Rating: 
Summary: Quite devious
Review: Leonard knows precisely how to sketch the human frailties of his characters. Jack Ryan is the process-server so good at finding people that he's approached by some shady businessmen to locate a woman with a ruinous drinking problem. What's at stake is the money and maybe a chance for something that can pass for love.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, not bad at all
Review: No, this may not be Mr. Leonard's best effort to date, bu this book is still pretty darn good. Let's face it, something that is less than his best is still better than 99% of the other garbage that is out there to read. While I would not recommend this title to someone that wants to enjoy their first Elmore Leonard novel (Get Shorty gets that role), I would definitely recommend this to any fan of Leonard or a fan of the genre. Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Not too bad, but not his best
Review: The story was sort of a one trick pony, the switched ID of the two girls in it. Leonard keeps it going, though, through his characters. But in this case, the characters were kinda stupid. I wanted to have more of the Lloyd in it, though, he was pretty cool.I like the stories from the Detroit homicide department, that was cool. But there were a few things I didn't really buy. First, the lawyer character hiring hit men? Why? I wasn't getting that. Also, the Victoria's Secret supermodel falling for an older homicide detective? Really. Maybe the next book he can have her fall for a computer programmer, that would be sweet! The book moves you along, but it's not his best. The whole side thing with the mexicans and the weed and all that was just confusing. I still dig Elmore Leonard, though, nobody writes like him.
Rating: 
Summary: leonard on auto-pilot
Review: I've read many Elmore Leonard novels, and enjoyed them all. But Mr. Paradise is just bad. The problem is there aren't any interesting characters. Not even remotely interesting. Which surprised me. Leonard has dreamed up many memorable characters before.
The bad guys in this novel dissapointed me. They weren't bad--just stupid, and not even cleverly stupid. Unreadably stupid. Boring. Leonard usually makes even the most outrageous actions seem reasonable and inevitable. Here they just seem far-fetched and poorly written.
He is a master at narrating thoughts. But without any interesting characters, why should we care what they are thinking?
With Leonard, you always look forward to the showdown at the end. But this one fizzles. The good guys...who cares? The bad guys...who cares? I wanted them all to die. By the time I reached the end, I was that underwhelmed.
Leonard seemed be coasting on auto-pilot. There is no edge to the story. This whole thing reads in many ways like a rough-draft. Sloppy in places, lacking his trademark finesse.
Like he's got nothing left to prove... I certainly hope not. He's still one of my favorite authors and I look forward to his next work. Hopefully he takes more time on it. He is a master, but even masters put out cheese every once in awhile. If you haven't read any Elmore Leonard yet--DO NOT START WITH MR. PARADISE.
Rating:
Summary: Dan Brown, eh?
Review: A previous poster mentioned that he didn't get why Leonard is the master of dialogue. He then went on to say he was partial to Dan Brown. If someone says that they prefer the bestselling author of the month (be it Grisham, Brown, etc) that sends up a red flag in my brain immediately. I know not to trust his review or taste. Elmore Leonard IS the greatest writer of dialogue working today. He has the simplest writing style because he just lets characters actions and words speak for themselves. He takes out everything you would normally skip over when reading a book (flowery descriptive paragraphs, etc) and just leaves what we want (dialogue and action). This makes him the easiest read imaginable. Of course, that is, if you like your novels dark, twisted and hilarious. If the last book you read was The Firm or The Da Vinci Code, look elsewhere my shallow, unadventurous friend.
Rating: 
Summary: Too choppy. Too dadgum choppy.
Review: Having heard instructors rave over Leonard's writing style at two writers' conferences, I decided that I'd better read a book by this "master of dialogue" for my edification. By chance, this one was just being published. I immediately noticed his choppy writing style. By the time I had slogged through 15 pages my head ached. I was so distracted by the choppy sentences and sentence fragments that I couldn't follow the story. Maybe other readers will eat it up, but this kind of writing turned me off. Why he has such a great reputation I'll never know. Sorry, Elmore, you're not my cup of tea. Give me Dan Brown any time.
