Book Reviews

review of Camino Ghosts

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Review of Camino Ghosts

         I recently finished reading Camino Ghosts by John Grisham one of my favorite writers.

         The novel is based on a real case – the successful fight to preserve Dark Isle an island off the coast of Florida that developers wanted to pave over including a casino and condos at the turn of the century. The problem was that the island was settled by escaped slaves whose descendants lived on the island isolated from the modern world until 1955 when the last resident left for the mainland and nearby Camino Island when due to pollution and over-development the fishing grounds and shrimping grounds failed. One of the original settlers was a voodoo priest who arrived on the island when her slaver ship sank nearby. She put a curse on the island saying that no white man could survive coming to the island. For almost 200 years no white person visited the island and survived except for one person who survived a massacre by the natives and was allowed to leave after the residents told him they were cannibals, part of their successful physiological warfare campaign to keep outsiders from visiting the island.

         Both Florida and Georgia state authorities and the public ignored the island for over 250 years because of its small size, isolation, small resident base (no more than 300 people ever lived there) and the legend of the curse. The residents were left to fend for themselves and were subsidence farmers and fishermen, trading occasionally with black fishermen in Camino Island. They spoke their own dialect – a mixture of English and African dialects, and most were illiterate as they had no schools or public institutions on the island.

         When a hurricane swept through the island, it became feasible to build a bridge to the island and a big Florida property developer eyed taking over what was considered to be abandoned and deserted. There are over 8,000 such small islands near Florida, many of which are barrier islands, which according to a 60-year-old law are considered to be State property, although the Bahamas claim some as well. but most remain undeveloped and uninhabited, many are quite small, and many have disappeared over the years due to increased hurricane activity.

         Lovely Jackson the last resident is now 80 years old and filed a suit to stop development claiming she is the sole legal owner of the island. A scrappy retired environmental lawyer, a local writer, and bookstore owners all step in to defend her claims to the island and they stop the development in its tracks.

         The story is a fascinating look at the interplay between history, development, corruption, and Florida politics circa 2010, and is also a fascinating slice of long-neglected African American history. the characters are well developed and the dialogue is first-rate. It is as most Grisham novels a legal thriller, but this one with an African American history story as its basis. The book was made into a TV series a few years ago.

Here’s some background from Co-Pilot on the true history of Dark Isle.

Background on the Dark Isle Case

         The Dark Isle case revolves around the fight to preserve the island, which has a rich history tied to freed
slaves and their descendants4. The island is said to be cursed, with a legend that no white person who sets foot on it survives. Lovely Jackson, the last resident, left the island as a teenager in 1955, but now she is the key figure in the legal battle against the developer, Tidal Breeze. The case highlights the struggle to protect historical and cultural heritage from commercial development.

Here's a list of some of John Grisham's books and the movies adapted from them:

Books Bold Indicated I read it

A Time to Kill

The Firm

The Pelican Brief

The Client

The Chamber

The Rainmaker

The Runaway Jury

The Street Lawyer

The Testament

The Brethren

The King of Torts

The Last Juror

The Summons

The Broker

Playing for Pizza

The Appeal

The Confession

The Litigators

Calico Joe

The Racketeer

Sycamore Row

Gray Mountain

The Rooster Bar

The Whistler

Camino Island

The Reckoning

The Judge's List

The Guardians

Camino Ghosts

Movies:

A Time to Kill (1996)

The Firm (1993)

The Pelican Brief (1993)

The Client (1994)

The Chamber (1996)

The Rainmaker (1997)

The Runaway Jury (2003)

The Street Lawyer (TV movie, 2003)

The Testament (TV movie, 2004)

The Brethren (TV movie, 2006)

The King of Torts (TV movie, 2009)

The Last Juror (TV movie, 2011)

The Summons (TV movie, 2011)

The Appeal (TV movie, 2014)

The Confession (TV movie, 2014)

The Litigators (TV movie, 2015)

Calico Joe (TV movie, 2015)

The Racketeer (TV movie, 2016)

Sycamore Row (TV movie, 2016)

Gray Mountain (TV movie, 2016)

The Rooster Bar (TV movie, 2017)

The Whistler (TV movie, 2018)

Camino Island (TV movie, 2019)

The Reckoning (TV movie, 2020)

The Judge's List (TV movie, 2021)

The Guardians (TV movie, 2022)

Camino Ghosts (upcoming)

1www.goodreads.com2

jgrisham.com3

www.kirkusreviews.com4

www.reviewingtheevidence.com

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Spotify Podcast

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the End