grisham fans would probably like this book much more than his regulars because it is such a departure from courtroom dramas and legal thrillers. Someone that is not expecting a cutting-edge courtroom battle would perhaps be more in tuned to the book. Nevertheless, I do think anyone would enjoy the story, but not if you are waiting for a page-turner.  Camino Island: A Novel

Para ler no aviãoEste livro apresenta uma trama interessante sobre o mercado de livros raros. Não é por si só um assunto empolgante, não é um John Grishan típico, mas está tudo bem encaixado.Este livro, despretencioso, pode ser um bom companheiro de viagem.

Rally good, however the Ending could be improved, I liked that its size is good for a short sitting, 👍

No lawyers involved but a wonderful turn pager. John Grisham continues to be a favourite writer. I am looking forward to read the next book.

Im Just moment, I'm reading it . I have no subsidy to appraiser It now I'm enjoying this book, It care your attention. I recommend It.

Gostei demais do livro. E um Grisham diferente , mas sempre bem escrito.