Camino Island by John Grisham

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "A delightfully lighthearted caper . . . [a] fast-moving, entertaining tale."--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A gang of thieves stage a daring heist from a vault deep below Princeton University's Firestone Library. Their loot is priceless, impossible to resist.
Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. He makes his real money, though, as a prominent dealer in rare books. Very few people know that he occasionally dabbles in unsavory ventures.
Mercer Mann is a young novelist with a severe case of writer's block who has recently been laid off from her teaching position. She is approached by an elegant, mysterious woman working for an even more mysterious company. A generous monetary offer convinces Mercer to go undercover and infiltrate Cable's circle of literary friends, to get close to the ringleader, to discover his secrets.
But soon Mercer learns far too much, and there's trouble in paradise--as only John Grisham can deliver it.
Praise for Camino Island
"A happy lark [that] provides the pleasure of a leisurely jaunt periodically jolted into high gear, just for the fun and speed of it."--The New York Times Book Review
"Sheer catnip . . . [Grisham] reveals an amiable, sardonic edge here that makes Camino Island a most agreeable summer destination."--USA Today
"Fans will thrill with the classic chase and satisfying ending; and book lovers will wallow in ecstasy."--The Florida Times-Union

While I kind of panned the last John Grisham novel I’d read, it was more because while it involved law and lawyers, it wasn’t what I was expecting.

This novel was a departure from what I recall John Grisham doing previously, but this novel worked. It really did work.

The character development wasn’t completely there, but it also didn’t really need to be. Most of the characters, even though they appeared multiple times, didn’t need the development as they weren’t the main focus of the novel. The characters who did need development had it – Mercer and Bruce Cable. The rest of the characters were more or less window dressing, regardless of how much time you spent reading their words and actions. The only characters that truly mattered in the plot were Mercer and Bruce.

And it was a great book. It was hard for me to put it down to do the other things I needed to get done, but I managed. This book just flowed and I was constantly curious to see how the story would turn out. It turns out a bit differently than you might expect, but that just makes the novel even better.

This one got 4 out 5 stars only because there were some parts of the book I thought could have been taken out and the book wouldn’t have been any less interesting.