One of the more unusual ways to self-promote

I had bookmarked this and forgot until Euro Crime reminded me, but thriller writer Peter James has come up with, well, what the subject header says:

A police force has taken delivery of a new patrol car – with

advertising slogans for a bestselling crime writer emblazoned all over

its paintwork.

In the first commercial deal between an author and

the police, a £9,000 Hyundai Getz will soon be patrolling the streets

of Sussex, embellished on all four sides with the name of Peter James.

His

series of Brighton-based Roy Grace novels has sold more than three

million copies worldwide and been translated into 30 languages.

Now

Mr James and his publishers Pan Macmillan have agreed to sponsor the

Brighton and Hove policing division’s new five-door saloon.

While I wouldn’t go so far as to expect LAPD patrol cars to be sponsored by Michael Connelly anytime soon, I suspect more than a few enterprising writers with money to burn might be wondering how to co-opt this idea for themselves…