Camino Ghosts - John Grisham

 Camino Ghosts - John Grisham

Pub. Date:  May 28, 2024

She read

This third installment of Grisham’s Camino Island series finds author Mercer Mann, friend of bookshop owner Bruce Cable, stumped when trying to come up with an idea for her next book.  Bruce introduces her to a small nonfiction piece written by 80 year old local resident, Lovely Jackson.  Lovely, the descendent of slaves who settled on Dark Island off the coast of Camino Island, has resided on the bigger island since 1955, leaving the smaller one uninhabited.  Yet, as the last inhabitant, she claims Dark Island is hers and when a big, unscrupulous corporation wants to develop Dark Island including putting a Casino on it, Bruce facilitates her fight for the home of her ancestors.

 Grisham is a talented story teller and this book does not disappoint.  A quick, compelling read, Lovely is a captivating character.  Grisham does an excellent job of capturing the development frenzy that is Florida…the greed of the corporations, the questionable practices of the politicians, the disregard for the environment, the highway  sprawl of businesses. He also acknowledges how the electorate can be so easily manipulated. 

The history of the difference between the British and Spanish owned colonies as relates to slavery is fascinating.  When you read Lovely’s account of the realities of the slave trade, you can’t help but wonder, as did Mercer, how our forebears  could have tolerated such cruel treatment of those who were kidnapped and enslaved. 

This does work as a standalone, although reading the first two in the series gives a broader background of the repeating characters and provides context for some of the references made in this book to action that took place in prior ones. 

Thanks to #NetGalley and #DoubledayBooks for the DRC

*****