GET SHORTY Chili Palmer, Book 1

Joe Mantegna's calm, resonant voice conveys authority with minimal effort. It's the ideal voice for Chili Palmer, a loan shark who eschews violence when recovering debts. Palmer has fallen in with several morally ambiguous Hollywood types, including Harry Zim, the producer of B-movie exploitation flicks; the Bear, a former stuntman; and Bo Catlett, a drug-dealing movie investor. All of them seek to produce the next Hollywood blockbuster. The audiobook's plot revolves around the movie script that Chili is pitching, which, coincidentally, is about a loan shark. The result is a recursive script exploring Chili's life in Hollywood that finds its ending only when he resolves his real-life dilemma with Catlett. This excellent production, with its ideal narrator, is just in time for Leonard's centennial celebration in October 2025. R.W.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2025]