The book’s fascination lies in the interweaving of characters who operate through the height of the storm (a character in its own right) and in its aftermath. The scene is set for what first reads like a relatively light-hearted caper, which, however, quietly darkens. The motive, seemingly, to prevent the findings from Kerr’s research for his latest political thriller from being uncovered. The accident is, of course, a murder: a thriller writer called Nelson Kerr, who (guess what) was once a lawyer. Most of the island’s inhabits flee but for a few optimists, including Bruce, and in the midst of the ferocious storm, there is a fatal accident. Interrupting this circle of good cheer (the island’s literary mafia), comes the first hurricane: ‘Leo’, brilliantly described: appalling, unpredictable, and savage. Cable, happily sociable, hosts regular dinners whose guests include lesbian couple Myra and Leigh (who have made a fortune writing soft porn heterosexual romance), ex con and writer of violent crime Bob Cobb, and young woman writer Amy, who has mined her success in the genre of vampire novels. In this novel, his characters are relatively secure and prosperous, accidentally involved in mayhem whilst apparently leading enviable lives in an earthly paradise.īay Books is the social centre of the upmarket village, the stage for a stream of author events. According to his own idiosyncratic system of ethics and morals, Cable ended the book triumphant.Ĭamino Winds follows many of Camino Island’s characters, but the tone shifts from Grisham’s other novels – as though Grisham were giving himself license to play with what his huge fandom might expect. Camino Island (2017), the prequel to Camino Winds, showed his readiness to abandon his legal thriller blueprint and instead pursue a heist plot: priceless manuscripts stolen from an Ivy League university, a maelstrom of criminals, murder, and insurance, centring around a shrewd but flawed protagonist, Bruce Cable, the proprietor of Bay Books on the upmarket resort island. It’s one of his great strengths: he is never formulaic. Still, even while something serious and thought-provoking lies at their heart, Grisham’s novels remain suspenseful and entertaining. It confirmed the impression that, under the guise of expertly judged, suspenseful entertainment, Grisham is a serious social critic. The Guardians (2019), for instance, the novel that precedes Camino Winds, examines corruption from the point of view of wrongful imprisonment in America.

Scores of popular authors have had other professional lives which they mine for verisimilitude, and so with Grisham: a significant proportion of his novels (forty-four in all now) have made superbly imaginative use of his legal and political background.

John grisham bruce cable