John Grisham Hits the Beach in CAMINO ISLAND

Summer is beach reading time and John Grisham offers some entertaining vacation fare with his new novel Camino Island. The story is set on an island off the Florida Atlantic coast, a popular tourist destination.

The novel opens with a daring heist of rare original F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts from a vault at Princeton University. The manuscripts could be worth millions on the black market, if they can be secretly handled and sold. After the theft, the manuscripts have disappeared, hidden somewhere for the time being.

The insurer of the Fitzgerald works is on the hook for a gigantic payout if the stolen property isn't recovered. But they have a potential suspect in sight --- Bruce Cable, a local bookstore owner on Camino Island, who deals in rare book sales. What the insurer needs is someone undercover who can get close to Cable and look for info on the stolen manuscripts.

The insurer recruits Mercer Mann, a struggling novelist with a childhood connection to Camino Island. As Mercer returns to live again on the island, she joins the local literary circle and begins her tricky effort to learn the truth about suspected criminal dealer Bruce Cable. Is he really in possession of the stolen Fitzgerald works or not?

Camino Island is not a thriller, but instead a leisurely, rambling crime tale with a scenic locale, colorful characters, and amusing insight into the business world of book sellers and writers. John Grisham fans should enjoy their vacation reading with this one.