John Grisham fans have been offered a double-dose of the author this year.

In the summer, he released “Camino Island,” a fun novel about a young woman’s return to the beach of her childhood to act as a double agent to infiltrate a bookseller who may well be trafficking in the stolen manuscripts of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

“Camino Island” was one of Grisham’s off-beat novels that have become deeper in characterization and plot development, and often far more fun, than many of his more recent legal thrillers. 

His latest, “The Rooster Bar,” is sort of a legal thriller but sort of not. The characters are as deep as a mostly drained bathtub and about as tepid. Yet, the concept is compelling.

Spurred by the suicide of their friend, three law students go underground to hide from the debt collectors for their massive student loans and to practice law under assumed names all without passing the bar. Their business cards use the address of a place called The Rooster Bar, where one of the students has worked as a bartender.

Each fugitive law student owes approximately a quarter-million dollars. The law field is glutted. They have few job prospects post graduation and they are saddled with a crippling debt. The female student must also deal with her illegal alien family being deported to Africa.

“The Rooster Bar” is almost as much of a mess as the mess the students find themselves in, but again, Grisham hits on a sore point facing millions of young Americans.

Too many students begin their careers deep in debt, making far less money than they believed a college degree would bring them. 

Some readers will almost feel compelled to cheer for the characters’ endeavor if only they weren’t so irritating as they glibly hurt their clients along the way.

“The Rooster Bar” is nothing to crow about.