Pages Don’t Turn as Fast as They Should in John Grisham’s “Camino Island”

I once had a creative writing professor in college who brought up John Grisham. He said he read his 2009 short story collection “Ford Country”, and to his surprise, Grisham can write. I felt the same way when I read Grisham’s 2012 novel “Calico Joe”, a solid drama about a father and son through the lens of the game of baseball. Now John Grisham has once again returned to writing something besides legal thrillers with the 2017 novel “Camino Island”. This novel isn’t bad but feels a bit bogged down. It’s not even really a long novel. It’s only 290 pages. The story starts off with a heist at Yale, where a group of thieves who stage a fake school shooting. It’s just them throwing some smoke bombs while they rob a bunch of rare manuscripts. The manuscripts are Fitzgerald novels. After they go on the run, a private investigation company decides to make an offer to a young thirty something women named Mercer Mann a job. She is a professor with one published novel under her belt, and way past her dateline for her second novel by years so she does need money and she seems like a good candidate for this job.

                They have proof that the manuscripts are being held by a rare bookdealer named Bruce Cable in his rare bookstore on Camino Island in Florida. She isn’t exactly excited about working for a company which violated her privacy, but between her student loans and her recent loss of her teaching job, the money is too good to pass up. Plus, she spent much of her childhood on the island, so she already knows the area well. The book dives a lot into Mercer’s childhood, and at times, seems a bit unfocused. While it’s good character development, the novel also has scenes that take away from the main mystery including Mercer stopping at the hospital to visit her mentally ill mother, and flashbacks to her childhood which are not well set up.

                I get Mercer’s problem, as she has trouble finishing her second book. If I had a dime for every writing project I have had trouble finishing, I would be a millionaire and feel less of a need to finish the writing project. However, Mercer does have a book under her belt already. She seems like she writes pretentious literary novels, and not the type of novels that sell like, well, John Grisham novels. While on the island, she meets other authors who happen to be a part of the literary community. For a small island, there seems to be an unusual number of authors who live near each other plus one of the nation’s best used bookstores. I can’t tell if this place is heaven or hell. Maybe a bit of both? Anyway, she is told nearby is a lesbian couple, one who writes romance novels and sold a ton of copies, with her wife, a woman who writes depressing literary novels that do not sell as nearly as much. When she meets the quirky couple, they decide to throw a dinner party in her honor, because well, there’s weirdly a lot of writers on this island.

                She meets a mystery writer, more literary writers, and a Stephanie Meyer like vampire writer at the party. There’s a ton of inside baseball in this book about being an author, which can either be fun if you care about that stuff or boring if you don’t care. Sometimes inside baseball can be fun, but it needs to be a broader topic. I don’t want to judge Grisham readers, but most of them probably don’t care about the world of agents and genres of books they are writing. Anyway, the mystery starts to pick up and we get to know about Bruch Cable.

                He’s married to a French woman who writes how to books on decoration, and they have an open marriage. Cable obviously wants to sleep with Mercer, who is young and attractive. He is older than her, but that doesn’t seem to stop him. There’s also some interest from a thriller writer on the island who’s a bit of an alcoholic. He also is older than her, but that might had been an interesting couple for the story. However, they never really develop that part of the story. It’s dropped after like a scene. This book seems a bit too short, and the ending a bit too abrupt. However, it’s not a bad book. It’s just not one of Grisham’s best. I was a bit interested in the inside writing baseball talk, but I also really like books. I also enjoyed the dive into the world of rare book dealers. I guess you might want to have some interest or at least be able to learn about that, but overall the book is just okay. In an odd way, this book might have benefited from being longer. There was a lot more to explain, and it seems like a few stories thrown together.

