Welcome to this week’s Free Book Friday, wherein we give you the best titles in indie publishing for the low low price of nothing. Congrats to last week’s winner Michelle Wittle who e-mailed in and picked up a copy of Crust by Lawrence Shainberg.
This week, we are giving away a copy of Hound by Vincent McCaffrey. A bookhound, Henry Sullivan buys and sells books he finds at estate auctions and library sales around Boston and often from the relatives of the recently deceased. He’s in his late thirties, single, and comfortably set in his ways. But when a woman from his past, Morgan Johnson, calls to ask him to look at her late husband’s books, he is drawn into the dark machinations of a family whose mixed loyalties and secret history will have fatal results. Hound is the first of a series of novels featuring Henry Sullivan, and the debut novel of a long-time Boston bookseller, Vincent McCaffrey. It is a paean to books, bookselling, and the transformative power of the printed word. Even as it evolves into a gripping murder mystery, it is also a reminder that there are still quiet corners of the world where the rhythms of life are calmer, where there’s still time for reading, time for getting out for a beer with friends, time to investigate the odd details of lives lived on the edges of the book world.
This week’s Free Book Friday is sponsored by Small Beer Press. Gavin Grant and Kelly Link started Small Beer Press in 2000, after putting out a do-it-yourself zine, and working for years in independent bookstores, in order to publish the kind of books they loved handselling. Small Beer Press publishes literary fiction, innovative fantastic fiction, and classic authors whom you just may have missed the first time around. In their catalog, you’ll find first novels, collections both satisfying and surreal, critically acclaimed, award-winning writers, and exciting talents whose names you may never have heard, but whose work you’ll never be able to forget. Joan Aiken, John Crowley, Carol Emshwiller, Angelica Gorodischer, Naomi Mitchinson, and Sean Stewart are among the names on Small Beer Press’ growing list of innovators.
Read the first two chapters of Hound for free on Small Beer Press’ website.
To enter the giveaway, leave a comment with your e-mail address in the space below, or send an email directly to contact@litdrift.com. We also recommend doing any or all of the following: 
- Downloading Small Beer Press’ podcasts
- Signing up for Small Beer Press’ mailing list
- Becoming our friend on Twitter, Facebook, and/or StumbleUpon
- Tweeting about this week’s giveaway
- Signing up for our newsletter
- Sharing a joke with us in the comments
Winner will be chosen randomly at 12pm on Friday, October 9. The winner must provide his/her mailing address via email within 48 hours, or a new winner will be randomly selected.
Good luck!
Congrats to this week’s winner JAMES DEBRUICKER for winning this week. Try your luck with Cloud & Ashes by Greer Gilman.
