Nervous I just emailed this to the person from his marketing that mailed me the book;
Camino Winds by John Grisham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was selected at random in a goodreads giveaway and got to read this book before it was released on April 28, 2020 to the masses. My copy is a bound galley uncorrected proof. I am freely giving this honest review. I am at odds with myself; this is one of my favorite authors, and I went into this book with high hopes, I did not come out of it with such enjoyment, if I were a "do not finish" person I would have given up on it, but I am not and I did not and I am thankful for that as it did improve.
I am what you call a traditionalist? I am used to my Grishams being about Law, and courts or Torts. However, I really enjoyed the first Camino Island, and maybe that is why my opinion soured with this one. Mercer was such a well developed character and her having to take more of a backseat role in this one, I didn't do too well with. Bruce Cable was not a very likable character and making him one of the major characters in this might've turned me off as well. It was interesting though to have him matched with Bob and Nick. Nick I vaguely remember Bob feels newer to me.
Getting to what I read: The first major villain was Leo, the hurricane. While he tore apart the vacation island where some of these characters lived year round, a murder happens. Or was it? There aren't any career homicide detectives to come investigate, just the one and he has never really experienced anything like it. The three of them, Bruce, Bob and Nick take it upon themselves to figure out what had happened to their friend and how he perished in this storm, strongly believing that he was indeed murdered and not simply from storm debris.
It bounces around for awhile with them and the local cops and this is where I dawdle and wonder if I want to continue reading but I never do not finish so I kept plugging along. Fast forward, after page 140 I finally have my ah-hah moment and cannot put it down. I love that Bruce brings in the agency that was investigating him in the first novel to help find the killer. He is basically "sleeping with the enemy" so to speak. They tried everything to catch him red handed, now he is paying them to help him figure out the truth in his friend's demise.
Then the victim's sister comes to claim the body and needs information to give her parents about what happened to her brother, they discover that she has a copy of the last manuscript that might've gotten him killed. No one of the three want to read it and have any knowledge of it so the cops can ask them, that is when Bruce remembers Mercer and has it shipped off to her so she and Thomas can read the entire thing then fill them in.
After they get the jist of the book, fiction, based on a real life whistle blower, the direction of the investigation changes. Nursing homes are now the target of research to find out if what was contained in the book is true, if there is a mystery drug keeping dementia patients alive in their vegetative states, to continue to bill medicare or medicaid for their care, basically committing fraud.
CNAs are brought into it and paid handsomely for their services, however powers that be find out about one of them as another body is left in their wake. The whistle blower comes into the picture and tells them more than they needed to know as her husband is the head honcho of it all. I actually liked her character oops SPOILER.
Eventually the FBI is dragged into it all.
All's well that ends well.
Basically it ends where it began, the three of them drinking, talking, looking at the weather and another hurricane is on it's way- oh no!
Maybe my rating (the three stars) is a bit unfair but I had greater expectations than this book provided me with. I took away a star for the patient rape that was completely uncalled for. Granted the death of the judges in Pelican Brief were a bit graphic too. I found myself having to close the book and go online and look at funny things to cleanse my mind.
As far as am I going to recommend it to friends? At this point I am totally unsure, like I've mentioned in prior reviews the first Camino Island I LOVED. This one was so subpar I'm still unsure if I even liked it right now. To each their own though- I would have others read it see how they feel and prove me wrong. Maybe I am just in a negative Nancy mood lately?
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