John Sandford’s “Bad Blood” Dives into The World of Cults and Abuse

Yes, I read another Virgil Flowers novel. I’m somewhat hooked on John Sandford novels. They are gritty, and fast paced and better written than James Patterson’s mysteries. “Bad Blood” came out in 2010 and the book went some places I didn’t see coming. The jacket just states simply that Virgil uncovers a family history that is shocking, but he ends up in the sketchy backdrop of a crazy religious sect rapt with child abuse. This novel is a nasty one. This book starts with a murder. A teenager is helping a farmer in an afterschool job, and next thing you knows, he crushes his skull in, killing him. Yet again, it’s up to Flowers to go the small Minnesota town with plenty of secrets. This time the town is Homestead, and as the book said, this one is a big case he can tell early on and he might be there awhile. It’s up to Virgil Flowers to solve the case, and this time, the book has something I complained about the last book lacking which is a bit of romance and a personal side. He quickly starts sleeping with the divorced, attractive female sheriff of the town named Lee Croaky. I guess Lee can be a girl’s name too. Even when he meets her, he sees what Sanford describes as a glint in her eye, and determines she’s divorced. Err, good detective work Flowers, I guess? I liked the relationship he had with the sheriff for many reasons. She too is smart, not super young and still sexy without being dumb.

                Anyway, the teen is named Jacob Flood, and the case just gets worst as Flood kills himself in prison. Well, things get even worst as Flowers discovers he was gay. He doesn’t hate gay people, but a small town in Minnesota, that could be more complicated. Virgil deducts he might have had a relationship with a grown man named Jim Crocker, who is divorced from a woman. When he goes to question him, he discovers he had killed himself. Then he discovers years ago a teen girl working at the Dairy Queen was murdered. She was friends with Flood. Things get more and more connected, but how? Virgil wonders. Well, it ends up they are all members of a local church which is more like a cult than a mainstream religion even it too draws from the Bible. Sandford makes it well known later in the book he isn’t anti religion per say, as Flowers believes in God, his dad was a minister, and he visits a very nice minister at the local Lutheran church.

                Well, that’s where this book gets nasty. The church appears to be a cover for a child abuse ring which might even go back hundreds of years. Sandford novels can be gritty at times, and this is no exception. Some of the evidence they find is graphic with child abuse. Sandford doesn’t really skirt on that, nor should he. This is a crime novel. The church is weird, and so are the people in it who constantly reject the world of law for the world of the Bible. It’s not that unusual for religion fanatics. The only real problem I had with this book is the last couple chapters including a very weird scene where the women and girls of the church decide to try to make up their own court type of scene. Virgil is trying to get them to go through normal police protocol, but they want to do the punishing themselves. In some ways, that makes sense. Fringe religious people can be distrusting of the normal world, yet it also doesn’t make sense because they want to escape. Virgil even needs to track down a woman who ran away from the church and was never seen in town again.

                I guess I’m a bit hooked on these page turners of John Sandford. While it’s not the greatest literature ever, it isn’t half bad. Even Stephen King gives these books good blurbs. His books aren’t total throw away novels like a James Patterson novel. You can tell there is some effort put into the novel with their twists, turns and likable heroes. However, I wouldn’t suggest these books for the weak of heart. Sandford doesn’t skim on some of the nasty details, and due to the child abuse evidence, this was the nastiest of the Sandford novels I have read yet.

                However, I suggest his books for people who really love mysteries and crime. Chances are, I’ll read another book by him in the future. This book did make me think a bit more than his last one. This one made me think about how people can use religion and rejection of modern society to control people and abuse those who can’t fight back. I’m not sure if that was Sandford’s intention or he simply wanted to write another good page turner. I think he probably wanted to write another good page turner, but that’s the way it goes with these kinds of books. I like Virgil Flowers, and he seem like a good guy to get a beer with. The best thing about this book was seeing a bit more of a personal side to him, as Sandford novels can sometimes be too focused on the mystery side.

