Get Shorty
Elmore Leonard · first published 1990 · ISBN 9780060082161
Chili Palmer, a Miami loan shark, travels to Hollywood pursuing a debt and discovers he has an unexpected talent for the movie business. Leonard weaves together the mob, Hollywood hustlers, actors, and producers into a narrative where everyone is running a con and the question becomes which con will hold.
On our lists
The Best Crime Novels of the 1990s
Leonard proved that crime fiction could be funny without sacrificing tension. Chili Palmer is charming and dangerous in equal measure, and watching him navigate worlds where surface cordiality masks ruthless self-interest became a template Leonard would return to repeatedly. The novel's commercial success brought crime fiction into mainstream attention.