CAMINO ISLAND by John Grisham

Finished Sa 10/26/19

This is a 2017 hardback that Janny loaned to me.

The novel is set on Santa Rosa Island which is about fifty miles east of Pensacola, Florida.

My personal takeaway from the book is the 'split' in the fiction genre:
1) LITERARY FICTION
2) POPULAR FICTION

Popular fiction writers try for more critical acclaim, and literary fiction authors yearn for more popularity. Obviously, it doesn't have to be one or the other, but writers should strive to be both. John D. McDonald and James Lee Burke are authors that are both celebrated by critics and are very popular to the general public.

The novel begins with a gang of five men who steal the early and original manuscripts of F. Scott Fitzgerald from the secured rare books department at Princeton University. During the highly professional heist, one of the robbers leaves a drop of blood and this leads to the arrest of two of the gang.

The works were insured for twenty five million dollars and the insurance company believes that a rare books seller, Bruce Cable, has possession of the manuscripts. He owns a well known bookstore at Santa Rosa, FL.

An agent of the insurance company contacts Mercer Mann who is a struggling writer who had a successful first novel, but is now teaching and trying to grind out a follow-up. The company will pay off her student loan debt if she will infiltrate Cable's store and see if he really has the manuscripts. Mercer lived for many years with her grandmother, Tessa, on the island.

It's a great story about the book selling business, the black market for stolen manuscripts, and how writers are in social situations and how they create their books.

In the end, Bruce Cable is able to get the books out of the store and smuggles them to Paris where he arranges an exchange with the insurance company for millions of dollars. He eludes the trap that state and federal authorities had planned based on Mercer's investigation.

I would like to read almost all of the classic novels that are mentioned in the book. I located a copy of 'BLOOD MERIDIAN' by Cormac McCarthy in my collection and might try to wade through it. However, it's part of a three novel compilation by McCarthy and I'd have to get it from the library and put it on the phone. Far to heavy to lug around.  Mercer Mann mentions that she tried to read the book, but was turned off by the violence.

The novel's page at wikipedia:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camino_Island