If there is a bright side to the COVID-19 pandemic, it offers plenty of time for guilt-free reading.
I just finished “Camino Winds” by John Grisham. This is the sequel to “Camino Island,” which he published in 2017.
I liked the premise of “Camino Island,” — art thieves steal author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s original handwritten manuscripts, which are insured for $25 million from Princeton University. How do you turn your bounty into cash? You use a fence. Through all the ups and downs, the reader is introduced to the protagonist, Bruce Cable, the owner of a book store in Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida.
Cable, a smooth operator, got into the book business when he went through the belongings of his late father. When Cable spotted several rare first editions, he simply slipped them into a box and never said boo.
His youthful caper launched his interest in books, owning a bookstore and dealing in rare books — legally and illegally. Meanwhile, the suits never stop looking for the manuscripts. Everything comes full circle to Camino Island.
There’s trouble in paradise and it’s fun to watch as Cable darts and weaves around the bad guys, good guys and a few miscellaneous players. In the end, all is worked out to everyone’s satisfaction.
The sequel was released April 28. I downloaded it the same day, anxious to find out what Cable was up to.
“Camino Winds” opens with the impending visit of author Mercer Mann. She was able to overcome writer’s block and has published a best-selling novel about her grandmother, Tess, who lived on Camino Island. Mann is returning to do an appearance at Bay Books and re-connect with friends including the gang from “Camino Island.”
I love books with atmospheric weather conditions. Give me a good blizzard or thunder storm and I’m a happy reader.
Grisham delivers Hurricane Leo, a Category 4 hurricane that slams into Camino Island. While most residents head to the mainland to weather the storm, Cable and friends — Nick Sutton, a college student and employee in the bookstore, along with Bob Cobb, an author — hole up at his mansion.
The storm hammered the island with years of clean-up ahead. The three amigos head out to visit their friend, Nelson Kerr, an author of thrillers. What they find is a dead body.
Ultimately it was Kerr’s new thriller that was the cause of his demise. A whistleblower approached him about the use of a drug that prolongs the life of people with dementia. The drug allows a crooked nursing home company to commit Medicare fraud while earning millions and millions of dollars.
The book bogs down during the explanation of Kerr’s unpublished novel and how companies commit Medicare fraud. Stick with it because it has a satisfying ending that ties it all together in a big bow.
