The Karma Kaper

"The Karma Kaper" stars Walter and Barry Shore, twin brothers and business partners. An Armenian crime family invests $10 million into a Barry Shore Productions film. When the film never materializes, the Armenians call the loan. When Barry doesn't pay, the Armenians' juice men pick up an unsuspecting Walter, drive him to a Glendale sausage factory, and feed him alive into the meat grinder. Walter goes to Heaven and returns to Barry reincarnated as a chihuahua. Frederick Delano Rubenstein (FDR) is a hapless counterman at his father's Melrose Avenue delicatessen, across from Shore Productions. FDR's secret passion is to become a Hollywood screenwriter. When his father, the King of Corned Beef dies, FDR sells the deli, moves to Malibu, and agrees to write a script he once pitched to Barry Shore. There's a twist! All chaos breaks loose as Barry, Walter the chihuahua, and FDR try to stay one step ahead of Hasidic money launderers and the Armenian mob. This farcical novel of love, life, and larceny is definitely a 9.5 on the Rotten Corned Beef Scale.

Noel Anenberg is a contributor to the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, an English professor, a Master's graduate in Professional Writing from USC. Noel lives in the Santa Monica Mountains with his wife and their Golden Retriever, Walter.