Recommended reading - Be Cool (1999):

Be Cool

By Elmore Leonard.

Published 1999.

Published by Mariner Books.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0062265997

ISBN-13: 978-0062265999

Description:

“The greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever!” – New York Times Book Review.

“An absolute master.” – Detroit News.

Get Shorty's Chili Palmer is back. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

After a smash hit and a flop, B-movie producer Chili Palmer is looking for another score. Lunching with a record company executive, Chili's exploring a hot new idea – until the exec, a former "associate" from Chili's Brooklyn days, gets whacked.

Segue from real life to reel life. Chili's found his plot. It's a slam-bang opener: the rubout of a record company mogul. Cut to an ambitious wannabe singer named Linda Moon. She has attitude and a band. She's perfect. Zoom into reality. Linda's manager thinks Chili's poaching and he's out to get even, with the help of his switch-hitting Samoan bodyguard. But somebody else beat them to the punch, as Chili discovers when he gets home and finds a corpse at his desk. Somebody made a mistake….

Recommended reading - 52 Pick-up (1974):

52 Pick-up

By Elmore Leonard.

aka Fifty-Two Pick Up.

Published by Mariner Books.

First published 1974.

ISBN-10: 0062266004

ISBN-13: 978-0062266002

Description:

Detroit businessman Harry Mitchell had had only one affair in his twenty-two years of happy matrimony. Unfortunately someone caught his indiscretion on film and now wants Harry to fork over one hundred grand to keep his infidelity a secret. And if Harry doesn't pay up, the blackmailer and his associates plan to press a lot harder – up to and including homicide, if necessary. But the psychos picked the wrong pigeon for their murderous scam. Because Harry Mitchell doesn't get mad ... he gets even.

"Probably no one knows this nation's rogues, bent cops, and sleazebags better than Elmore Leonard." – Newsday.

“An absolute master.” – The Detroit News.

Born on this day – Elmore Leonard:

Elmore Leonard

Writer

October 11, 1925 – August 20, 2013

Credits:

Books:

The Big Bounce (1969); Unknown Man #89 (1977); Swag (aka Ryan's Rules) (1976); Stick (1982); Get Shorty (1990); Be Cool (1999); Pronto (1993); Riding the Rap (1995); Fire in the Hole (2001); Raylan (2011); Raylan Goes to Detroit (2018); Out Of Sight (1996); Road Dogs (2009); The Hot Kid (2005); Up in Honey's Room (2007); Comfort to the Enemy and Other Carl Webster Stories (2009); The Switch (1978); Rum Punch (1992); Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #1 (1998); Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #2 (1998); Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #3 (1998); The Bounty Hunters (1953); The Law at Randado (1954); Escape from Five Shadows (1956); Last Stand at Saber River (1959); Hombre (1961); The Moonshine War (1969); Valdez Is Coming (1970); Forty Lashes Less One (1972); 52 Pick Up (1974); Mr Majestyk (1974); The Hunted (1977); Gunsights (1979); Gold Coast (1980); City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit (1980); Split Images (1981); Cat Chaser (1982); LaBrava (1983); Glitz (1985); Bandits (1987); Touch (1987); Freaky Deaky (1988); Killshot (1989); Maximum Bob (1991); Cuba Libre (1998); Pagan Babies (2000); Tishomingo Blues (2002); Mr. Paradise (2004); A Coyote's in the House (2004); Djibouti (2010); The Trespassers (2013); Confession (2013); Three-Ten to Yuma and Other Stories (1953); The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories (1975); Dutch Treat (1985); When the Women Come Out to Dance (2001); The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard (2004); The Complete Western Stories (2004); Moment of Vengeance and Other Stories (2006); Blood Money and Other Stories (2006); Trail of the Apache and Other Stories (2007); Charlie Martz and Other Stories (2015); Notebooks (1990); Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing (2006); New Orleans Stories (1992); Chicago Stories (1993); Southwest Stories (1993); Florida Stories (1993); Lust: Lascivious Love Stories and Passionate Poems (1994); Alaska Stories (1995); Texas Stories (1995); San Francisco Thrillers (1995); Cape Cod Stories (2002); Florida Stories (1993); New Trails: Twenty-Three Original Stories (1994); Murder For Love (1996); Pulp Frictions: Hardboiled Stories (1996); Naked Came the Manatee (1997); Western Movies (1997); The Best American Mystery Stories 1997 (1997); Murder On The Railways (2003); The Best American Mystery Stories 2003 (2003); Mysterious Writers: The Many Facets of Mystery Writing (2010); Books to Die For (2012); Long Night (2014); The Best American Mystery Stories 2016 (2016); Miami Noir (2020).

