“Plans – nothing ever goes as planned, and the survivors are the ones who can adapt on the fly.”
Mercer Mann is a struggling writer. She has two books published and is struggling to get the third written. In the meantime, she is teaching to pay off her student loans. Then an offer comes along that she can’t refuse. She is approached by an insurance company to become friends with Bruce Cable – a bookstore owner and the person possibly in possession of five stolen original manuscripts of F. Scott Fitzgerald. The money is good and the location is even better. She accepts and goes back to Camino Island and the cottage she spent summers with her grandmother.
As soon as I saw there was a new John Grisham book out, I put myself on the library’s hold list for both the hard copy and ebook. I actually got the hard copy fairly quickly and I was still hundreds of people in line for the ebook. The book drew me in fairly quickly and it was interesting that it wasn’t a typical lawyer/crime plot.
The book opens with the theft of the manuscripts and goes into detail of how the thiefs stole the books from the Princeton library. Then, we follow Mercer as she fits in with the other writers living on Camino Island in Florida. She gets close to Bruce when his wife leaves for France to find more antiques for her store, but still can’t make the words flow for her book. As soon as she’s about to give up on her mission, Cable takes her to the basement of the bookstore to look at his vault. Will the manuscripts be there?
This book was interesting and well-written, but I was hoping for more of a plot twist. The book followed a path and was very predictable. I honestly don’t consider it one of his better novels. I think a few more twists and turns could have made it unforgettable, but those aren’t there. It would make a good beach read, but don’t wait in line too long to read it.
What is your favorite John Grisham novel? Comment below!
