Rating: 
Summary: Still takes you where you want to go . . .no further
Review: When you listen to Mr. Leonard's dialogue, you smell cigarette smoke, hear rap music from young 'gangstas' as they drive by, see slippery lawyers with too much old fashioned Brilliantine on their receding scalps, hear the double entendres and lies people tell eachother, and also, in sparing doses, hope, innocence and dreams.Sometimes he is criticized for the plot, as in 'not much of a plot.' This seems to be a missed point; I don't read for the plot. I think that Elmore Leonard is a master of how people speak. The real people. Not television people. People like you and me. Or at least the people like you and I hear speaking. Interestingly enough, Mr. Paradise does have an interesting plot with two young women who find themselves in a gig with an old lawyer (read mob figure), Tony Paradiso ("Mr. Paradise.") Tony is offed and one of the girls with him. The other faces a substantial fortune . . . if she can assume her dead friend's identity. But then the Detective in charge, the handsome and widowed Frank Delsa, falls in love with her and she, perhaps . . . seems to . . . maybe . . . falls in love with him. Great action, kind of sexy, and excellent dialogue. And it's Detroit, too, my city. 5 stars. Larry Scantlebury
Rating: 
Summary: Big fun!
Review: Shady characters, brilliant dialogue, irony, masterful writing and a lively and humorous story line are what we expect from Elmore Leonard. "Mr. Paradise," a Runyonesque tale, has all this and more...it does not disappoint. Eighty-four year old retired mob lawyer Tony Paradisio's favorite pastime is watching tapes of classic Michigan football victories with an escort or two cheering topless in ways not athletically encouraging. After learning that he has been eliminated from Mr. Paradise's will, Montez (Mr. P's main man) arranges a hit that is supposed to look like a home invasion gone wrong. The perps and Montez are members of the criminal mindless. Throw in two corpses, a Victoria Secret model witness, an identity switch, assorted lowlifes, a safe deposit box full of loot, the hitmen's "agent" and Frank Delsa (a resourceful Detroit homicide detective)---and the chase is on. The bad guys feel a sense of entitlement---leading to their demise. Getting caught being the real crime. Double-crosses, scams and deceptions propel the plot. The tight prose is filled with accurate conversation in the colorful vernacular of the urban scene. "Mr. Paradise" is a stylistic, unforgettable, witty, fast-paced read. Elmore Leonard is a consistently entertaining writer---do not under rate him just because you like him.
Rating:
Summary: Who is the reader?
Review: I have been a fan of Elmore Leonard for a very long time, his style of writing is fabulous. Unfortuately, not just any one can get away with reading them for audio books. I'm truly supprised that he consented to let Forster Robert read this book. As I said, I am a great fan of Mr. Leonard but it was all I could do to listen to the entire book, I wanted to through it out of the car window at least 100 times. Shame, shame Elmore. You should be a little more selective.
Rating: 
Summary: Mr. Paradise: A crime novel
Review: I have only read so far one other novel by Elmore Leonard besides this new one, "Mr. Paradise, and that was "Get Shorty", which was later adapted to the screen, first published in 1990. For the record I do not consider myself, yet, a big fan of Mr. Leonard, but I am slowly warming to his brand of mystery and crime fiction. In his latest novel, "Mr. Paradise" (2004), Mr. Leonard takes us to Detroit, Michigan for the setting of this new work. In it we are introduced to Frank Delsa, homicide detective of the Detroit Police Department, who has a double homicide on his hands. One murder victim is Chloe Robinette, attractive blond escort and personal girlfriend to second murder victim, Tony Paradiso, aka Mr. Paradise, an 84 year old retired attorney. The murders take place in Mr. Paradise's home one night as an apparent home invasion attack. Early on we are introduced to the many characters dotting the landscape of this fast-paced crime novel and we see it through the eyes of detective, Frank Delsa. The pace is quick and the book is a page turner, coming in at 291 pages. The dialogue is snappy and reflects the street slang used by the African-American characters, especially portrayed by Montez Taylor, personal assistant to Mr. Paradise. Overall the book is concise and reveals the mastery of the author in this genre of fiction, peppered with the seamier side of ghetto life and the criminal element. And whereas the book is sleek and sexy it also has a tendency to get bogged down with too many extraneous characters and street slang that is at times hard to follow and often choppy. And as I haven't read a great deal of Mr. Leonard's body of work with which to compare this book I will assume this isn't his finest effort. However, having said that, "Mr. Paradise" is indeed an enjoyable and fast read that reveals an author who it can easily be said is a master of mystery and crime fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: leonard on auto-pilot
Review: Mr. Paradise is bad. The fact is, there are no interesting characters. Leonard, who has dreamed up many memorable ones in the past, comes up glaringly short. I was especially dissapointed with the bad guys. They are usally Leonards trademark, his most exciting characters. Here, they were just stupid. Not cleverly stupid--poorly written stupid. Boring. Instantly forgetable.
Leonard is a master at narrating thoughts, but without any interesting characters, why do we care what they're thinking? He can make even the most outrageous actions seem inevitable, even reasonable. Here they just seem far-fetched. Their actions frequently made no sense. Several times I had to stop and just shake my head.
Usually, I'm looking forward to the final showdown, but not this time. As I expected, it fizzled. Who's gonna win? The good guys...who cares? The bad guys...who cares? I wanted them all to die. By the time I got to the end I was that underwhelmed.
