Mr. Paradise » (Unabridged, 6 CDs, 6 hours)

After 30 years writing westerns and crime novels, Elmore Leonard finally started to get somewhere. "Author Discovered After 23 Books," The New York Times said in 1983, referring to his Edgar Award-winning novel LaBrava. Since then, Leonard's tack-sharp dialogue and comic underworld characters have been drawing accolades and an ever growing base of fans.

In hindsight, Victoria's Secret model Kelly Barr thinks maybe it wasn't such a great idea to accompany her callgirl roommate Chloe to Tony Paradiso's house. The wealthy, eighty-four-year-old retired Motor City lawyer's idea of fun was innocent enough: watching old Michigan football games on TV while a sexy companion shakes her pom-poms and prances around topless in a U of M cheerleader's outfit. On this particular night, though, two killers decide to get into the action, leaving Chloe and "Mr. Paradise" dead in the old man's living room while Kelly is elsewhere with Tony's right-hand man. There is a bright spot, an opportunity for a very profitable score, provided that Kelly can convince the cops she's somebody else. But Homicide Detective Frank Delsa isn't stupid, even if he is lonely, good-hearted ... and about to sign up for more trouble than he ever bargained for.

The Washington Post - Michael Dirda

If a writer lives long enough or produces a steady output of good books, there comes a point when he or she passes beyond mere criticism. Readers grow simply grateful. We'd rather have any new Patrick O'Brian or Iris Murdoch or Dick Francis or Elmore Leonard than none at all. Sometimes this allows us to excuse all sorts of weakness. But in the case of Mr. Paradise we don't have to settle for mere gratitude. We can rejoice. It is unputdownable, packed with excruciating suspense and I couldn't stop reading it. Oh yes, it's also polyphonic and a masterpiece of progression d'effet.