David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "john-grisham"
Camino Winds
Ever since James Patterson began hiring ghost writers to co-write his books, other best-selling novelists have been accused of doing the same thing when their books don't meet readers' expectations. That might be the reaction to Grisham's latest.
One reason might be is that Bruce Cable, the protagonist of CAMINO WINDS, is not a lawyer, and he doesn't come to life as does the one in A TIME TO KILL, still his best in my humble opinion. Bruce is a book store owner who caters to best-selling authors and goes beyond the call of duty to promote them. He is having a party for one of them when Hurricane Leo hits the island and one of his writers, Nelson Kerr, is killed in the process.
One of Bruce's employers, a college-aged kid named Nick, is a budding Sherlock Holmes and soon determines that Nelson was murdered. Kerr's new novel has been completed and Bruce is named the literary executor. He is intrigued by the theme of the novel: nursing homes are keeping non-responsive Alzheimers patients alive in order to keep getting their Medicare payments.
Eventually the FBI is involved, and this is where Bruce disappears for long periods of times, not that he ever jumped off the page in the first place.
These nursing homes are part of a conglomerate that makes millions off the elderly. What Nick suspected turns out to be true, and Bruce's investigative team and the FBI convince orderlies to prove it.
The best advice I ever got about plotting a novel was “Just Say No”. Making it hard to solve your story problem increases suspense. Would an orderly working at a nursing home readily agree to risk his/her life to find the drug the bad guys are using to keep terminal patients alive? They might need that job, and we're all good at rationalization.
No, eventually this book isn't realistic. I just didn't believe it and Nick was the only likable character.
One reason might be is that Bruce Cable, the protagonist of CAMINO WINDS, is not a lawyer, and he doesn't come to life as does the one in A TIME TO KILL, still his best in my humble opinion. Bruce is a book store owner who caters to best-selling authors and goes beyond the call of duty to promote them. He is having a party for one of them when Hurricane Leo hits the island and one of his writers, Nelson Kerr, is killed in the process.
One of Bruce's employers, a college-aged kid named Nick, is a budding Sherlock Holmes and soon determines that Nelson was murdered. Kerr's new novel has been completed and Bruce is named the literary executor. He is intrigued by the theme of the novel: nursing homes are keeping non-responsive Alzheimers patients alive in order to keep getting their Medicare payments.
Eventually the FBI is involved, and this is where Bruce disappears for long periods of times, not that he ever jumped off the page in the first place.
These nursing homes are part of a conglomerate that makes millions off the elderly. What Nick suspected turns out to be true, and Bruce's investigative team and the FBI convince orderlies to prove it.
The best advice I ever got about plotting a novel was “Just Say No”. Making it hard to solve your story problem increases suspense. Would an orderly working at a nursing home readily agree to risk his/her life to find the drug the bad guys are using to keep terminal patients alive? They might need that job, and we're all good at rationalization.
No, eventually this book isn't realistic. I just didn't believe it and Nick was the only likable character.
