Rating: 
Summary: Elmore still has it
Review: "Pagan Babies," even though it's a little short, is an enjoybale read. It stands up to Leonard's standards, consisitng of a delicately woven plot with lots of twists and turns. There are times when you'll laugh out loud, the same as any other Elmore Leonard novel. It may not be as great as "Get Shorty" or "Cuba Libre," but it's reminiscent of "Mr. Majestyk" or "LaBrava." A fun, quick read.
Rating: 
Summary: Genocide and Prison Comedy
Review: Elmore Leonard is well-known for irreverence and "strange" characters. Pagan Babies does not lessen that reputation. The title refers to the wording of signs on change collection jars in the lunch rooms of Catholic schools, collecting donations for missionaries in far off Africa and other remote locations. Father Terry Dunn arrived at the rural Rwandan mission run by his uncle just before the old man died and the Hutus began their genocide against the Tutsis. Gathering fearful Tutsi parishioners into the church, Father Dunn is celebrating the Mass as Hutus break in and slaughter the congregation. Five years later the bodies are still on the floor of the church and Dunn celebrates the Mass only on special occasions and hears confessions in the yard of his house-when he gets around to it. When a Hutu brags rather than confesses about participating in the church slaughter and others, and promises more to come soon, Dunn is faced with a dilemma. In an unusual way he solves the problem the day he leaves for hometown Detroit for home leave-but Terry Dunn is an unusual priest. Dunn went to Africa just before the Detroit police came to call about his involvement in transporting truckloads of cigarettes across state lines without benefit of local taxes. His lawyer brother has explained all of that, and only formalities remain to clear everything up. Then Dunn meets his brother's investigator who just got out after three years in a Florida jail for assault on her ex boyfriend, who had conned her out of her savings. (Her story is that she just ran into him on Collins Avenue-in a Buick Rivera; and besides, she had the right of way.) Dunn's home visit becomes very involved, with guest appearances by the ex boyfriend, Dunn's former tobacco business associate who turned him in, principals and "soldiers" of the Detroit mob, and various other strange and interesting characters. How does his home rest and fund raising for the orphans of Rwanda turn out? You will have to read the book and find out.
Rating:
Summary: Elmore Leonard is still at the top of his genre
Review: Elmore Leonard is a national treasure. Every new novel gives wonderful, realistic characters, that Leonard really makes us care. Please keep them coming.
Rating: 
Summary: I read the whole thing on the plane from Ireland
Review: Shouldn't a book, whose launching pad is the killing of 800,000 people in Rwanda, and the intensely personal horror of witnessing 47 people hacked to death in a church where they sought sanctuary while one said Mass, be more than an effortless story about a sociopath? I guess not. And who am I to talk? I bought the thing. I read the thing. It's just that I kept waiting for something to happen to indicate some effect of all those hundreds of thousands of personal tradegies. But then again, it's about a sociopath. One's not supposed to sympathise with them or root for them. It's just a story about one of them.And that's all it is.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing and fast-moving
Review: Elmore Leonard can make you empathize with an amoral killer. PAGAN BABIES is about Terry Dunn, a fake priest who plans on scamming Catholics for money supposedly to benefit Rwandan orphans. Since Dunn has spent the past five years in Rwanda, he knows about the genocide that country experienced, but his interests are closer to home. Whether despite, or because of Dunn's character, you learn to root for him. Although you enjoy every page, you may be left with a slightly empty feeling at the end.
Rating:
Summary: This is entertainment. 4 1/2 stars
Review: Storyline above. Elmore Leonard strikes again with another original novel that reaches from Genocidal Rwanda to the streets of Detroit. The novel moved at a fast pace and kept me reading into the night (as usual, for Leonard). The originality of the characters was refreshing as was the dialogue and humor. The massacres in Rwanda drew a sharp contrast compared to the activities in Detroit where most of the humor took place. I think Leonard pulled this contrast off real well and thus gave it an originality you don't often see. Truly entertaining Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but not great.
Review: Pagan Babies was my first Elmore Leonard novel. I wasn't quite sure what to expect and when I finished it, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it. Don't get me wrong, it was a good book. Definitely an easy read. After reading the other reviews I was expecting something more. The writing was good and the ending definitely surprised me, which was a nice change as most endings are fairly predictable. However, maybe I didn't quite get "it", but the dialogue that everyone seems to praise Mr. Leonard for didn't jump out as me as being extraodinary. Like the rest of the book it was well done...but not great.
Rating:
Summary: Sound Familiar?
Review: An all right read. Fast and easy but not as entertaining as some of Leonard's earlier work. In Pagan Babies, Leonard tells the story of a criminal priest and his dealings with the mob element of Detroit. From Africa to Detroit, the priest conjures up scheme after scheme, only to have them get tripped up by the mob element he's gotten in bed with. Leonard could have written this one in his sleep as the plot twists were predictable, uncreative and out right dull. The characters could have been lifted from any of his previous novels and at times it seems they were. Perhaps a movie version (and this reads like a screenplay) of this novel would make a better showing.
Rating:
Summary: Bulls Eye!
Review: After devouring most/all of Mr. Leonard's works, and having pacified myself with lesser novels of lesser authors, I had to more of the real thing! Luckily, Pagan Babies release date was at hand. Having read through the first ten chapters in one sitting, it was clear that Pagan Babies had hit the mark. While other authors attempt to "make real" their characters, they often leave the reader unsatisfied. I want to feel as though these people are victims of an undercover sting; that the author has been secretly tracking them and uncovering their every secret and idiosyncracy. I want these people to be more than characatures; I want them to be as real as the people I may aquaint myself with from day to day; the people who's lives I wonder about - and wish my life was half as exciting! Mr. Leonard continues to fulfill my wishes. Pagan Babies has brought to life Fr. Dunn and Debbie, Randy and his pet, "Mutt". And don't we all know someone who's folks stuck them with a name like Johnny Pajonny? And ladies, we have all dated someone who shed their skin in our bathrooms, or worse. There is only one criticism I have for Mr. Leonard - I always wish there was one more chapter, one more plot twist to bring all the loose ends together, one more assurance that his next effort will be as good as his last. If history repeats itself, he will certainly hit the mark again.
Rating:
Summary: Leonard Weaves Sex, Humor, Crime & Religion
Review: The title refers to the label on the box where Catholic school kids are supposed to drop in contributions, the book jumps from Rwanda to suburban Detroit as Leonard sets in motion a locomotive story that juxtaposes his trademark wry and scathing dialogue with the unlikely romance between an executioner priest and a sexy vengeful comdedian, each bent on recklessly burgeoning fundraising efforts and a gruesomely complicated network of murder contracts, reprisals and betrayals. Into this tangled web enters Mutt, a contract killer, who is among the most memorable characters in the book. Leonard's wicked penchant for tangling myriad strands of greed, sex, power and general venality should be minutely dissected by all MFA writing programs.
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