They had also discovered he was active in buying books on the black market. They suspected Bruce was the current owner of the manuscripts because of his interest in rare and valuable literature. Shelby needed to find out who had possession of the manuscripts. Shelby asked Mercer to help her company which did investigative work for the insurance company that insured the manuscripts. Months after the theft, Mercer was approached by Elaine Shelby. Feeling the pressure, Denny sold the manuscripts for a mere $500,000 because he did not want to get caught with them. The fifth man involved in the heist escaped overseas. Denny killed Trey, the fourth man, because Denny was afraid Trey would tell on the others if he was arrested.

The FBI performed a DNA analysis on this drop of blood and soon had Jerry and Mark, two of the criminals, in custody. The only snag in their plans was a small drop of blood left behind by Jerry when he scraped his wrist on a splinter. He later tracked down Mercer and thanked her for setting up the situation so he could cash in with the manuscripts.įive men, led by former Army Ranger Denny, planned what they believed was the perfect heist of the five handwritten Fitzgerald manuscripts from Princeton’s Firestone library. He used his false innocence to broker a deal with Princeton through a third party to sell the manuscripts back for a significant profit. Even as Mercer struggled with her own conscience when it came to turning Bruce in to the authorities, Bruce suspected she was spying on him and used her to trick the FBI into believing he did not have the stolen property. Mercer was employed to befriend Bruce Cable, a bookstore owner believed to be in possession of the manuscripts.

Scott Fitzgerald that had been stolen from the library at Princeton University. In Camino Island by John Grisham, aspiring writer Mercer Mann struggled with morality issues when she was asked to help catch a man accused of having purchased five handwritten manuscripts by F. The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Grisham, John.

Camino winds john grisham