Elmore Leonard is one of my favorite authors. I've read many of his books and enjoyed them all. He writes with control and finesse I can only marvel at. Even the masters, though, put out cheese every once in awhile. This book felt like a rough draft. Like he did it in a hurry and didn't care. Like he's got nothing to prove...I hope not. Hopefully he spends more time on his next work. If you haven't read Elmore Leonard yet, DO NOT START WITH MR. PARADISE. IT SUCKS.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book - Great Narration
Review: Ok - so this isn't Leonards best book, but an good book by Leonard is not something to miss. Everything everyone else has mentioned, the dialogue, the the feel of the Detroit streets, the "seen it all" attitude is all here. What this book has that others don't is the superb narration of Robert Forester. Wow. A perfect marriage of narrator and material. I was especially pleased with the perfect pronunciation of the Detroit vocabulary. Great Job.
Rating:
Summary: Cool book by one cool author
Review: Elmore Leonard is, without a doubt, the coolest author around. I love to read his books simply because his writing style is so unique; he isn't one of these robotic authors who follows given guidelines for writing or plotting. His style is crisp and edgy, simply cool. "Mr. Paradise" offers the usual band of offbeat characters and great dialogue; however, I found the characters' personas somewhat lacking. No real depth, none showing any real emotion. Kelly is too detached -she doesn't even seem to mourn the death of her roommate, I never could get a feel for Delsa, and Montez is conflictual; however, Lloyd was a great character. Still... I love Leonard and will continue to read him. Not one of his best, but still a book I enjoyed.
Rating:
Summary: Still Solid
Review: No, this may not be Leonard's best work, but that isn't a criticism at all. His "average" work outshines nearly any other on the market today, and his dialogue continues to be the
absolute best. When you read what the low-lifes or Detroit
cops are saying in his books, this one included, you can be sure
it is about like being right there in the middle of that conversation. And he makes us feel like we are part of it.
Plus, he has the ability to give us more to think about with his hints of action than most authors can whip up in many chapters of writing.
In this one, the older, retired "Mr. Paradise" gets such a kick
out of watching old U.of M. football games (only the ones they
won of course) on video at home, with a real live bouncing cheerleader adding to his enjoyment, he pays his favorite so
much she can afford to quit all other business, and she becomes
his regular. But in order to liven things up, the regular cheerleader prods her roommate, another beautiful young model,
to join her in a one-time performance.
But Mr. Paradise has a couple of employees who have some ideas
about enjoying some of the wealth, and through a mix-up on dates, when the two roommate cheerleaders are at his home, 2
"workingmen" hit men invade the house to kill Paradise, but
then quickly decide to shoot Chloe, the favorite, just because
she is there and in the way.
Everybody quickly developes a plan of their own on how they might share in the wealth, and one of the household employees
prevails on the surviving roommate, Kelly, to assume the identify of Chloe, so she can claim some big, rich legacy Mr.
Paradise promised her.
But the lead investigator, Frank Delsa, knows something is not
adding up, and he quickly gets some idea what is going on, and
he decides to play along to see just what the scam is. He questions the witnesses and others, and they start acting out their parts, so Frank has to wait a little longer to try to
reel in all the bad guys.
But, of course, he is a lonely widower, and he practically can't
take his eyes off Kelly, so all the while he suspects her of some part in the crime, he fantisizes about what it would be like to have such a beautiful, sensitive creature as his girl-friend.
With that conflict, Elmore is off and running, and he brings in
additional characters, including some very seriously-warped
gangbangers, and the characters slide in and out of the action,
and he keeps us wondering just what part each will play at the
end.
There is plain crime, stupid crime and criminals, off-beat characters, and some loveable characters as well here, and
the author gives us a very nice time while reading this latest book.
Rating:
Summary: No "Dutch" Treat
Review: Elmore Leonard has written masterpieces in both the western and crime genres. Sadly, "Mr. Paradise" isn't one of them. Yes, he is peerless when it comes to dialogue. True, hacks like Grisham can't touch him. But the man has done so much better than this. Since "Out of Sight" and "Cuba Libre", he's written screenplays, not books. I half expect to find a pitch letter to Tarantino inside, or actors' names in place of characters (Travolta, Samuel L). Plus, the Missy Elliot and Ja Rule references are as awkward and uncomfortable as your dad saying "Wazzup!" Please, Mr. Leonard, go back to writing for your long-time BOOK fans and forget the Hollywood posers.
Rating:
Summary: SNAPPY PHRASING AND COOL DIALOGUE IN THIS READING
Review: Academy Award nominee Robert Forster is just the man to deliver the snappy phrasing and cool dialogue that has won Elmore Leonard legions of fans. While this is an 8 hour Unabridged version it's over far too soon leaving listeners thoroughly entertained yet eager for more. With "Mr. Paradise" Leonard returns to Detroit and environs. Anthony Paradiso (Mr. Paradise) is an 80+ retired lawyer who gets his jollies from watching reruns of old University of Michigan football games. But, what's a Wolverine game without cheerleaders? For $5,000 a month Paradiso hires escort Chloe Robinette to provide the sis-boom-bahs as only she can. All is well until the evening Chloe invites her friend, Kelly Barr (who is equally lithe and lovely) to join the fun. Before half time two hit men have broken in and done in Paradiso and Chloe. Kelly assumes Chloe's identity to gain access to the late lawyer's safety deposit box. Enter Frank Delsa, determined Detroit homicide detective. He falls for Kelly and she falls for him........or, would she rather have the contents of the safety deposit box? If you know Leonard you can guess how this ends, but what a treat it is getting there! - Gail Cooke
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