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56th out of 189 books
—
195 voters
Hotel Paradise (Emma Graham #1)
by
Martha Grimes (Goodreads Author)
"ONLY THE MAGNIFICENT MARTHA GRIMES COULD HAVE WRITTEN THIS BOOK. . . . BRILLIANTLY RENDERED AND SUPERBLY TEXTURED."
--Andrew Vachss
A neglected lake, covered with water lilies. A once fashionable, now faded resort. A derelict house full of secrets, uninhabited for almost half a century. The death of a twelve-year-old girl forty years in the past. And another girl who become...more
--Andrew Vachss
A neglected lake, covered with water lilies. A once fashionable, now faded resort. A derelict house full of secrets, uninhabited for almost half a century. The death of a twelve-year-old girl forty years in the past. And another girl who become...more
Paperback, 448 pages
Published
April 28th 1997
by Ballantine Books
(first published January 1st 1995)
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I read Hotel Paradise on the recommendation of my sister, whose taste in books I trust. I immediately enjoyed the voice of the 12-year-old narrator and - not having read anything by Martha Grimes before - was not actually expecting a crime novel, and maybe that was a good thing, because this book doesn't really fit that genre. I'm not sure what genre it does fit - ghost story? coming of age novel? For me, it was evocative of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, as we get this 12-year-old girl's view of her...more
I thought this was both a terrible mystery and a terrible work of literature. The story is about a young girl (Emma, the narrator) who, while residing at the small-town hotel managed by her family, becomes interested in the 40-year-old unexplained drowning of a young girl with whom she identifies for some reason. The novel is populated by uninteresting stock characters: the crabby, drunken aunt; the friendly sheriff; the mean, older girl; and a couple of insultingly portrayed adult twin brothers...more
4 likes · like · see review
I enjoyed the 12 year old main character in this book. How she interacts with adults is amusing, cunning, and purposeful. Emma Graham is the 12 year old sleuth. She lives in an old resort hotel with her mother(Jen Graham), her brother (Will) her mother's business partner (Lola Davidow), her daughter (Regina/"Ree-Jane) and her great aunt Aurora Paradise. Emma does not have friends her age but she makes friends with many adults in the small town and at the hotel. Her favorite friend is the sheriff...more
I read Hotel Paradise for a book club discussion over on the Chicklit message boards. It's probably not a book I would have ever picked out on my own, but I guess that's part of the purpose of book clubs, and I did enjoy it in the end.
Hotel Paradise is the story of a 12-year-old girl who lives at her mother's hotel and spends most of her free time investigating the 40-year-old death of another 12-year-old girl. Ms. Grimes's book is filled with wonderfully eccentric characters, but they never see...more
Hotel Paradise is the story of a 12-year-old girl who lives at her mother's hotel and spends most of her free time investigating the 40-year-old death of another 12-year-old girl. Ms. Grimes's book is filled with wonderfully eccentric characters, but they never see...more
Martha Grimes is amazing. How can writing this exquisite also be this absorbing? It's like a guilty pleasure without the guilt! Or, you know, a pleasure...would be another way of saying that, I guess.
5 likes · like · see review
Of the four elements that make up a book, I waver among those I love the best. I'll have my momentary heart stolen by the plot & pace thrillers like the Millennium Trilogy, sure, like everyone, but in my deepest moments of self, I'm a character & atmosphere woman. So Hotel Paradise is bliss for me. It's a souffle of atmosphere, with the character of Emma Graham & company whipped in. The pace is slow to fit the atmosphere and the plot is convoluted as the thinking of Emma herself. But...more
I am trying to figure out why I chose this book to read, why I requested it from the library and brought it home but I just can't remember. That said, I'm glad I did because I did enjoy the story.
This book is a reminder of what a good mystery is supposed to be like. Filled with memories of better days gone by, perfect descriptions of food, people and places and enough of a touch of the mystery (and a super cute mystery solver) to keep the reader guessing and trying to figure out the story.
I'm no...more
This book is a reminder of what a good mystery is supposed to be like. Filled with memories of better days gone by, perfect descriptions of food, people and places and enough of a touch of the mystery (and a super cute mystery solver) to keep the reader guessing and trying to figure out the story.
I'm no...more
Hotel Paradise is a time travel vehicle of sorts. It takes the reader back to a simpler more provincial time before words such a potitical correctness and social consciousness became part of our vocabulary and nothing was thought of a 12 year old girl working in the family business.
The 12 year old girl in question is the narrator of the story and although she demonstrates a naivete comensurate with her years she also possesses an innate intelligence, insight and compassion far beyond her chrono...more
The 12 year old girl in question is the narrator of the story and although she demonstrates a naivete comensurate with her years she also possesses an innate intelligence, insight and compassion far beyond her chrono...more
Finished Hotel Paradise last night and as I stew over the book I like it more and more. The well spoken story teller is a 12 year old girl, and the entire book, events, and characters are all seen through her eyes alone. She is funny, cunning, a bit spiteful, and even romantic. Although a different tale this book had the same feel for me as "A Tree grows in Brooklyn".
