Bruce Cable owns Camino Island’s Bay Books where authors are eager to have their signings. Although Cable doesn’t usually host self-published authors, he’s taken in by Lovely Jackson, an elderly Black woman who was one of the last residents of Dark Isle, an island near Camino where escaped slaves made their home for more than three hundred years.
Mercer Mann is looking for her next project after her bestselling Tessa, based on her grandmother’s story. Cable is convinced that Mercer should expand on Lovely’s story in a nonfiction book. But first, Mercer has to enjoy her honeymoon with Thomas. Bruce insists she take along a copy of Lovely’s book, The Dark History of Dark Isle. As he expected, Mercer is taken in with Lovely’s story. And she now has the plot line that will drive sales. Real estate developers want to build hotels and casinos on Dark Isle. Unless Lovely can prove that she is the last surviving relative of the former slaves who owned the island, the developers will win and an important piece of Black history will be lost.
Camino Ghosts is John Grisham’s third in the series which features a quirky group of writers who live and work (and sometimes publish) on the island off the Florida coast. (See reviews for Camino Island and Camino Winds.) Although Bay Books is far off the beaten track, Bruce’s connections in the publishing world run deep. Editors often seek his opinion on manuscripts, and authors go to him for career guidance. He and his wife, Noelle, an antique dealer, have an open marriage. Her frequent trips to Paris allow her to find stock for her store while spending time with a former boyfriend. When she’s absent, Bruce keeps busy fueling local gossip and chasing after any new female arrivals. (Mercer was once in his sights until she met Thomas.)
Lovely’s situation, however, gives Bruce a new cause to embrace. Lovely’s book details how her ancestor, Nalla, was kidnapped in the mid-1700s, from her village in the southern part of the Kingdom of Kongo. Slave hunters came in the night, set fire to huts, separated the men, women and children. They were placed in chains and transported to the African coast and loaded onto ships bound for America. (Grisham doesn’t spare the horrific manner in which these Black people were treated.)
Mercer is impressed with Lovely’s research, including the numbers backing up how the slave trade became big business. Nalla was on the Venus, one of three slave ships owned by a Virginia planter. All three ships encountered violent storms and never made it to Savannah. Nalla, five other women and three children, clung to pieces of wood and found themselves on dry land. She was shocked to discover they had landed on Dark Isle, a small island that escaped slaves had claimed for themselves and were living as free men and women.
Paperwork proving that Lovely owns Dark Isle is scarce to non existent. Steven Mahon, a semi retired attorney who does a lot of pro bono work, has already filed a lawsuit hoping to stop Tidal Breeze from gaining approval to build on Dark Isle. He asks Bruce to arrange a meeting with Lovely. If he can prove that she owns the island, the state won’t be able to grant Tidal Breeze’s development plan.
Lovely is an imposing figure, dressed in bright caftans with high, dramatic turbans. She agrees to have Steven represent her. The key to proving her ownership of Dark Isle are the many graves on the island. Before a group can travel to the island to search for those graves, Lovely has to remove a curse that has, according to legend, taken the lives of others who attempted to search the island. The graves are finally found and the remains taken for DNA analysis. But will the results be enough to stave off a development which could destroy a scared Black burial ground?
Camino Ghosts brings together two professions that Grisham knows well – writers and attorneys. Mercer’s angst as she races to finish her manuscript is juxtaposed with Steven’s battles in the courtroom. In the middle of the action is Lovely, a survivor determined to honor the legacy of Nalla and her other ancestors.
Camino Ghosts
John Grisham
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