This is the second book in the Camino Island series and, like most second installments, isn’t quite as good as the first. Still, it’s a page-turner with a plot that would make a great movie.

We rejoin our bookseller, Bruce Cable of Bay Books, after the hubbub surrounding the Princeton manuscripts has died down. Mercer is coming back to town on the heels of her new best-seller, a book about her grandmother Tessa and Tessa’s life on the island. But following close behind Mercer is Hurricane Leo and all the devastation he can bring.

One of Bruce’s circle of authors, Nelson Kerr, is found dead after the hurricane. Bruce and his friends Bob Cobb, local author, and Nick Sutton, an employee at Bay Books, discover the body, and the scene just doesn’t add up. Officials are ready to write it off as misadventure during the storm, but when Bruce and  friends are not convinced.

They launch an investigation into Nelson’s death that puts them all at risk. Plenty of friends from Camino Island are back to help, including the investigators at Brinkley & Olson. The first step is to recover Nelson’s latest manuscript, which may hold clues to a motive behind his murder. The manuscript leads them in an unexpected and dangerous direction.

Once again, a tremendously fun read that would make a great movie. Here’s hoping the bring this series to the big screen. I keep thinking about Knives Out and Glass Onion, the mystery movies with Daniel Craig, and thinking that these books could make the same sort of franchise.

Once again, this book comes to me from the Akron-Summit County Library.