Movies and television:

3:10 to Yuma (1957 / 2007); 52 Pick-Up (1986); A Conversation with Elmore Leonard (2007); AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes & Villains (2003); American Cinema (1995); Arena (1991); Be Cool (2005); Border Shootout (1990); Byline Showtime (1988); Cat Chaser (1989); Charlie Rose (1995–2000); Cooper and Hemingway: The True Gen (2013); Desperado (1987); Desperado: Avalanche at Devil's Ridge (1988); Desperado: Badlands Justice (1989); Desperado: The Outlaw Wars (1989); Días de cine (2013); Elmore Leonard - But Don't Try to Write (2021); Elmore Leonard: A Detroit Classic (2010); Freaky Deaky (2012); Get Shorty (1995); Get Shorty / TV Series (2017–2019); Get Shorty: Look at Me (2005); Get Shorty: Wiseguys and Dolls (2005); Glitz (1988); Gold Coast (1997); High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane (1980); Hombre (1967); Jackie Brown (1997); Jackie Brown: How It Went Down (2002); Joe Kidd (1972); Justified (2010–2015); Justified: City Primeval (2023); Justified: Sneak Peek (2013); Karen Sisco (2003–2004); Killshot (2008); Last Stand at Saber River (1997); Les Carnets de route de François Busnel (2012); Life of Crime (2013); Maximum Bob (1998); Michigan & Trumbull (1999); Mr. Majestyk (1974); Out of Sight (1998); Pronto (1997); Schlitz Playhouse (1956); Sparks (2009); Split Images (1992); Squzz Corn N' Ole Scratch (2012); Stick (1985); The 2007 Academy Award Nominated Short Films: Live Action (2008); The Ambassador (1984); The Arrangement (2013); The Big Bounce (1969 / 2004); The Daily Show (2002); The Media Show (1988–1989); The Moonshine War (1970); The Oscars (2014); The Return of Desperado (1988); The Rosary Murders (1987); The Tall T (1957); The Tonto Woman (2008); Touch (1997); Valdez Is Coming (1971).

Recommended reading – Get Shorty (1990):

Get Shorty

By Elmore Leonard.

First published 1990.

Published by Mariner Books.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0062120255

ISBN-13: 978-0062120250

Description:

“The coolest, hottest writer in America.” – Chicago Tribune.

Mob-connected loan shark Chili Palmer is sick of the Miami grind – plus his “friends” have a bad habit of dying there. So when he chases a deadbeat client out to Hollywood, Chili figures he might like to stay. This town, with its dream-makers, glitter, hucksters, and liars – plus gorgeous, partially clad would-be starlets everywhere you look – seems ideal for an enterprising criminal with a taste for the cinematic. Besides, Chili’s got an idea for a killer movie, though it could very possibly kill him to get it made.

“The funniest crime thriller ever set among the hustlers and con artist of the movie colony.” – Wall Street Journal.

“A Hollywood hit…. Taut, inimitable prose and characters who could have only sprung from the mind of Elmore Leonard.”

– Detroit News.

“A terrific thriller…. The kind of entertainment that usually makes Hollywood types talk about selling their souls (or their mothers).” – Orlando Sentinel.