41Zl2IfKk2L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-v3-big,TopRight,0,-55_SX278_SY278_PIkin4,BottomRight,1,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_Something curious showed up on the screen saver of my Kindle this morning. It was a free book, [easyazon-link asin=”B00PD2MQRA” locale=”us”]The Vanishing Game[/easyazon-link], and at the bottom of the ad was the Land Rover logo.

Curious, I downloaded and read it while waiting for a meeting to begin. (It’s a quick read). When I got home, I saw the press release about the book on The Digital Book World.

Not knowing exactly what it was, I was expecting a pretty bad book, with long, technical info dumps about the Land Rover and its capabilities. I was pleasantly surprised by a decent story, of which the Land Rover was an important part, but not much more than a car in the story. The Impala, in the show, Supernatural, for example, has a much bigger role than did the Land Rover in this one.

As I said earlier, it’s a quick read, about an out-of-work actor who accepts money to drive what he thinks is holy water to a church in Scotland. You’d think an actor who has played roles in lots of B-movie thrillers would have known better. 🙂 One of the elements which got a bit tiring were the constant mentions of the movies he’s starred in. Apparently, for this character, everything he knows in life he learned from the movies he’s acted in.

Over abundant mentions of movies aside, I enjoyed the story. It’s an enhanced eBook, with lots of pictures throughout. They looked great in the Kindle app on my tablet and not-so-great on my Kindle Paperwhite, but I enjoyed them and did feel they added to the story.

When I got home and saw the press release, I learned this was part of a much bigger project, with a web-based version of the story (very cool and well done) and a Tumblr account.

The cynic in me assumed this would be badly done. I’m glad to say that, as a reader, if brands want to use stories to promote themselves, they should look at what Land Rover has done. It’s a class act.

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