Camino Island

“There were no more ties to the past. He was alone and free and excited about the turn of events, but also nervous now that the news was breaking. Getting out of the country was imperative. That was not what he had planned, but things could not be lining up more perfectly. Plans—nothing ever goes as planned, and the survivors are the ones who can adapt on the fly.”

Denny has just discovered that the news about the theft has been made public, but rather than scare him, it energizes him. In the end, Denny doesn’t have the patience to be successful, and one of his first mistakes happens here, when he abandons the plan. Unlike Bruce, who executes his plan perfectly, Denny relies on adaptability, but is unable to follow through.

“But the one constant was that those giving advice enjoyed what they were doing. They loved books, and literature, and writers, the whole publishing scene, and they were willing to put in long hours and deal with customers because they considered theirs to be a noble calling.”

Bruce travels the country, asking owners of independent bookstores about their business. While they have a wide range of responses about the success or viability of the bookselling business, they all share a passion for books. Bruce’s talks with these people are what leads to his lifelong career as a book seller, and even though he deals in rare and sometimes stolen books, Bruce’s character is revealed through his genuine commitment to his bookstore and the writing community on Camino Island.

“If the executor of the estate later asked about the missing first editions, Bruce would, of course, know nothing. Go quiz the housekeeper. As things evolved, it was the perfect crime, if, indeed, it was a crime at all. Bruce really didn’t think so. In his opinion, he should be receiving far more.”

Bruce makes the decision to take some of his father’s rare book collection, which will become the beginning of his own collection. His moral flexibility is shown here—he rationalizes his theft by implying that his father owed him. This first crime will signify both the start of his rare book collection and of his subtle, opportunistic dabbling in stolen books.

“He was afraid to sell the books, though, afraid someone somewhere might recognize one and ask questions. Since he did not know how his father had gained possession of the books, it was best to wait. Allow some time to pass, for memories to fade. As he would quickly learn in the business, patience was imperative.”

In this quote, the motif of patience comes up and reinforces the novel’s suggestion of its importance in The Perfect Plan. In retrospect, this quote shows the foundation of Bruce’s criminal career—the only reason he gets away with the Fitzgerald manuscript heist is because he is so patient. This is the characteristic that will set him apart from Denny and his team.

“He owned a dozen seersucker suits, each a different shade or color, and he wore one every day, along with a starched white shirt with a spread collar, and a loud bow tie, usually either red or yellow.”

Bruce is deliberately constructing a persona through the adoption of a sort of uniform that he wears every day. The seersucker suit is a symbol of an old-fashioned gentleman and lends to his air of both eccentricity and trustworthiness. Its uniqueness also makes him immediately recognizable and plays a part in his success as an independent bookstore owner.

“She would soon be out of work, still in debt, homeless, and out of print. She was thirty-one years old, quite single, and well, her life was not exactly going as planned.”

At the beginning of the novel, Mercer is struggling with how to build her life around writing. Elaine steps in at this point and changes Mercer’s status quo, as depicted in this quote, and offers her the perfect solution to all her problems. In these moments, Mercer’s life and thoughts develop the theme of The Writing Life.

“Mercer had to admit the plan was pretty clever. She was the perfect recruit: a writer with a long history on the island; even a stake in the cottage; an unfinished novel with a deadline far in the past; a lonely soul looking for new friends. Bruce Cable would never suspect her of being a plant.”

With her plan, Elaine shows herself to be a good strategist because Mercer is the perfect choice to go undercover. Later, Bruce agrees that the plan was “brilliant,” which is what tipped him off. Elaine’s strategies are similar to Bruce’s, showing intelligence, patience, and discipline, and show that she is skilled in developing The Perfect Plan.

“Think about it. I’m thirty-one years old and the happiest days of my life are behind me, in that cottage with Tessa. I’m not sure I can go back.”

One obstacle to Mercer’s return to Camino Island is her past association with it. She has a deeply personal connection to the island through her grandmother and the summers that she spent with Tessa there. She has never been back since Tessa died, and through the course of the book, will work through her grief over Tessa’s death, contributing to the theme of Moving Through Grief.

