Camino Winds — A Camino Island Novel (sequel to Camino Island)

A Storm, a Body, and a Bookstore

Camino Winds is John Grisham in a relaxed, playful mood, the sequel to his 2017 charmer Camino Island and a continuation of one of his most enjoyable departures from the courtroom. It brings back Bruce Cable, the roguish, book-loving owner of Bay Books on the fictional Camino Island off the Florida coast, a man with a taste for rare first editions, fine wine, and the company of the writers who circle his shop. This time, though, Grisham hands him a murder to solve.

The novel opens with Hurricane Leo bearing down on the island, a genuinely tense set-piece as residents flee and the storm tears the place apart. When it passes, the wreckage includes the body of Nelson Kerr, a thriller writer and friend of Bruce’s. Officially, Nelson was killed by the hurricane, struck down by flying debris. But Bruce, examining the scene, doesn’t buy it. The injuries don’t match the story, and he becomes convinced that someone used the chaos of the storm to commit murder and stage it as an act of nature.

An Amateur Sleuth and a Manuscript

What follows is less a legal thriller than a cozy, bookish whodunit, and that’s much of its appeal. Bruce is no detective, but he’s curious, well-connected, and stubborn, and he assembles an informal team of island friends to dig into Nelson’s death. The crucial breakthrough comes from Nelson’s work itself: he left behind an unpublished manuscript, and buried in its fiction are clues that seem to point toward real-world crimes and the people who might have wanted him silenced. The idea that a dead author’s novel could contain the key to his murder is a delicious conceit, and Grisham, a writer himself, clearly relishes the meta-textual game.

The investigation pulls Bruce and his companions into a plot involving corporate wrongdoing and dangerous people far removed from the sleepy island world they inhabit. The mystery isn’t especially intricate by the standards of dedicated crime fiction, and the resolution arrives without the kind of jaw-dropping twist Grisham’s thrillers often deliver. But the pleasure here is in the journey, the bantering camaraderie, the literary setting, and the easygoing rhythm of amateur detectives piecing things together.

There is also a topical edge buried in the fun. The wrongdoing Nelson’s manuscript points toward involves a scheme preying on the vulnerable, the kind of real-world fraud Grisham has long enjoyed dramatizing, and it gives the otherwise gentle story a flicker of genuine menace. Bruce and his friends find themselves out of their depth as the people behind the cover-up turn their attention to the islanders asking too many questions. Grisham keeps the danger proportionate to the book’s cozy tone, but he uses it to remind us that even a paradise like Camino Island isn’t immune to the greed and violence of the wider world.

A Lighter, Bookish Grisham

It’s important to set expectations. Readers who pick up Camino Winds hoping for the high-stakes tension of The Firm or the courtroom drama of A Time to Kill will find something quite different. This is Grisham at his most laid-back, writing a breezy, character-driven mystery steeped in the world of books, bookstores, and writers. The tone is warm and often funny, the pace is unhurried, and the stakes, while real, never feel as dire as in his marquee legal thrillers. For some that’s a welcome change of pace; for others it’s a sign that the book is minor Grisham, pleasant but slight.

What carries it is the company. Bruce Cable is one of Grisham’s most charming creations, a lovable rogue whose love of literature and casual disregard for rules make him a delight to spend time with. The supporting cast of island writers and friends adds color, and the setting, with its beaches, bookshop, and small-town intimacy, is rendered with obvious affection. Grisham wrote Camino Island as a vacation from his usual fare, and Camino Winds extends that holiday mood.

Grisham’s Craft on Display

Even in this lighter register, Grisham’s storytelling craft is evident. The hurricane sequence is genuinely gripping, the prose is as smooth and readable as ever, and the manuscript-as-clue structure gives the plot a clever engine. The book moves quickly, never overstaying its welcome at a trim length, and the bookish in-jokes and observations about the publishing world add a layer of fun for literary-minded readers. If the mystery itself is a touch slight and its solution a bit convenient, the overall experience remains agreeable and assured.

Where It Sits in the Grisham Canon

As the second Camino Island book, Camino Winds sits comfortably between Camino Island and the later Camino Ghosts, and it works best read after the first. It belongs to Grisham’s growing body of non-courtroom fiction, alongside The Guardians, and shows his willingness to range beyond the legal thrillers that made his name. For readers who loved the first Camino book’s bookish charm, it’s an easy and welcome return; for those new to the series, starting with Camino Island will deepen the payoff.

Verdict

Camino Winds is a light, charming, thoroughly pleasant mystery that trades Grisham’s usual courtroom intensity for amateur sleuthing in a book-lover’s paradise. It won’t rank among his most suspenseful or substantial novels, and its mystery is more comfortable than dazzling. But as a breezy, atmospheric whodunit with a wonderfully likable hero and a clever manuscript hook, it delivers exactly what it promises. Fans of the Camino series will find it an easy, enjoyable read.

Our rating: 3.8/5 — A breezy, bookish whodunit that reunites us with Bruce Cable for an easygoing island mystery.