Readers attracted to Hotel Paradise by Grimes's established reputation as an author of first-rate mysteries may come away disappointed; again, the solution to the novel's most conspicuous murder is only secondary to the author's intentions in this book. Moreover, while many critics praise Grimes's penchant for extended digressions, other readers may find the book's plot development unnecessarily sluggish, encumbered by a host of superfluous characters and languorous, dead-end divergences.

Nonetheless, it is apparent that Grimes has sought in Hotel Paradise to produce a serious work of literary art and to say things which are universally and permanently true about the human situation. It is clear, as well, that the author is in control of her materials and is aware of the literary, psychological, and mythic heritage within which she operates.

For example, Hotel Paradise in some ways recalls the tradition of the medieval English morality plays...