Homegrown Terrorism Comes from Us in Nelson DeMille’s “Wild Fire”

While going through a book cart outside of a local used bookstore, I came upon a paperback of “Wild Fire” by Nelson DeMille. It was one of those pay whatever you want book carts, so I paid a quarter. Growing up on Long Island, I was aware of the author. He was a minor fixture there. Most of his books take place on Long Island, and he was a regular at Long Island’s major bookstore, Book Review. When I was a teenager, I was going through a phase of reading science fiction and fantasy, so his page turning mysteries didn’t really hold much interest for me. However, I decided years later to pick up his 2006 novel in paperback, as I should give him a shot and might even see some locations in the book I have been to myself.

                I must say I liked the book even though the main character is a bit cartoonish. It was compelling enough to get me through 710 pages. John Corey, the detective at the center of the book and a member of an anti-terrorism force in New York City, married to his boss, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, are charming. The plot is about both a murder mystery and a conspiracy by a group of right wing nut jobs in upstate New York. However, this is not by any means a liberal novel. There is no way in hell John Corey voted Democrat, but because this was written so long ago, I would doubt John Corey voted for Trump either. He’s an old school Republican. A bit rough around the edges but not exactly a monster either.

                The novel has an agent named Henry Muller in upstate New York in some third person chapters followed by chapters in the first person narrated by John Corey. He is spying on a hunting club in upstate New York. However, he is caught by a guy at the club, an oil executive named Maddox. He uncovers a plot in which Maddox might commit terrorism, along with a group of other older men at the club. They want to set off bombs in various American cities, blame it on the nation of Islam, which would trigger a response by the American government. Then a war would start with them, wiping them out and thus, in theory, ending the terrorist threat. The plan is well thought out, and while it’s a terrible plan, I can’t say it isn’t devilishly smart. Henry Muller, the agent, understands that they want to strike back after 9/11, but he also has a keen understanding that the whole plot is also pure insanity and in no way is realistic or even worthy of doing. Muller winds up dead on club grounds shortly after his discovery.

                John Corey is called in, with his wife Kate, to investigate the murder and uncover what’s really going on in the club. If you can excuse the chauvinism of Corey’s narration, I think the reader will enjoy this book. The chauvinism might even grow on you if you don’t take the main character and narrator too seriously. However, what makes the book really work is DeMille’s ability to weave together a murder mystery and a bigger conspiracy. DeMille does this well without the book feeling clunky. That is impressive from a narrative standpoint. I also like how Corey understands and even likes the villain a bit. If Maddox wasn’t such a nut job, he says he would almost like to go camping with the guy.

                What doesn’t quite work, and this isn’t unusual for such a research heavy novel, is some of the references don’t really work anymore. There is constant talk of a possible war with Iraq, Rumsfeld, and 9/11. While in the author’s note, DeMille mentions the novel takes place in the year 2002 and considering we as readers have knowledge that the war in Iraq wasn’t exactly successful, it doesn’t quite work for a current reader. Also, the whole constant mentions of 9/11 start to feel like a bit much. Yes, it’s believable Corey and his wife working in the New York metro area would be affected by it and know people affected and lost. However, that all dates the novel.

I liked John Corey and his wife, who seem like fun characters. His wife, despite being married to a man’s man, also tends to put him in his place. She constantly reminds him she is his boss, despite all his macho nonsense. It works for the most part despite some outdated parts. It didn’t feel overly long, which is a complaint I had with the last Stephen King novel. At 710 pages, that is a good thing. Most of the novel ironically takes place in upstate New York, so I didn’t get a ton of Long Island locations in this one, except for a drive through the North Fork earlier in the novel. You can excuse the novel that is so unapologetic about being a man’s man novel. I’m not saying the book can’t be read by women, but in today’s world, some of the lines Corey delivers might be considered cringeworthy. However, the plot is too good and twisty for you not to want to read the book. Not all the novel quite works, but it’s a good read.