Rating:
Summary: DETROIT ROUGH
Review: Kelly and Chloe are roommates. Kelly is a model and Chloe is the playmate of an elderly rich man named Tony Paradiso. Mr. Paradise, as she calls him, talks with a cruel mouth but promises to take care of Chloe with an insurance policy. His son hates Chloe and would fight for anything left to her in the Will. Mr. Paradise likes to see Chole play cheerleader. One night, Chloe brings Kelly along. Unfortunately, for the ladies, Mr. Paradise gets generous with their company and splits them up. When two hit men arrive, expecting to find an old man having a quiet night, only to discover a cheerleader entertaining him with her pom-poms, they are not happy. The hit takes place, but isn't seen for what it was suppose to be - a home invasion. And this, folks, is just the beginning. Leading the police investigation is Detective Frank Delsa. He's suspicious about the crime scene. He has a female witness acting odd, a fast-talking bodyguard and he is attracted to the beautiful witness. Believe it or not, I've avoided Elmore Leonard's work. Being a skeptic of over-praised authors, I've dodged it for a long time, but it was the TV show Karen Sisco that changed my mind about listening to this audio book. Mr. Paradise is the first Detroit mystery for me, and I can tell you it's not for sissies. It's rated R with plenty of cringing points. Forget walking and talking tough, these characters "breathe" tough, including the women. The dialogue is short and sweet and the storyline moves quickly. Very entertaining. It's worth a second listen. Remember to use the headphones. Actor Robert Foster is the reader. He also plays Marshall Sisco on the TV show Karen Sisco. Foster is a smooth reader, and does a good job of delivering exactly what Leonard's characters are, Detroit rough.
Rating:
Summary: Mr. Paradise¿ is a Reader¿s Purgatory
Review: Martin Amis has likened Elmore Leonard to Charles Dickens, but I doubt "Mr. Paradise" was the book to spawn the comparison. Leonard's writing can range from hilarious to just-plain cool, but in his latest novel he seems content to alternate between boring and forced. Leonard's prose is snappy as always, but it's like a high school kid who knows how to mix a good martini-you can't help but admire the facility, but something seems to be missing.... What's mostly missing in "Mr. Paradise" is a plot. In fact, the plot is so stripped down that I can hardly even gloss it here, for fear of spoiling it-suffice it to say there are two very desirable, shallow, and available young woman, an identity switch, a murder, and a hard-boiled, widowed, sensitive-on-the-inside-cop...wait, wait. I may have already said too much. Leonard's characterizations (which, at times in the past, have been cuttingly sharp) are deader on the page here than the book's corpus delicti (one of the aforementioned women whose identity is switched, said switching being, as a plot maneuver, incredibly facile, but as a make-the-reader-confused maneuver it works wonders-the two women are entirely indistinguishable in character and affect (actually, this stays pretty much the same even after one of them is dead). Maybe Leonard is making a trenchant critique of the interchangeability spawned by our consumer culture, but somehow I doubt it. If so, how come the reeking-of-authorial-avatar cop falls so hard for one? (No you dirty birds, not the dead one! (although, come to think of it, that would have gone a long way toward jazzing up the plot). Couple all that with the fact that Elmore Leonard, while he maybe has a handle on cop culture (though I kind of doubt it) just doesn't sound right throwing around terms like "do rag" (neither, in case you're worried I'm getting confused about authorial intent, does his main character). The following conversation, between supposedly-very-dangerous bad guy Montel and fiery-but-cool young Kelley made me cringe in the way I cringe when my parents say "cool." "We're both in style, huh?" (he) pulled the legs of his pants out to each side. "Diesel, one twenty-nine." Kelley pulled the legs of her pants to each side and said "Catherine Malandrino, six-seventy-five. But yours aren't bad." (162) Would even the most fashionable foes really compare pants-price during a high-tension face-off? Maybe not, but it sure sounds cool, doesn't it? In the end, Leonard overdoes it in the smooth department. What's all that smoothness hiding, anyway? Maybe the fact that he's used up all his effective gags, and he's flat out of inspiration.
Rating:
Summary: First time Elmore Reader, dissapointed
Review: I was very dissapointed with this book. His writing is at times confusing, especially his use of short sentences that seem out of place. His slang is off, and at times almost comical when he is portraying "black" slang. The story never really picked up, and never really climaxed.
Interesting characters, but no real storyline here.
Rating:
Summary: A Rare Dissapointment from Elmore Leonard
Review: What's wrong this novel? Oh,jeez. I've read a few Leonard novels,
Out of Sight,Get Shorty,Rum Punch,and i'm reading Be Cool. Now,
this is the worst novel out of those three that I named. The characters are well written and the dialouge is great.Typical Leonard. It's the story that I have a problem with. It just seems to me that the novel. How should I say? I guess isn't finished. I still felt a sense of longing after I was done with the novel. The book is about Chloe Robinette,an ex-call girl who now works for an ex-lawyer Anthony Paradisio (AKA Mr.Paradise).
What does she do? Pretty much anything the man wants. She dresses up in a skimpy cheerleading outfits and cheers while Mr.Pardise watches Detroit football games. One night she convinces her roomate Kelly Barr to join her. Kelly resists at first, but eventually gives in. We then learn that, Mr.Paradise's
"house-ni**er" Montez finds out that he was cut from the will. To get back at Paradise he hires a couple of bumbling hit man to kill the old man. By the end of the night, Paradise and Chloe are dead and we meet Frank Delss. A detective who (gee) falls in love with Kelly Barr. But as a Leonard novel this strongly dissapoints.Had it not been a Leonard novel or if I wasn't familiar with Leonards work it would be better. C+
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