Not only is it very meta being a fictional story written about a fictional story about writing a fictional story, it has an amusing plot full of amusing and stereotypical classic characters. Michael Weir, played by Danny DeVito as Martin Weir, is far less interesting on the page, a flaky talent in the mold of Dustin Hoffman.

Photograph: Allstar/MGM View image in fullscreen Rene Russo and John Travolta in the 1995 film of Get Shorty, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. Chili grasped the opportunity to phase himself “out of the shylock business” instead fancied becoming a movie producer. Thirty stitches later and a discussion between the men's bosses, the dispute is quashed, but has the undesired effect of Chili's wife discovering that he's still associating with "those people.

So when Chili confronts a thug of Catlett’s and throws him down a flight of stairs while Karen watches, she’s mentally breaking it down like a film scene instead of being shocked by what she saw. And maybe it’s Elmore Leonard’s love letter, at the close of a deliriously productive creative decade, to writing itself. Leonards are redeemed by great, punchy, pitch-perfect Elmore Leonard dialogue and great Elmore Leonard sentences, long looping twisting strings of words that turn around and back up and go the other way, managing somehow (but how? Thinking Chili has stashed his cash in a locker, he goes to the airport and is busted by drug officials.

The short story ‘Fire in the Hole’ and three books, including Raylan, were the basis for the FX hit show Justified. Get Shorty is a 1990 novel about “Chili” Palmer - a Miami shylock –who was “tired of showing respect to people he thought were assholes.Elmore Leonard wrote forty-five novels and nearly as many western and crime short stories across his highly successful career that spanned more than six decades. I sometimes think that a novel of this weight (not heavy) might as well just be seen as a film and reading time better spent on something more substantial, but that isn't the case here. Unfortunately, Chili ends up working for Ray who immediately demands that Chili shake down overdue payment from a dry cleaner.