Both Bombs and Emotions Explode in John Sandford’s “Shock Wave”

I was looking for a mystery to read at work and it’s been several years since I read a John Sandford novel. I picked up his new one with a character by the name of Virgil Flowers called “Deep Freeze”. I read it fast, and it was a solid mystery. A month or two later I was at a local church sale and I saw a few more Virgil Flowers novels there. I decided to pick up a couple of the small hardcovers all featuring him. I started with the 2011 Virgil Flowers novel “Shock Wave”. In this one, a “Wal Mart” like store called PyeMart is being opposed by a town which fears it would ruin a town of mostly small mom and pop shops. In the opening, it’s not the store that is bombed but the corporate headquarters. This sets up a series of bombs in other places throughout the book.

    Virgil Flowers is called in to investigate by his boss Lucas Devenport (of Sandford’s famed “Prey” mystery novel series) and needs to find who is planting these bombs. He goes to the small town of Mankato, surrounded by farms and highways in rural Minnesota. While there he interviews some locals, including a pharmacist, a fisherman and other quirky people. Flowers always seems to go to small towns in Minnesota to solve his cases. Poor guy. Meanwhile, his love life isn’t going great, as it never does, as his on and off again girlfriend seems to be carving a life for her and her kids in California. Even Flowers says why would someone want to come back to Minnesota after living in California? That isn’t really the focus of the book, as the focus of almost every Sandford novel is the mystery. Sandford writes very straight forward mysteries, and at times, you feel like you are watching an episode of “Law and Order” in print form, but in Minnesota instead of New York.

     All this leads Sandford is a local teacher and his wife. At first, this all seems like they are a suspect, as the local teacher is sleeping with another teacher, who is not his wife. However, like most Sandford mysteries, who seems like the suspect at first isn’t. This leads to the town board, and a chance that there was a payoff to them, which would explain why the bomb was at corporate headquarters a hundred miles away outside of the town. The trail leads him to another group of suspects at a local community college. That would make sense, because one of the professors knows how to make bombs, but there’s evidence another teacher has a garage with bomb making tools. However, they suspect those tools could have been planted. It’s a twisty story and I won’t give away who it ends up being.

    Virgil Flowers is a good character. He’s flawed, but not in a bad way. He’s been married three times, but he’s not abusive. He makes a point to say he just falls in love too easily. He believes in God. He has a boat. He’s good looking. He is in high demand for his line of work. He also is a civil service employee who takes pictures and writes magazine articles on the side. What’s not to like? He’ll probably get married again and again until something finally clicks. He’s a bit complicated, is what I’m saying, but not in a bad way. He’s also good at putting together the clues to solve a mystery. The books of Sandford are compulsively readable, and the pages just fly by. I guess the one real criticism I have of Sandford is sometimes his stories feel a little too dense in terms of being about the mystery. He has good characters, and you might want a little more depth talking about their lives.

    However, Sandford’s top goal seems to be talking about the mystery. This one isn’t a bad one. I was surprised who the villain ended up being, as he seems like a good guy throughout the book, and at the end, turns into a total bastard. However, a twist is a good sign of a good mystery. There seems to be more than Virgil Flowers than solving crimes. Sandford is a better mystery novelist than say, James Patterson or Dan Brown, which isn’t saying much but still, isn’t a bad thing either.

     Though, like Nelson DeMille’s John Corey, James Patterson’s Alex Cross and Robert B Parker’s Spencer, a key part of writing detective is they need to be somewhat likable even if they are a bit rough around the edges. The guy solving the mystery is the good guy. Flowers is likable, and I even have more books to read about him and his adventures. Also, the whole plot of bombing a big business is timely due to economic anxiety, and I like how Irving Flowers doesn’t feel a bomb in the name of either a right or left agenda is justified. Wrong is wrong. It’s a good read, but also forgettable enough you won’t spend a ton of time thinking about it after you read it, as the case with most of John Sandford’s novels. Unless, of course, you are blogging about the novel, in which case, you are thinking about it.

