Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (Trade Paperback – 28 May 2024)

Series: Camino Island – Book Three

Length: 292 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Iconic thriller author John Grisham returns with another excellent and compelling novel, Camino Ghosts, that takes the reader on an intriguing journey.

Grisham is another author I don’t really need to introduce.  The mastermind behind so many classic best sellers, Grisham has been wowing audiences since the 1980s with fantastic and intricate tales.  I myself have only reading Grisham in the last couple of years, with books like The Judge’s List, The Boys from Biloxi, Sparring Partners and The Exchange, leaving a big impression on me.  As such, I was eager to try out Grisham’s latest novel, Camino Ghosts, especially as it had a great plot premise behind it.  The third book in the author’s Camino Island series, Camino Ghosts was a fascinating book that I got quite attached to.

Plot Synopsis:

Following John Grisham’s international bestsellers, Camino Island and Camino Winds, Camino Ghosts is the story of an island off the Florida coast with a haunted, violent history and an uncertain future.

With the court case looming and the bulldozers waiting to roll in, Steve and Mercer are in a race against time to unearth the truth behind Lovely’s story and save the legacy of the island.

I really liked Camino Ghosts, which proved to be a very entertaining and unique novel that I had such a wonderful getting through.  This was quite an interesting read, and Grisham came up with quite an unusual story that really appealed to me.  Although billed as a thriller or legal thriller, Camino Ghosts honestly felt more like a comfy slice-of-life story to me that occasionally featured some legal thriller elements, as well as an outstanding historical fiction background.

As I mentioned above, Camino Ghosts is part of the Camino Islands series, and is once again primarily set on the fictitious Camino Island, home to an eclectic mixture of people, all bustling along on their island paradise.  The series primarily focuses on recurring characters Mercer Mann, an idealistic novelist, and island bookseller Bruce Cable, new local figure Lovely Jackson, as well as a various other friends and inhabitants who come together as the story demands it.  The latest book is essentially a standalone read with its own self-contained story, although readers can expect the same easy-going atmosphere that Grisham included in the previous Camino Island novels, as well as a few minor references to prior events.

The plot of Camino Ghosts revolves around a historically significant abandoned island that sits just off the main Camino Island, known to the locals as Dark Isle.  The always entertaining Bruce provides Mercer with an interesting, self-published history of Dark Isle, and which Mercer decides to use as inspiration for her next book.  Seeking out the author, Lovely Jackson, the last living inhabitant of the island, Mercer and Bruce soon get involved in Lovely’s battle to save Dark Isle from developers, which results in a lengthy legal battle.  At the same time, the characters learn more and more about the unique history of Dark Isle, which served as a refuge for runaway slaves, and upon which a dark curse still apparently lingers.

This ended up being a sleek and captivating story that really drew me in.  Grisham quickly sets the scene for the narrative, with the returning protagonists becoming aware of the history of Dark Isle before becoming invested in saving it from the property developers who want to destroy it.  The main plot is very character driven, and it combines their actions in trying to document and save the island, with their day-to-day lives and interactions on Camino Island.  There are quite a few interesting and memorable figures who get involved in the resulting case, which includes a mixture of returning figures from the previous books, as well as several great new characters.  The entire story proceeds a fast and compelling pace, and soon you get stuck into the legal proceedings around the ownership of the island.  While Grisham throws in some entertaining legal shenanigans and ploys, for the most part the main story comes across as a nice and comfy read, with a focus on character interactions and human interest.  There is even a pretty fun ongoing discussion about the joys of writing novels/books and the complicated behind the scenes elements of securing publishing and getting paid for your work.

As the main story progresses, Grisham also throws in an entertaining historical fiction aspect to the plot, which I really enjoyed.  Thanks to extracts from Lovely Jackson’s book, you come to learn the history of Dark Isle, and its intriguing role as a haven for escaped slaves, who formed their own community on the island.  Grisham spreads these historical inclusions throughout the plot of Camino Ghosts, and they feature an intriguing array of narrative threads, which honestly are much darker than the main story of the book.  Focusing on slavery, brutality and even some unconventional war down in Florida, the history of Dark Isle proves to be highly fascinating, and I honestly would have loved to see a whole book written about this fictious island.  I really appreciated how these historical elements melded into the main plot of the story, and it gives some context to events happening as well as discussing the apparent curse haunting the island and causing issues for the antagonists.  I felt that the shift in tones between the main plot and this dive into the past contrasted nicely against each other, and it allowed for a much more powerful read, especially as it allows the reader to fully appreciate the importance of saving Dark Isle and the connection Lovely Jackson has to the location.

This combination of story elements comes together into a satisfying and entertaining overarching narrative which honestly proves hard to put down.  Thanks to both the relatable characters and intriguing history, you grow quite invested in the fight to save Dark Isle, and Grisham works in some exciting legal sequences to keep the reader on the edge of their seats.  The story ends on a very satisfying, thoughtful note, and readers come away really engaged with the complex story the author was trying to tell.  I really loved how deep and personal Camino Ghosts felt at times, and I honestly was surprised at how much I enjoyed this more comfortable storytelling from Grisham.  As such, Camino Ghosts is a very highly recommended book that will appeal to a range of readers, especially those looking for a nice, easy to read novel with some unique twists to them.

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