Sell a cop, win a book : Here are the winners

Readers responded in gratifying numbers to my request for creative ways crime writers could sponsor public services, along lines pioneered by Peter James and the Brighton and Hove police force. I had promised to award books for the five best proposals, but I could not decide between numbers five and six, so I will award six books instead.

The winners are:

1) Philip, for his suggestion that Ruth Rendell could have had “a nice arrangement with the White House” based on titles that include Some Lie and Some Die; Going Wrong; Put on by Cunning; and The Secret House of Death.

2) Lauren, for her tasty suggestions that Andrea Camilleri’s Salvo Montalbano and Donna Leon’s Guido Brunetti could lend their names to a campaign for healthier school lunches (and I’m sure Lauren would not object if I included Paola Brunetti as well).

3) GJG, for proposing “a commercial tie-in between your better-run prisons and, say, Hilton Hotels or Ritz-Carlton or better yet Motel Six – `We'’l leave a light on for ya.’”

4) Vanda Symon, for a splendid proposal that, regrettably, seems unlikely to become reality: “Kathy Reichs, with Fatal Voyage, could sponsor the ferry service.”

5) Linkmeister, for a related and equally unlikely suggestion that The Taking of Pelham 123 would make an ideal sponsor – or is today’s preferred term corporate partner? – for bus and subway timetables.

6) Crimeficreader, for suggesting Chris Simms’ novel Outside the White Lines as a natural for emblazonment across the sides of traffic patrol cars on motorways in the United Kingdom. She wins special commendation for creative cross-marketing synergy for suggesting that Simms’ novels could also be stocked at motorway service stations.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all who entered. I shall be in touch with lists of the available books.

© Peter Rozovsky 2008