Rating: 
Summary: With such intriguing characters, I didn't want it to end.
Review: I was drawn to the tenacious young narrator of "Hotel Paradise," who sets out to solve the mystery of a girl who drowned 40 years past. Martha Grimes creates delightful descriptions of eccentric townspeople, family and other acquaintances who either earn the admiration or enmity of the heroine. With a pacing that reminded me at times of "To Kill a Mockingbird," this story weaves in several subtler mysteries, some of which are left to the reader's conclusions. Those who prefer everything neatly wrapped up at the end may find that frustrating, but it made me turn to the first chapter all over again. "The End of the Pier" is another title by Martha Grimes which has several of the same appealing characters from this novel
Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully written! Beautifully written!
Review: I've read most of Grimes' Richard Jury mysteries and have enjoyed them enough to pick-up the next one I run across. But nothing in these novels prepared me for the excellence of this book. Gentle and flowing, the writing pulls you in and holds you captivated in the shadowy interior world of a teenage girl coming of age - a world halfway between dream and reality yet totally believable. The best writing I have encountered in a long, long time.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: It is a mystery novel of sorts, but there is not a bit of formula, and I enjoyed the nods to Rebecca and To Kill a Mockingbird. The protagonist is an engaging young girl who is a complex mixture of intelligence, sophistication, strength of character, sensitivity, and vulnerability. In a sense, this is more of a rite of passage story than it is a mystery story.The prose is richly written, describing landscapes, people, and character interactions with an other-worldliness that haunts the reader. If you are looking for something more character-driven than the usual whodunit, and you can live with some ambiguity, I think you'll enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: It is a mystery novel of sorts, but there is not a bit of formula, and I enjoyed the nods to Rebecca and To Kill a Mockingbird. The protagonist is an engaging young girl who is a complex mixture of intelligence, sophistication, strength of character, sensitivity, and vulnerability. In a sense, this is more of a rite of passage story than it is a mystery story. The prose is richly written, describing landscapes, people, and character interactions with an other-worldliness that haunts the reader. If you are looking for something more character-driven than the usual whodunit, and you can live with some ambiguity, I think you'll enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Hotel Paralyze
Review: Normally, Martha Grimes is one of my favorite mystery writers, so I was stunned that she could produce such a dull, aggravating, ill-conceived book as this. At some time, Grimes must have read, and been deeply impressed by, "To Kill A Mockingbird," and decided to write her own novel in which the adult world is seen through the eyes of an adolescent. If so, she has failed miserably, and clearly does not understand what made that book so compelling and memorable. First, the narrator in this book is far too sophisticated and has too adult a vocabulary to be a convincing adolescent. Moveover, the book meanders listlessly and pointlessly, with scene after extended scene that has no real purpose or interest. The book is overloaded with what I imagine are supposed to be eccentric characters, but I found them flat, one-dimensional, and without any true sense of insight, pathos or complexity behind them. The same four or five scenes are repeated endlessly and needlessly, without any significant variation or a sense that the story is moving forward. Reading this interminable, uneventful, slow-moving book is a paralyzing experience. Worst of all, as a mystery, it is an infuriating botch. You don't learn anything of significance until page 400, when the narrator meets some people that she could just as easily have met on page 100, and who simply recite the events that occurred 40 years before. Explanations (at least, those few that we are provided) are anticlimactic and mundane and are given in a flat, off-hand manner in the last 20 pages. Most aggravating of all, we are never told who committed the central murder in the book, or how it was arranged. I have a few theories, but frankly none of them are satisfactory or make narrative or pyschological sense. Skip this book. Instead, either read one of Grimes' Richard Jury mysteries, or reread "To Kill A Mockingbird."
Rating: 
Summary: It took a long time, but I finally finished reading it!
Review: The first Martha Grimes book I've read...I found the book boring. I should of went with my instinct and read only the first 100 pages, but the thought that "it HAS to get better" kept me reading. Unfortunately, the book didn't...only made me hungry...very descriptive food passages!
Rating:
Summary: Cloudy and Windy
Review: The main character of this book is a twelve year old girl. One would not, however, know that if the author had not told us. Written in the first person, the language and vocabulary are not even close to typical for a twelve year old. The plot is, at best, sketchy and has no moments of excitement or suspense. But the final blow is that, at the end of the story, the reader is left wondering what really happened. There is no climax or clarity to the plot. The plot is "cloudy" and the author is long-"winded." Perhaps the main character is reading a story and imagining the scenario set forth here, but that is not clear either. It is a long book, over 400 pages that goes nowhere very slowly. One redeeming characteristic could be the development of the various personalities, but this is overshadowed by the major obscurities of the book. This author has written several more books and I will read another in the hope that this one is her only dud.
Rating:
Summary: A totally fascinating work
Review: This book can't be categorized. It's really interesting, an in-depth character study. One of the best books I've read in the last ten years - and I read a lot.
Rating:
Summary: A rambling story about nothing
Review: This book foremost lacks a purpose and is incredibly slow paced. Although, the girl's aim is to solve the girls murder, her actions honestly don't reflect it. Without a purpose, the book winds up being a summary about basically nothing. The slow pace is mainly due to the excessive descriptions. This book also seemed quite unfinished, with lots of lose ends still lingering in my mind. By the end of the novel, Martha Grimes, seemed to have created more mysteries than she had solved. Although, this book was enjoyable at first, at the end, I was so bored, confused, and frustrated, that I ended up disliking it. If you are going to read this book, don't expect much, because it will be a big anticlimax if you do.
Rating:
Summary: Boring!!!
Review: This book is soooooo boring. And I usually LOVE Martha Grimes but this book is excrutiatingly slow-paced and pointless. The pace better pick up and soon or I'm going to abandon this book or conveniently lose it somewhere. I'm on page 120 and this is torture. But I don't give up easily so...I'll read on. Big Sigh.
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