After a hurricane batters Camino Island, bookseller Bruce Cable suspects that the death of a thriller writer friend was no accident of the storm
Murder in the storm
Hurricane Leo is heading for Camino Island, and most residents leave. Bruce Cable, owner of the island's beloved bookshop, decides to ride it out. When the storm has passed, one of Bruce's writer friends, the thriller novelist Nelson Kerr, is found dead, and the police are stretched too thin to look closely. Bruce suspects foul play, and he starts to wonder whether the answer lies in the manuscript of Nelson's unfinished novel.
Who will enjoy it
Readers who enjoyed Camino Island, fans of light, bookish mysteries, and anyone looking for a quick holiday read with a literary setting.
What you will get
A breezy Florida mystery in which a bookseller and his circle of writers investigate a friend's death after a hurricane, with a dark corporate secret behind it.
Camino Winds Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Mystery & Thriller · Florida island · Bookseller sleuth · Hurricane
Length
304 pages · ≈ 9 h
More about this book
Like its predecessor, the book is as much about the island's literary community as about the crime. Bruce, his bookshop and his circle of writer friends are good company, and Grisham clearly enjoys the banter, the gossip and the small rivalries between authors. Mercer Mann, the young novelist from the first book, returns and adds a welcome second point of view.
The hurricane sequence early on is vivid and tense, and the mystery that follows has a serious edge: Nelson's manuscript points to wrongdoing by a large company, giving the plot a satisfying conspiracy angle. Grisham keeps chapters short and the pace brisk, and he avoids graphic detail.
This is a lighter, cosier Grisham than the legal thrillers, and readers wanting courtroom drama should look elsewhere. Bruce's investigation relies on lucky breaks, and the ending leaves a few threads loose. Readers who skipped the first book can follow along, though the relationships make more sense with background. As an entertaining beach read, though, it does exactly what it promises, and the bookshop setting will charm anyone who loves browsing shelves. About 304 pages in the Doubleday hardcover.
Camino Island
Bleachers
Playing for Pizza
Camino Ghosts
Gray Mountain
The King of Torts
The Client
The Whistler
The Pelican Brief
The Firm
The Appeal
The Broker