Some aspects to this part crime mystery, part coming of age, part ghost story, are mysteries themselves. It is never really clear...more
Some aspects to this part crime mystery, part coming of age, part ghost story, are mysteries themselves. It is never really clear...more
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After Fadeaway Girl came out, I re-read all of the Emma Graham books, but started with The End of the Pier. That book provides a great foundation for several of the supporting characters which are found throughout the Emma series.
I found a photo of Martha Grimes' family hotel which is portrayed as the Paradise Hotel. It was called the Mountain Lake Hotel. I also found a photo of what could have been the inspiration of the Belle Ruin. It was called the Deer Park Hotel and it really did burn down....more
I found a photo of Martha Grimes' family hotel which is portrayed as the Paradise Hotel. It was called the Mountain Lake Hotel. I also found a photo of what could have been the inspiration of the Belle Ruin. It was called the Deer Park Hotel and it really did burn down....more
Lordy, I sped through this book over the long thanksgiving weekend. I could not stop reading it. I loved the descriptions of just about everything, it was fresh and inventive and I love all the kooky characters. It's almost more about the characters and a portrait of this small town and surrounding small towns. I loved the narrator, I found her SO unbelievably relate-able to-able, even though she is 12 and I am, well, older - not just on an "I remember how it felt to be 12" way but also in a muc...more
I love the 12 year-old protagonist Emma Graham. She is a highly sensitive and imaginative child who is given to daydreaming.
Loneliness is her constant companion as she seeks to understand how adults operate, she dissects both their motives and actions when dealing with love, work and parenting. She is hugely protective of people and places that seem to be forgotten, as if the ignoring of memory could erase their very existence. As much as she is ignored by her mother, hotel staff and other adult...more
Loneliness is her constant companion as she seeks to understand how adults operate, she dissects both their motives and actions when dealing with love, work and parenting. She is hugely protective of people and places that seem to be forgotten, as if the ignoring of memory could erase their very existence. As much as she is ignored by her mother, hotel staff and other adult...more
Every time I read this book, I love it a little bit more. Grimes' 12-year-old protagonist, whose name we do not learn until the last chapter, investigates the local mystery of the death by drowning of another 12-year-old girl 40 years ago. She traverses the area around her small Appalachian town of Spirit Lake, speaks to interesting people, and describes her adventures in a way that is both poetic and true to her age. In fact, one of the most remarkable things about the book is the voice of its...more
I'm waiting for the third book Martha Grimes has written about Emma Graham to be posted from America. Meanwhile I am re-reading this and Cold Flat Junction. I suspect these books are set in scenes the author is familiar with from childhood because the writing evokes the place and time so richly. This might be why I place them so high in my estimation - far above anything else I have read by the same author. I am totally captivated by the 'I' of the story and love the shifting sands of knowledge...more
I really enjoy Martha Grime's Richard Jury series. I originally started reading Grimes latest in the Emma series, "Fadeaway Girl." I liked the characters and the general story, but I was completely lost. It turns out, these books need to be read in order as they build on each other.
If I had selected "Hotel Paradise" to begin with, I'm not so sure I would continue reading the series. It has some good parts in it, but it is essentially the random thinking of a 12 year old girl. I enjoyed the piec...more
If I had selected "Hotel Paradise" to begin with, I'm not so sure I would continue reading the series. It has some good parts in it, but it is essentially the random thinking of a 12 year old girl. I enjoyed the piec...more
Marvelous. Unlike her Richard Jury mysteries, which are lacking in local color and read like maybe she visited England once upon a time, this story is a rainbow of color. We know that she wrote this from her childhood experience, and I found it hauntingly reminiscent of my own childhood memories. The plot was slowly and enticingly developed from beginning to end. It took a bit for me to comprehend the conclusion which added to the enjoyment. A bit of a stretch to think a 12 year old talked and a...more
This is the 2nd time I have read this book...loved it again! A crazy mystery from the viewpoint of a 12 yr. girl who is trying to solve a 40 yr. old mystery that gets all tangled up with the present day. This girl is great, she is left on her own a lot and is just such an enjoyable person, the things she does and the way she thinks. I reread it because the final one is just out, but I have to read the 1st and 2nd again because Martha Grimes spread them out so much I couldn't remember them well....more
Delicate and wonderfully detailed story of Emma, a 12-year old girl who lives in a genteelly declining hotel on a lake. She becomes fascinated with a 40-year old mystery of another 12-year old girl who drowned in the lake, but no one ever knew why. A present day murder may be linked to the older death, and as Emma tries to figure out the mystery, she begins confronting a number of secrets, and must try to understand questions of honor and secrets and how important honesty is versus protecting pe...more
The premise of this detailed, slow-moving novel centers around a mystery. However, the true strength of this book lies in its study of the characters rather than the actual plot. This book is very beautifully written; it is a book that could be read multiple times with something new gained each time. Grimes has an interesting writing style. I think that the Kirkus Reviews described it best when their review mentions Grimes' beautifully effective use of "extravagant digression."
