Best Seller is a 1987 American neo-noir[2] crime thriller film written by Larry Cohen, directed by John Flynn and starring James Woods and Brian Dennehy.

The film tells the story of Cleve (Woods), a career hitman, who wants to turn his life story into a book written by Dennis Meechum (Dennehy), a veteran police officer and best-selling author The words and lyrics to the final score, entitled "Perfect Ending", were written by Lamont Dozier.

The suspect hides in an overhead crane and attempts to shoot Meechum, but Cleve kills the man, then mysteriously disappears.

Cleve arranges a meeting with Meechum, and tries to convince him to write a book about his history as a paid assassin for a corporate empire, Kappa International.

They proceed to take trips to New York City first and then to Texas, where Cleve tries to convince Meechum of his history of hits.

While they are in a restaurant, Meechum finds out that Cleve was the injured masked gunman that he had stabbed years earlier.

In the end, it is revealed that Meechum has published the book titled Retribution: The Fall of David Madlock and Kappa International and it has had 28 weeks on the bestseller list.

He was inspired by the film Strangers on a Train (1951) and wrote it with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in mind for the lead roles.