Man Eater by Gar Anthony Haywood This book is seemingly written deliberately to be very similar to Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard, screwcap films by Preston Sturges, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, and perhaps most of all to Everybody Smokes in Hell by John Ridley. As many of the #metoo, Sony hack and related allegations and revelations have shown Hollywood can be an amoral cutthroat environment where everyone is out to get over on everybody else and maybe get laid in the process.
Ronnie Deal is a mid level project executive for a Hollywood studio. She has a secret past which she doesn't share with anyone, least of all her insincere female boss and a sexist male peer. Ronnie is also stunningly attractive, something which she cynically uses.
Having been embarrassed and outmaneuvered by her aforementioned male rival, causing her to lose a movie deal, Ronnie travels to a bar after work to stew over the general crappiness of the world. She's in no mood then, to watch quietly as an intimidating muscular man named Neon Polk starts to harass and assault a tiny woman named Antsy Carruth. Surprising herself with her aggression and fearlessness, Ronnie decides to strike one for the sisterhood by whopping Neon upside the head with a beer bottle before doing a Texas two step on his face. Both women flee before Neon can recover from the surprise beatdown.
But Ronnie made a big mistake. Neon is not just a run of the mill bar bully or domestic abuser. He's one of the West Coast's most dreaded hitmen, collectors and enforcers. Neon has literally made other gangsters wet themselves in fear of confronting him. Antsy Carruth and her boyfriend stole money from Neon's employer. Neon was trying to recover it. A true psychopath, Neon can't tolerate anyone, particularly a woman, beating him. Any and all insults to his ego must be handled in the most severe fashion possible. Neon can't live with himself otherwise. Neon quickly tracks Ronnie down and cruelly puts the fear of Neon in her. He also demands money from her, or else.
Ellis Langford is an ex-con and aspiring screenwriter. He tried to defend his wife from an assault. Things went sideways and Ellis spent eight years in prison for manslaughter. Now he delivers pizza while trying to reconnect with his wife and daughter. Although Ellis is at heart a good man you don't survive eight years in prison without internalizing and adhering to some rather rigid ideas about masculinity and self-defense. Some people find that out the hard way.
Desperate and looking for help, reading over Ellis' screenplay, Ronnie deduces that Ellis must be about that life. Perhaps Ellis can help her with Neon. But Ellis is suspicious. Ellis is a lot smarter than Ronnie initially realizes. Ellis has no desire to return to prison or be a rich woman's patsy, even though he likes Ronnie's looks. Of course not everyone is 100% truthful. This book was about 250 pages. There is violence but the author doesn't revel in it. There are a few comedic elements but not as many as you might think.
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives." Winter is Coming Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
