"Camino Winds" by John Grisham

I once read a music critic say of The Beatles' "Hello, Good-bye"....."It's the kind of song that Paul McCartney could write in his sleep, and probably did."

Kind of dismissive of one of my favorite Beatles' tunes, but still a good line, and one that can be used to describe this latest best seller from legal thriller writer John Grisham.  Grisham long ago became a formulaic writer to the point that buying his latest hot-off-the-press release was no longer something that I did.  That said, whenever I HAVE picked up one of his books in recent years, I still find them compelling and unputdownable, so, formulaic or not, Grisham still spins one hell of a yarn.

"Camino Winds" doesn't involve lawyers and courtroom drama as most of his previous thirty-five novels (35!!) do.  This one tells the story of a bookseller, Bruce Cable, who operates a book store on the fictional resort island of Camino Island, Florida. In this one, a deadly hurricane takes dead aim on Camino Island and wrecks death and destruction.  Among the dead is an author buddy of Bruce's named Nelson Kerr, who is known for writing thriller novels that also serve as exposes of various industries and nefarious evil-doers.  Some evidence lead some to suspect that Nelson didn't die from being struck by fallen debris during the hurricane as appears to be the case, but that, rather, he was (dundundunDUNNNNN) murdered.

This sends Bruce and his Camino Island pals, most of them authors or other literary types, on a merry chase to find out (a) was, in fact, Nelson murdered? (b) who did it? and (c) why did they do it?  The answer to (a) is - spoiler alert - of course he was murdered, or else there would be no book, but to find out the answers to (b) and (c), you're going to have to read the book itself, and as I said, it is an entertaining romp to read.   Also, Grisham's description of the hurricane itself, and the destruction it leaves behind for home, property, and business owners is quite good.  Really brings home to the reader the tolls that these natural disasters take.

Grisham goes very meta (and I think I am using that term correctly here) in this book because most of the characters are authors and the main character is a book store owner who spends his time promoting authors so he can sell their books.  It is world that Grisham no doubt knows very well.  I wouldn't be surprised if Bruce Cable is actually based upon some actual bookstore owner who has made a bundle of dough selling John Grisham books over the years, and the authors depicted are probably, at the very least, composites of Grisham and other authors in his circle of friends.

This book is actually a follow up to one of a few years ago called "Camino Island", which I did not read, but now I will no doubt be on the lookout to find and read.  If you've got a vacation planned or a long plane ride ahead of you, you can't do any better than finding a Grisham tale to accompany you. You may no longer be surprised by what he does, but you will sure as hell be entertained.

"Camino Winds" is as entertaining as any, and it gets Two and One-half Stars from The Grandstander.