The heroine of th...more
The heroine of th...more
It is quite a feat to write honestly from a child's point of view, even one who is observant and perceptive. Emma, who is twelve years old, lives with her mother and other staff who run the Paradise Hotel ("an old summer hotel") that has seen better days. She becomes fascinated with the death of another twelve year old girl who died mysteriously many years earlier and begins investigating in her own unique style. Someone pointed out that this was as much a coming of age novel as a mystery story....more
There lots of little mysteries, and fun enough writing that I truly enjoyed this book. UNTIL the end. Which isn't so much bad, it just accomplished nothing - one tiny mystery solved and another commented on in one sentence like it was solved (when it definitely wasn't). Luckily(?) it's the first of series, so I'm giving the second book a shot. We'll see. If the second one ends like the first I won't be reading the third or fourth, that's for sure.
May 12, 2011
mary
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
library,
mystery-contemporary
"My mother made no bones about the beans coming out of a can, which surprised everybody, for they tasted homemade. "Doctored" was what my mother called these vastly improved canned vegetables. As far as I was concerned, my mother should have run a vegetable hospital, the way she took hold of limp, pale, unhealthy-looking green beans and peas and cabbage and with her seasoning and a little wrist action had them walking through the swinging doors looking like they'd spent all their days in the sun...more
I read this book on a train to Boston from NYC when I was 17 years old and enjoyed it immensely. I forgot about it and never realized that Emma Graham would have her own series. I was familiar with Martha Grimes' Richard Jury series but it never piqued my interest the way the 12 year old precoious Emma does. I am anxious to finally read the rest of the series.
I shouldn't have read this immediately after finishing A Red Herring Without Mustard. (I didn't even realize until I got to the hotel that two of my three vacation novels were about 11 yo girl detectives.)
I'm not sure whether I just didn't get into the story because I liked Red Herring so much more or just because not much happened. Either way: Team Flavia!
I'm not sure whether I just didn't get into the story because I liked Red Herring so much more or just because not much happened. Either way: Team Flavia!
Une grande demeure abandonnée sur les rives d'un lac silencieux...
Pour Emma, douze ans, petite fille solitaire et pleine d'imagination, quoi de plus fascinant ? Surtout quand cette maison était celle d'une enfant retrouvée noyée dans ces eaux noires quarante ans auparavant.
Meurtre ou accident ?
L'affaire ne fut jamais élucidée, mais dans ce petit coin de l'Amérique profonde, avec ses bourgades isolées au milieu des bois, ses habitants singuliers et leurs habitudes jalouses, chacun détient une...more
Pour Emma, douze ans, petite fille solitaire et pleine d'imagination, quoi de plus fascinant ? Surtout quand cette maison était celle d'une enfant retrouvée noyée dans ces eaux noires quarante ans auparavant.
Meurtre ou accident ?
L'affaire ne fut jamais élucidée, mais dans ce petit coin de l'Amérique profonde, avec ses bourgades isolées au milieu des bois, ses habitants singuliers et leurs habitudes jalouses, chacun détient une...more
I got the second or third book in this series from the library, and was a bit confused by the references to the story in this book (first of series). I enjoyed the writing very much, and have been searching for this novel for several months, as our library does not have a copy. Thank you, Half Price Books!
Very entertaining. Emma is an extremely likeable, if not very believable, 12-year-old. It's a good series to pass the time.
Very entertaining. Emma is an extremely likeable, if not very believable, 12-year-old. It's a good series to pass the time.
When I began this series, I was a bit disappointed, because I expected resolution at the end of each book. That is not what you get with this series. I actually read them out of order, because my library did not have the first two in audio book. I wish that I had read them in order. That said, I still stand by my "no resolution" statement. I have now read them all, and still wonder who the mysterious character known as "the Girl" is. What I must say is that Martha Grime's style of writing is abs...more
I LOVED this book. Didn't know what to expect from it, but it's a wonderful mixture of lit mystery, precocious and ostracized children, eccentric characters, food and wonderfully crafted moments. Such a fantastic ending. It's kind of like the love child of Wes Anderson and Donna Tartt. I newly heart Martha Grimes. If you love mysteries, if you love books, if you love food, if you felt alone as a teenager, if you have the blue devils, if you live for stories -- read this book. It's been a while s...more
Emma Graham is 12 and yet wise beyond her years. So much so that sheuses her smarts playing detective in solving a murder in the Hotel Paradise where she works. She is amazing, and Ulub and Ubub, the Beavis and Butt-Head of her town, turn out to be helpful in her quest to know more. Good book and my springboard to Ms. Grimes' work.
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Martha Grimes is an American author of detective fiction.
She was born May 2 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montg...more
More about Martha Grimes...
She was born May 2 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montg...more
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Sep 21, 2012 07:52am
Apr 05, 2013 06:14am