Bill Clinton and James Patterson's “The President Is Missing” Is A Solid Read (Really)

It’s almost an oxymoron to review a James Patterson book, as there is so many of them and they aren’t really books people review. However, this one is a bit different, because it’s co-authored by former president Bill Clinton. I put the book on request at the library, figuring how could I resist? I expect perhaps a standard James Patterson with a little insider knowledge thrown in by Clinton. However, with a gifted wordsmith like Clinton co-writing, Patterson too upped his game. It’s not to say the book doesn’t have the usual things that make a Patterson novel eyerolling, including chapters going back and fourth between first and third person, some cheesy dialogue and scenes are just too much like  action movies without any real value to the rest of the story. Patterson is one of the rare authors who is not quite as good as those who knocked off his style. However, I was surprised to find the book was a solid read.

                Now, I should put a warning before I even review the book. I like James Patterson. His books are utter addictive, no matter how ridiculous they might get. However, the guy writes solid mysteries and he’s a master at formatting. If you are bored at work, and you just don’t feel like trudging towards chapters, his two-page chapters will do the trick. Patterson and Clinton’s thriller are about a widowed president (don’t read into that), with a female vice president (don’t read into that either). However, the president who isn’t Clinton but is named Johnathan Duncan, who is literally a cross between Bill Clinton, John McCain and Jack Reacher. A president who isn’t super young, but younger than Clinton and has served in Iraq. When the book opens, he’s getting grilled by a Newt Gringrich type figure named Lester Rhodes. He wants to impeach the president. Once again, I’m already telling you to stop overthinking this novel even as I write this review.

                Yet, the reason he wants to impeach the president is because the president is trying to deal with a terrorist threat and tried to do so personally. As president Duncan tries to deal with both an opposing party senate and everything going on with the terrorist threat building against the country, he finds a source in a foreign woman who approached his daughter while she was vacationing. The foreign women and her boyfriend are warning President Duncan about a cyber threat that will be unleashed by a foreign power that will destroy all of America’s finances and defense systems. Through the book, little tidbits about insider knowledge are dropped about being president, including even stuff that reminds you why you don’t entirely hate the Clintons even if they can be problematic.

                As things build, the president goes rogue and is literally missing, as a bomb explodes at a baseball game. That’s when the James Patterson type action that feels almost like you are reading a movie sets in. The chapters are mostly the first person, but the Patterson tradition of going between first and third comes in. I usually find first and third person switch offs to be lazy writing. Awhile back I read a acclaimed British crime novel, and every other chapter was either a first or third person point of view. I just gave up on it because it got to be annoying. However, Patterson’s chapters are so short that you don’t really care. If you are reading a book to care a whole lot, you shouldn’t be reading a James Patterson novel.

                However, some of the writing feels like it lifts above the usual flat proses of a Patterson novel, and you may find yourself wondering who wrote this chapter, Patterson or Clinton? Things get good in this novel when the president realizes even as he’s dealing with the terrorists and there’s a traitor within his own inner circle. The twists and turns are illegitimately good. The thriller author Nelson DeMille once said he got a nice note from Clinton when he was president, praising his novels. Clinton was known even as president for loving mysteries and page turners. You can tell throughout this book that Clinton is relishing the whole experience just writing a straight up page turning novel, and the truth is he isn’t bad at all.

                I’m not going to say this is great literature, and for what it is, it’s a solid read. You might even have read it if it didn’t have the names Bill Clinton and James Patterson on the cover, and that’s a very good thing. Towards the end of the book, there is a chapter where the fictional president gives a speech, and it’s literally a Clinton speech. Oh, sure it starts out addressing the book’s events, and why the president needed to do what he needed to do. However, it goes into the usual Clinton agenda, which I don’t totally disagree with, but it seems kind of out of places in the book and goes on a couple pages too long without even a pause. However, I can’t say it’s bad. There are even moments that can be described as charming and have a genuine love for the better parts of America. Patterson and Clinton give a solid mystery with the president of the United States as an action hero in all around decent way. it’s a shame people won’t read it because they feel one way or the other about Clinton, because it’s not really such a bad read.