Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner
Be Cool
Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Elmore Leonard
Class/Genre: Mystery Humorous Theater
Series: Chili Palmer
Delacorte, Feb 1999, $24.95, 290 pp.
In Hollywood, you are as good as your last work. Life time achievement awards are bogus presents to the masses. Former Miami loan shark Chili Palmer knows that first hand. His first Hollywood movie, Get Leo was a smash hit. The sequel, Get Lost, was lost somewhere at the bottom of the reject file. Chili seeks a new work to return him to the top.
Chili selects singer Linda Moon as the subject of his next picture. To insure success, he becomes her manager. He soon begins to stage a series of events as if he was actually filming his movie. Of course, being Chili he has alienated just about everyone even as he takes the music world by storm. So if he can survive the latest group of hitmen after him, he might start actually filming his latest picture.
Sequels to hit novels usually lose the gusto that made the first tale a hit. However, Elmore Leonard proves how talented an author he is by turning his sequel (to GET SHORTY) into a funnier, more coherent tale. BE COOL is Chili at his hottest as he performs as if he is a modern day Machiavelli living in Los Angeles. The entertaining story line is loaded with jocularity, wit, and fabulous dialogue. The characters are Mr. Leonard's trademark eccentric crowd. BE COOL will clearly be a best seller even if Travolta fails to star in the sequel.
Harriet Klausner
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner
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