Pagan Babies is a very banal novel by Elmore Leonard. Leonard, who writes both good thrillers and funny novels about strange people, drops the ball here. The premise is a fake priest comes back from witnessing the Rwanda massacres to raise money for his cause, whatever that cause may be.
The problem is Leonard does little with the premise. He also sets up an interesting secondary character in Debby Darling, a stand-up comic and ex- convict but again does not do much with her.
There is a seemingly inept hitman who gets contracts on both a mob boss and the priest. He is not developped enough to make his punchline work.
The ending to Pagan Babies by Elmore Leonard is hard to take. It reads more like, “How do I end this mess of a story?” more than anthing.
Elmore Leonard is normally a solid writer. Pagan Babies is a waste.
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