What do You think about Mr. Paradise (2005)?
Elmore Leonard has written 40 novels. Mr Paradise will not disappoint his fans.The author of Get Shorty is in fine form with this offering. We’re in Detroit where the ageing mega-wealthy Mr Tony Paradise mixes with Victoria's Secret models and hit men. He’s a fan of University of Michigan football and he hires these models to play the role of "cheerleaders", bare-chested while he watches videos of Michigan games. Two hit men show up, killing the old man and one of the women. The surviving ‘cheerleader’ ends up falling in love with Delsa, the detective who investigates the murders. Only Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen can come up with a story like this and make it work. Leonard is the master of the crime caper. Part farce and part police-procedural, Mr Paradise will keep you reading for a night or two. If Quinton Tarantino wrote books, he’d write like this. Highly recommended.
—Amanda Patterson
Kelly and Chloe are roommates. Kelly is a model and Chloe was a hooker until she gave it all up to become the "girlfriend" of Anthony Paradiso Sr. an 85 year old retired lawyer and extremely wealthy man. Chloe talks Kelly into helping out with a cheerleader thing (don't ask). Unfortunately during the festivities, "Mr Paradise" and one of the girls are murdered and it falls to Detroit Homicide investigator Frank Delsa to unravel the mystery and find the killers.If you have ever read any of my Elmore Leonard reviews then you already know this; Leonard is one of the best at dialogue I hae ever read. Right up there with George Higgins. Leonard's dialogue is so good that the plot is almost immaterial. In the case of Mr Paradise, the plot was more simple than I am used to from Leonard. His characters were not as amazing as they usually are, though they are still damned good. Overall this is a solid, workmanlike novel with Leonard's characteristic excellent dialogue.I love Elmore Leonard and I will read anything he writes. This is still a good book but it does not reach the high levels of other Leonard offerings.
—Ed [Redacted]
Elmore Leonard might have the best dialogue in the game. It's real, it's gritty, it's amusing, it's wacky in the most honest sense of human nature. This book was delightful, but it was lacking the one character I wanted to know more about. In Leonard's best books, he has at least one character, and sometimes it's a few, that I want to read an entire biography about. Get Shorty had Chili Palmer and Out Of Sight had Jack Foley. He also needs to put them in situations for them to grow and get weird. I can't ever tell if he comes up with the plot or the characters first. They all slither around and move and shake until they're in each other's stories and then it's one linear big show. There's always a beautiful babe, a good cop, some gangsters and one or two guys who think they're gangsters. it's madcap without the screwball quality. It's just people being people in the slums of Detroit. His style is street without being too much or too little. It's perfect. His range, to me, is mostly good and great. This was good, but not great.
—Jake
