Haven't read Grisham for a while and this seemed to be a departure from his lawyer stories, I enjoyed it.

I was satisfied with the book. It's not great Grisham, which usually entails detailed courtroom drama or attorney hijinks, but it was a pleasant interlude of an afternoon and evening. It is an airport book, one you pick up on the way to somewhere else. In this somewhere else, I wish I had been physically in Camino Island, but no.

Grisham seems to be trying to renew an old maxim of mystery writers, that every author should try to shine a spotlight on a world that the reader has no knowledge of: poisons, locked room murders, how to use poisons, conmen and their cons, and in this case, Rare book thievery. As ever with Grisham, it's touch and go if the criminal gets away with it.

Another interesting premise for a story. Reads like headlines in a newspaper. I thought it was more like a rough draft or sketch for a book. I'd give it an incomplete for a grade.

Grisham seems to be heading downhill with these recent efforts. 'Camino Island' is even more disappointing than 'The Rooster Bar' as it is slower than molasses and drier than soda crackers. Grisham rips off a real-life university heist for his first chapter but the writing goes south from that point. Even the eventual and expected sex scene fizzles into nothingness. I had to prod myself to stay awake or pry myself away from more enjoyable things like a root canal to return to the novel.

I enjoyed this book, though it's not typical Grisham. It begins with an exciting, well planned heist of all 5 original manuscripts of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels from the Princeton Library by a group of thieves. They might all have had time to get far away, if not for a single drop of blood left in the library vault. The FBI processes the DNA faster than Ancestry.com will do yours or mine. This man and another are caught by the FBI within two days and languish in jail because they won't talk. The others, who, lucky for them, have the manuscripts, scatter, following Plan B. We then switch to less probable doings. Mercer, a young novelist with writer's block, a professor who's lost her job, is approached by a mysterious woman who offers a lot of money--and payment of her student loans--to spy on the top suspect for the receiver of the manuscripts. He's an independent bookseller who collects first editions, pretty women, and writers. The rest of the book becomes something of a satire, with, unfortunately, Mercer a fairly weak character to hang a Grisham book on. Still, a fun, quick read with lawyers only in the background. Even without a courtroom scene, this one will sell. It will probably make him a movie too.

If Grisham had written Camino Island under a pseudonym, I probably would have found it a mildly enjoyable, lightweight, tale that gives the book industry outsider a glimpse behind the scene. As a long-time bookstore manager, I can attest to the accuracy of much of what Grisham writes about authors and their interactions with each other and with the people who sell their books. That accuracy is the strength of this book.

But this is Grisham, and so much more is expected. Having just read The Rooster Bar, which I thoroughly disliked, I will say that Camino Island was much more enjoyable, for me at least.

It has been years since I have read one of his books. I didn't enjoy it as much and thought it was the author's fault or maybe the reader's fault (age). It seems others weren't as impressed so I haven't lost my mind.

Just okay--not one of his usual "can't put down" books. But certainly not his worst (that would be "Skipping Christmas" ...couldn't finish it). 290 pages so a relatively quick read. And almost no lawyers! A NYT book critic put it best: "Grisham takes a vacation from writing Grisham novels"

This is the latest John Grisham novel - but I didn't find it nearly as interesting as his earlier novels - such as The Firm or The Runaway Jury.

First book I've ever read of Grisham's. I think he has a new fan. I really enjoyed this one.