Rating: 
Summary: "Mayberry" meets "Twin Peaks"
Review: An open appeal to all of Donna Tartt's fans who were disappointed by "The Little Friend," take a moment and check out the goings-on of the "Hotel Paradise."Like the Tartt book that attempts to shadow a pre-adolescent girl's need to solve a decade-old crime, "Hotel Paradise" also focuses on a 12-year-old narrator who becomes obsessed with a murder that occurred 40 years prior in her hometown. Martha Grimes's slice of American life was written in 1995, predating Tartt's work by 7 years. It's everything Tartt's readers had been hoping for. The plot of "Hotel Paradise" is solid; its characters are lovable and eccentric--their quirkiness is enjoyable, never stretching the rubber bands of credibility. The humor is warm; the mystery is tantalizing; the narrator's perceptions are just right for a bookwormish young girl who is still part child but eager to become a woman. It's a compelling page-turner, and you will feel like an honorary member of the town. Pour yourself a large cup of coffee, cut a huge slice of Angel Pie, and lose yourself in the inhabitants of this sleepy, mysterious burb. Think of it as "Mayberry RFD" meets "Twin Peaks." There are worse places to get lost.
Rating: 
Summary: Ein wunderbares spannendes Buch.
Review: Eine ganz bezaubernde, und sehr spannende Geschichte um ein zwölfjähriges Mädchen namens Emma. Die Story hat mich so sehr gefesselt, daß ich das Buch kaum aus der Hand legen konnte. Ihre intensiven Nachforschungen um den geheimnisvollen Tod eines gleichaltrigen Mädchens, welcher vierzig Jahre zurückliegt, ist einfach einzigartig und toll verfaßt. Man hat das Gefühl ständig in ihrer Nähe zu sein, und fiebert danach was wohl als nächstes geschieht. Ich muß sagen, sie fehlt mir. Und ich wüßte sehr gerne was sie jetzt gerade tut.... Wahrscheinlich am Spirit Lake spazieren gehen, oder Salate zubereiten.
Rating:
Summary: A gentle unfolding of two mysterious deaths, rich in detail.
Review: Grimes' best book yet, Hotel Paradise is not a page-turner whodunit. Instead, she takes time to leisurely unfold the scene, develop her characters, and intertwine the threads of her plot. Through the eyes of our young detective Emma, we see the quiet, almost decaying life of backwater La Porte. Forty years earlier, a young girl Emma's age had drowned under strange circumstances. And now there is a new death, the victim unknown. Emma, believing these deaths are connected, is determined to interview anyone who might know about either death. Someone needs to care about that long-ago little girl and her unexplained death, and Emma is the only Someone there is. The story of her pursuit is often sharply funny, sometimes bittersweet. For while Emma is a keen observer of adult behavior, she is also a lonely little girl left to her own devices between serving three meals a day at her mother's decrepit old summer hotel. Her loneliness, combined with a zeal for the ! truth, leads her to seek out town characters considered either objects of derision or just plain invisible by the rest of the citizens. The magic of this novel lies in Emma's growing awareness of the kinship she shares with the girl of forty years ago. As Emma learns of the girl's loneliness and despair--what Emma calls the blue devils--she begins to understand and deal with her own pain.
Rating:
Summary: Literary Magic Flute
Review: Has anyone else found that Hotel Paradise is one of the Most Important Books they have ever read? It is Martha Grime's equivalent of the Magic Flute, a Mozartian masterpiece, a joyous, magical work unlike any other novel I've ever encountered! I did not want it to end; I was spellbound, entranced, transported to my own childhood where everything burgeoned on the edge of mystery. Mystical, earthy, evocative -- it was everything you could possibly want a novel to be. Even the Proverbial One Book You'd Want on a Desert Island! Well, for me -- this is it.
Rating: 
Summary: where in the world is the plot to this book?
Review: I agree that this book is well written, and has some beautiful phrasing at times,hence the three stars. However, the plot development is poor and the character development is awful. The characters are just plain boring, although it seems as if the author is trying to pass them off as eccentric. The end is so incredibly frustrating. I felt as if I'd slogged through over 400 pages of redundant, stagnated plot and arrived nowhere. Who killed Mary Evelyn? Who killed the woman at Mirror Pond? What's going on between the sherrif and Maude? What's going on between the main character's mother and Lola Davidow? Is she indebted to her in some way? The only thing that got answered was who killed Ben Queen's wife. It's almost as if Martha Grimes just lost interest in the story toward the end. I will try another of her books, because she writes well, but I wouldn't recommend this book unless you're already a fan.
Rating:
Summary: Even if you don't like Grimes' other books, READ THIS ONE!
Review: I am no fan of Grimes' Richard Jury books, but somehow stumbled upon Hotel Paradise. This book makes my top 100 list. Why? The narrator, a girl about ten, lives and speaks just as I did at that age. The mystery is almost secondary as we live and strive along with each charactor. Totally riviting.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect vacation book!
Review: I have to disagree with the negative reviews printed here. Hotel Paradise is exactly the kind of book I love to read. I took it on vacation and lounged in the sun with it for several days. As soon as it ended, I started it again. Martha Grimes obviously has a great respect for young people and their intuitive view of the adult world. I wasn't bothered at all at the lack of plot action or mystery resolution. The resolution is there for readers to decipher on their own. Can't wait to discuss this book with my Mother Daughter book group.
Rating:
Summary: I adore this book.
Review: I must disagree with the reader who skewers this book so dreadfully (regarding a 12 year-old's vocabulary). Perhaps one of the reasons I responded so viscerally to Grimes' book is that I was a 12 year-old exactly like this narrator--bookish and full of Victorian words better written than pronounced. In "Hotel Paradise," Grimes creates a book that completely pulled me in and when it ended, I was saddened because then I had to give up the narrator's world, one I happily entered for a period of hours. I will collect Martha Grimes' books happily now (this was my first one). I most heartily recommend this book to anyone who likes books for the way they are written, and to those who can use their own imaginations when they read--after all, isn't that part of the fun of reading fiction? Grimes is no dime-store novel simpleton. Her words leap off of the page and the phrases in "Hotel Paradise" are almost edible. Buy this book in hardcover and loan it to a friend when you are finished.
Rating:
Summary: a good read
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I have long been a fan of Martha Grimes and her Richard Jury series and this is the first book of hers that I have read that does not center around that British crime solver. One of the things that I loved about it was its' humor and I have not seen another reviewer refer to that. I found myself smiling at the 12 year old's train of thought. Not all of the characters are fully developed, but that may be left to other books that are concerned with this distinctly American location by Martha Grimes. I am looking forward to dropping into Cold Flat Junction and The End of the Pier to see what Maud and Sam and others are up too.
Rating:
Summary: a good read
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I have long been a fan of Martha Grimes and her Richard Jury series and this is the first book of hers that I have read that does not center around that British crime solver. One of the things that I loved about it was its' humor and I have not seen another reviewer refer to that. I found myself smiling at the 12 year old's train of thought. Not all of the characters are fully developed, but that may be left to other books that are concerned with this distinctly American location by Martha Grimes. I am looking forward to dropping into Cold Flat Junction and The End of the Pier to see what Maud and Sam and others are up too.
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