Catching up on Grisham Books (3)
MUST READ: THE GUARDIANS AND CAMINO WINDS
This is my customary annual attempt to come back to this space 😅. Let's pick up where we left off.
The Guardians (2019)
Guardian Ministries is a non-profit legal foundation focusing on innocence, forgotten cases. It was started by Vicki Gourley after a young man convicted for murder by the jury she was on was later proven not guilty. The outfit employs two lawyers, Cullen Post and Mazy Ruffin, and a freelance investigator, Frankie Tatum, who was also its first client and exoneree.
Operating on grants and donations, it's safe to say this is a poor organization – the number of cases is limited, and the process is far from speedy. Post is also an ordained minister. When he signed on with Guardian, he says, he also took a vow of poverty.
The story follows Post and his work for Quincy Miller, Duke Russell and Shasta Briley. Quincy is sentenced to life imprisonment and has been incarcerated for 22 years for the murder of his divorce lawyer Keith Russo, while the other two are on the death row – Duke for the rape and murder of Emily Broone, and Shasta for the death of her children in a fire.
This is a story of seeking triumphs against the odds. The work can go from dangerous to complicated, to heart-wrenching, to an episode of bumbling chase. But this tiny group of unsung heroes is determined, resourceful, and so far from the epitome of glamorous life, you'll find yourself rooting for them.
Camino Island (2017)
The Camino series is a crime thriller.
But I feel like a small part of the book is also Grisham's collection of roasts on authors – all the stereotypes and things they do wrong. Maybe all in good fun, maybe not. And again, the thing about Grisham, he'd give everything to make us not care much for his characters. I love flawed characters, but do they all have to be miserable too? Oh, but how nice it is to live on an island and be a writer and have more than two friends that you can hang out with on regular basis on a veranda by the beach?
So, that's the background – a literary circle sipping wine on a resort island in Florida.
The story, however, starts with five F Scott Fitzgerald's manuscripts being stolen from Princeton University. The investigators hired by the insurance company believe that the manuscripts are now in the hands of Bruce Cable, the island's beloved bookshop owner, who also specializes in selling rare books and first editions. They recruit Mercer Mann, a newly laid off lecturer and a writer on a massive writer's block based in North Carolina, who has a connection to the island, to get close to Bruce and spy on him.
So we meet the island's characters. Besides Bruce's wife, Noelle Bonnet – with whom he's in an open marriage, and apparently they are not even married, long story – we have the writer gang under his wing: Myra Beckwith, Leigh Trane, Bob Cobb, Jay Arklerood, Andy Adam and Amy Slater. Individually, they are mostly uninspiring. But collectively, they will show up for dinners and events when being called upon, so I guess that's kind of redeeming and great. And turns out, Bruce Cable can be charming, and the island and the literary misfits grew on Mercer.
Camino Winds (2020)
I like Camino Winds better than Camino Island, probably because I've got a little more acquainted with the characters. And while the crime is darker, the plot has some light, funny moments too. It often comes down to these questions: Is this it, or are they just chasing their tails?
It starts with the impending danger of Hurricane Leo, which is heading to Camino. I recently read about hurricanes during Milton. Rereading the chapter on Leo, I now understand the part about the eye and the two winds. Mercer is back in town to promote her successful second book, and we are introduced to two new characters in the gang: a writer named Nelson Kerr, and Bruce's new staffer at the bookshop, Nick Sutton, a college student on summer vacation who reads too many crime novels.
When it's confirmed that Leo is going to hit Camino, most of its residents and Bruce's writer posse evacuate the island except for him, Bob, Nick and Nelson. Morning after Leo, Nelson is found dead – murdered – at his condo.
The other three are now thrown into the path of looking for Nelson's murderer – for the two older men, reluctantly. They throw a dart, and it lands on Nelson's last unpublished novel, which brings them to discover a web of cruel crime.
Read the series. These people may grow on you too.
Images: jgrisham.com
This is my customary annual attempt to come back to this space 😅. Let's pick up where we left off.
The Guardians (2019)
Guardian Ministries is a non-profit legal foundation focusing on innocence, forgotten cases. It was started by Vicki Gourley after a young man convicted for murder by the jury she was on was later proven not guilty. The outfit employs two lawyers, Cullen Post and Mazy Ruffin, and a freelance investigator, Frankie Tatum, who was also its first client and exoneree.
Operating on grants and donations, it's safe to say this is a poor organization – the number of cases is limited, and the process is far from speedy. Post is also an ordained minister. When he signed on with Guardian, he says, he also took a vow of poverty.
The story follows Post and his work for Quincy Miller, Duke Russell and Shasta Briley. Quincy is sentenced to life imprisonment and has been incarcerated for 22 years for the murder of his divorce lawyer Keith Russo, while the other two are on the death row – Duke for the rape and murder of Emily Broone, and Shasta for the death of her children in a fire.
This is a story of seeking triumphs against the odds. The work can go from dangerous to complicated, to heart-wrenching, to an episode of bumbling chase. But this tiny group of unsung heroes is determined, resourceful, and so far from the epitome of glamorous life, you'll find yourself rooting for them.
Camino Island (2017)
The Camino series is a crime thriller.
But I feel like a small part of the book is also Grisham's collection of roasts on authors – all the stereotypes and things they do wrong. Maybe all in good fun, maybe not. And again, the thing about Grisham, he'd give everything to make us not care much for his characters. I love flawed characters, but do they all have to be miserable too? Oh, but how nice it is to live on an island and be a writer and have more than two friends that you can hang out with on regular basis on a veranda by the beach?
So, that's the background – a literary circle sipping wine on a resort island in Florida.
The story, however, starts with five F Scott Fitzgerald's manuscripts being stolen from Princeton University. The investigators hired by the insurance company believe that the manuscripts are now in the hands of Bruce Cable, the island's beloved bookshop owner, who also specializes in selling rare books and first editions. They recruit Mercer Mann, a newly laid off lecturer and a writer on a massive writer's block based in North Carolina, who has a connection to the island, to get close to Bruce and spy on him.
So we meet the island's characters. Besides Bruce's wife, Noelle Bonnet – with whom he's in an open marriage, and apparently they are not even married, long story – we have the writer gang under his wing: Myra Beckwith, Leigh Trane, Bob Cobb, Jay Arklerood, Andy Adam and Amy Slater. Individually, they are mostly uninspiring. But collectively, they will show up for dinners and events when being called upon, so I guess that's kind of redeeming and great. And turns out, Bruce Cable can be charming, and the island and the literary misfits grew on Mercer.
Camino Winds (2020)
I like Camino Winds better than Camino Island, probably because I've got a little more acquainted with the characters. And while the crime is darker, the plot has some light, funny moments too. It often comes down to these questions: Is this it, or are they just chasing their tails?
It starts with the impending danger of Hurricane Leo, which is heading to Camino. I recently read about hurricanes during Milton. Rereading the chapter on Leo, I now understand the part about the eye and the two winds. Mercer is back in town to promote her successful second book, and we are introduced to two new characters in the gang: a writer named Nelson Kerr, and Bruce's new staffer at the bookshop, Nick Sutton, a college student on summer vacation who reads too many crime novels.
When it's confirmed that Leo is going to hit Camino, most of its residents and Bruce's writer posse evacuate the island except for him, Bob, Nick and Nelson. Morning after Leo, Nelson is found dead – murdered – at his condo.
The other three are now thrown into the path of looking for Nelson's murderer – for the two older men, reluctantly. They throw a dart, and it lands on Nelson's last unpublished novel, which brings them to discover a web of cruel crime.
Read the series. These people may grow on you too.
Images: jgrisham.com
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