About the Author

Elmore Leonard has written 34 novels, most recently CUBA LIBRE. GET SHORTY was made into a highly successful fim by Quentin Tarantino. Elmore Leonard lives outside Detroit, USA.

Reviews

Ex-loan-shark-turned-movie-producer Chili Palmer needs a new hit. Get Lost, the sequel to his successful first film Get Leo, tanked at the box office. When a record producer he's power lunching with is gunned down in a Russian mob hit, Chili gets inspired: "You couldn't have the star get popped ten minutes into the picture...but it could be the way to open it. A movie about the music business." Despite being pursued by several assassins (he promises one a screen test), the always unflappable Chili uses his own life to develop his movie, manipulating the people he meets and staging events to see how they would fit in a screenplay. ("I love how you work," studio executive Elaine Levin dryly tells Chili.) Leonard incorporates his trademark black humor, sharp dialog, and eccentric characters into this hilarious follow-up to Get Shorty (Delacorte, 1990); this is one sequel that is as good as the original. One hopes that an expected film version (possibly with John Travolta again) will uphold the high standards set by its cinematic predecessor. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/98.]‘Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"

In Get Shorty (1990), Leonard skewered the film industry in a rollicking crime read that became not only a bestselling book but also a megahit movie. This razor-sharp sequel veers from the venality, egomania and basic bad taste of the movies with the similar attributes of the pop-music business. After one hit (Get Leo) and one flop (Get Lost), Chili Palmer, former loan shark and now movie producer, thinks the record industry is fertile ground for his next flick. He hasn't lost touch with his old Brooklyn friends, though, and while lunching with one he witnesses his pal's mob-style murder. As he's not a serious suspect, Chili becomes friendly with the investigating LAPD detective. He has also become interested in Texas-bred singer Linda Moon and her effort to break into the biz, which puts him on the wrong side of her inept but murderous manager, Raji. When a Russian gangster is found shot dead in Chili's house, matters complicate further as Chili wades through a rogues' gallery including more Russians, a mob hit man, seriously criminal gangsta rappers, Raji's giant gay Samoan bodyguard and assorted other denizens of La La Land. Chili remains a compulsively appealing character throughout, retaining his immaculate cool in lethal situations as those around him wallow in pretension and hypocrisy. Leonard's plotting is as propulsive as ever and his desert-dry wit continues to flare at high heat. Nearly every sentence of this novel reads as if it's dipped in gold. This is a knockout work from a master crime writer: be cool, and relish it. Major ad/promo; simultaneous BDD audio; author tour. (Feb.)