Get Shorty — Elmore Leonard

Miami mob little-guy, loan shark Chili Palmer, is seriously thinking of a career change when a client skips town. Pursuit leads him to L.A.... and the rest, as they say, is history. As a crook, Chili has all the qualifications to make it in the movie business. Soon he's hooked up with horror-film producer Harry Zimm and former starlet Karen Flores, a size-D screamer. But hustling Harry has stiffed a backer, some Miami muscle is headed west to break more than Chili's bubble and suddenly Chili's over his head in "high concepts"--a Hollywood scam calculated to confound "investors" who make it clear that there are more ways to get killed than at the box office.