“She’s written a pile of books, really raunchy romance novels, and she uses a dozen pen names. She once sold well in that genre but she’s slowed down with age. She lives with her partner in one of the old homes downtown.”

Elaine is giving Mercer information about the local writing community on Camino Island. She believes that the best entry point is through Myra Beckwith and her partner, Leigh Trane. Here, Elaine offers Mercer background on Myra, and shows how the couple exemplify some of the choices that writers have to make in order to live The Writing Life.

“She felt no pressure and was determined to write only if she had something to say. Her novel was three years past due anyway. If they could wait for three years in New York, then they could certainly handle four.”

This is a shift for Mercer—at the beginning, her focus was simply on getting the time to write and relief from her financial burdens. However, now that she has acquired both time and money, she takes her time to decide what she will write about. Even though Mercer now has the time and space to write, she is still blocked when faced with the blank page, a struggle John Grisham shows to illustrate the reality of The Writing Life.

“That strong and vibrant voice was now silent, and the beach would never be the same, at least not for Mercer. She gazed at the lights of the shrimp boats on the horizon and smiled at the memories of Tessa and her turtles. The wind picked up and she folded her arms over her chest to stay warm.”

When Mercer gets to Tessa’s cottage, most traces of her grandmother have been removed. Not until she is on the beach does Mercer really reconnect with her memories of Tessa. In these moments, she is able to begin to process her loss, connecting with the theme of Moving Through Grief.

“Some writers are seasoned raconteurs with an endless supply of stories and quips and one-liners. Others are reclusive and introverted souls who labor in their solitary worlds and struggle to mix and mingle.”

Mercer is at a dinner party at Myra’s house and is meeting the local writing community. Here, she offers an observation that categorizes writers by their social skills. The observation is just one connection to the theme of The Writing Life that Grisham explores in the novel.

“Writers are generally split into two camps: those who carefully outline their stories and know the ending before they begin, and those who refuse to do so upon the theory that once a character is created, he or she will do something interesting. The old novel, the one she had just discarded, the one that had tortured her for the past five years, fell into the second category. After five years, nothing of interest had happened and she was sick of the characters.”

This quote offers another example of Grisham’s exploration of The Writing Life. Here, he examines the various ways that writers approach their work, giving readers insight into the realities of The Writing Life. Grisham is a veteran writer, and his own experience and knowledge inform these perspectives, and also make him a reliable source of information on this topic for readers.

“‘Frankly, Noelle, I need to sell some books. I don’t want to teach and I don’t want to find a job. I’ve even thought about writing under a pen name and cranking out mysteries or something that might sell.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with that. Sell some books and then you can write whatever you want.’”

Mercer debates her options at the beginning of the book and has a frank conversation with Noelle about it while touring her shop. Here, she explores another idea, of following Myra and Leigh’s example and writing some popular fiction in order to fund her writing career. Although Noelle isn’t a writer, she is deep enough into the writing community to understand Mercer’s dilemma.

“He had been there for at least ten days, too long for a hotel stay. Perhaps he was renting a condo for a month. She had no idea what to do next. He was always alone but too far away for her to check on a wedding band. After five years of lame characters and clunky prose and ideas so bad that she didn’t even like them, she was convinced she would never again finish a novel.”

Throughout the novel, Mercer doubts her abilities and struggles to visualize her own success as a writer. At the moment of this quotation, she distracts herself from an unsuccessful foray into a new novel by looking for the attractive man who has been running on the beach lately. However, she is clearly preoccupied with bigger questions, and even as she tries to distract herself, her mind keeps returning to the pages that she has just deleted.

“Noelle shrugged as if a schedule was not important. ‘Maybe a month or so.’ She glanced at Bruce and something passed between them, as if the invitation to Mercer had not been discussed beforehand. Mercer caught it and said, ‘I’d better save my money for the writer’s table.’”

