Four thieves, working in conjunction with a hacker,
plan and execute the theft of the century…five original hand-written
manuscripts of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novels, The Great Gatsby being one
of them. Callousness leads to a few of them being caught while the remaining thieves,
through a series of connections, sell the priceless treasure to middle-men and
rare book collectors. Enter Bruce Cable, earnest, hard-working owner of Bay
Books on Camino Island whose passion for rare and collectible first editions is
as headstrong as his passion (and jealousy) of writers and their talents. Does
he or does he not have the stolen manuscripts? That’s Mercer Mann’s mission to
discover. A published novelist whose last work gained her accolades seven years
prior, Mercer is now an about-to-be-fired literature professor with a mountain
of student debt. That’s when an offer too-good-to-refuse comes her way and sets
her not only on a direct collision with Cable, but a confrontation with her
past….all on Camino Island.
Like other Grisham novels, “Camino Island” is a great read,
full of suspense, even humor. Grisham knows how to tell a story well, quite well
actually, and does so with a good command of character development which I appreciated.
I also found the writers’ encounters particularly humorous and Cable’s “notes”
about what and how to write quite amusing.
I found myself jealous of Cable – his life, his being able to afford the
luxury to do nothing but read all day, every day – and of the life that Grisham
paints on Camino Island….relaxful, worry-less, sun and sand. It’s a great book to start the summer reading
campaign.
