Paradise: The Last Place on Earth

By Scott Morgan

Greg, how do you get yourself in so much trouble, his mother always asked him. And he's done it again, in spades this time, crossing the country in a Greyhound Bus with a twenty-three year old... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1931982597
• ISBN13: 9781931982597
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Livingston Press
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

A Wild Ride

Raw and open, this story had me worried about Greg from the start. He is clearly a spontaneous wild thing, who acts first and worries about consequences later. And even as he faces said consequences, he does not seem overly fazed by any of it. He sort of slips through and to danger; moving with reckless abandon through his life. He invites trouble wherever he goes, on the edge of it, always thinking he has escaped it when it comes for him again. Makes one wonder what is around the corner for him when he's looking the other way. He's a sucker for beautiful women, and seems to always have his guard down, allowing them to drag him into dangerous and deadly situations. Even as the book wraps up, one wonders if he could ever escape his own fate. Well it was raw and quick; heavy and blunt with sex and drugs, but any time a book keeps me up all night reading and leaves me with questions I say it's good. Kudos to Mr. Scott Morgan. Original, quick; down and dirty, his first novel is a wild ride.

"Relax" and take a trip to Paradise

"Relax" is a phrase Greg Carter, the protagonist in Scott Morgan's first novel, hears often once he lands in Paradise, the hometown of his stripper girlfriend Cindy. Within hours of entering Paradise, he narrowly escapes a cab driver who opens fire, finds Cindy lifeless at the kitchen table from an overdose and becomes a suspect in her death. But relax he does, compliments of the more than ample stash of drugs he finds in the dead girl's house. And we're off. Greg Carter just wants to go home, but like a "Dharma Bum" for the crystal meth era, he doesn't even know what state he's in. Carter is an antihero for the new millennium, but Morgan does a great job making him human and identifiable to all of us. You find yourself rooting for him against your better judgment, in spite of the fact that he's rarely phased by the drugs, depravity, death and danger that surround him. Early in the book, before Carter knows what lies at the edge of town, we find our hero standing in Cindy's parents' room, decked out in a dead man's cowboy boots and hat, with two Colts in a holster on his hip. He poses in the mirror, staring down a non-existent foe and draws. Laughter comes in spite of the circumstances because even though he's high and half-drunk, he still seems to possess a child-like innocence that draws us to him. Of course, this kind of innocence is only fleeting. Paradise may be the last place on Earth, especially when "the cowboys come to town." It seems like a normal small town in the middle of nowhere, with one yellow flashing light at the only crossroads. On the outskirts, however, lying dormant 50 weeks out of the year is a small scene of a town straight out of the wild, wild west, complete with swinging-door saloons, plank board sidewalks and livery stables. Two weeks a year the place becomes a raging scene from a Clint Eastwood western, filled with lawyers, bankers, cops and the like, decked out in full western regalia. But Carter quickly learns that this is no reenactment. The pistols perched on the hips of these cowboys are loaded and frequently fired. Paradise is one of the most original books I've read in ages. Morgan's first novel is a wild ride on an unbroken horse. It reads like a redneck version of a Quentin Tarantino movie, where often you can't recognize the good guys. With Morgan's swaggering writing style and fast-paced action, it's highly readable and rarely disappointing. It's all here, folks... drugs, murder, strippers, card games, cowboys and monster trucks. Do yourself a favor and take a trip to Paradise.