Mercer is at Bruce and Noelle’s dinner party, and Noelle has spontaneously invited her to come along on her upcoming trip to Provence. Although the trip would be a good opportunity to get closer to the couple, she declines because of this look she sees. In retrospect, it is clear that Bruce and Noelle, who know what Mercer is up to, are communicating silently about what such a trip would mean for their heist.

“I’ll turn down a book if its provenance is too shaky, but it’s impossible to look at a book and say it’s stolen. Take The Convict. Its first printing was small. Over time most have disappeared […] Many are passed from one collector to the next. I suppose a few get stolen.”

Bruce explains the world of rare book dealing to Mercer, and the topic of stolen books comes up. Here, Bruce indicates that he wouldn’t deal in stolen books, but also leaves the door open for a gray area—that there is often no way to tell if a book is stolen. Later, he will bring Mercer further into his confidence, but for now, he plays it cool.

“One significant question had been answered. They had debated why a small-town book dealer working in an old building could be such a fanatic about security. […] [T]hey now knew that there was a lot of valuable stuff down there. […] Elaine had been in the business for over twenty years and was amazed at Cable’s inventory.”

Elaine and her team have finally gotten a look at Bruce’s basement and vault, thanks to Mercer. His rare book collection is far more extensive than Elaine had known, which speaks to Bruce’s character. His persona as simple and trustworthy is so well believed that the depth of his deception is notable, even to someone who is familiar with the black market, like Elaine.

“With a room of her own and some money in her pocket, perhaps she could settle in and write some fiction.”

Once again, Mercer is hoping that a new environment, the bed and breakfast, will spur her to begin her new novel. The “room of her own” is a reference to Virginia Woolf’s seminal text, A Room of One’s Own. Earlier, Bruce showed Mercer a first edition copy of the book, after noting that her list of favorite writers was almost exclusively women.

“Bruce was letting loose too, drinking far more aggressively than anything she had seen so far. Gone were the thoughtful sips of wine, the measured refills, the chatter about the vintage and producer, the complete self-control. Now, with his hair down and his shoes off, hell it was Friday night after a long week and he was breaking bad with a partner in crime.”

Mercer goes to Bruce’s house for dinner with a famous publisher and his wife. When Mercer passes out and sleeps in the Writer’s Room, she takes her place in line as a visiting writer who has a fling with Bruce. She spends the weekend with him and is finally able to fully enter Bruce’s life. While this event is significant for her investigation, she doesn’t spend the weekend with Bruce for that reason. Mercer and Bruce, despite the deception between them, develop an authentic affection for each other.

“The plan has been built on assumptions and speculation and no small measure of hope, but now it had succeeded. They had the proof, the answer they so desperately needed, but could she deliver? Could she take the next crucial step and make the call that would send Bruce to prison for the next ten years?”

Bruce has shown Mercer one of the Fitzgerald manuscripts, and now she is faced with the reality of her role in the investigation. She will be sending a man she has grown to like to prison. For the first time, she is confronted with the reality of her job and the repercussions of it, even as she only did it for the money, reluctantly.

“What would Tessa do? Well, to begin with, Tessa would never find herself in such a predicament. She would never allow herself to be compromised. She would never be seduced by the money. With Tessa, right was right and wrong was wrong and there were no gray areas. Lying was a sin; your word was your word; a deal was a deal, regardless of the inconvenience.”

Mercer is at the North Pier, where Tessa’s body was found, contemplating whether to call Elaine and tell her about Bruce’s possession of the manuscript. To help resolve her internal conflict, Mercer calls upon her knowledge of Tessa’s morality, and in the process, continues to process her grief over Tessa’s death, connecting to the theme of Moving Through Grief.

“As always, he asked about Jean-Luc and Noelle said he was fine. He sent his regards. She asked about Mercer, and Bruce told all the stories. He doubted they would ever see her again.”

Bruce has finally joined Noelle in France. This quote reinforces their comfort with their open marriage, despite the judgement and skepticism of others. With the last sentence, Grisham hints that Bruce might know about Mercer’s true purpose on Camino Island.