As I hinted in the previous post, the Hank Thompson trilogy is now available in a digital format that pretty much anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can access.

Starting today the entire trilogy is being hosted on Scribd.

The books can be read directly from the site over a live connection, or they may be downloaded as DRM free PDFs and kept on your desktop, laptop, notebook, netbook or any handheld with an app that reads PDFs.

Don’t know if you have a PDF reader?  Download one for free HERE.

The book downloads on Scribd do require that you set up a user account.  These accounts are free and only ask for an email and password, with a privacy policy that covers the usual territory.

Here’s where you find the books:

CAUGHT STEALING

SIX BAD THINGS

A DANGEROUS MAN

You can read them right from those pages, or set up an account, click download, chose SAVE A COPY from the toolbar, and a copy will be dropped wherever you direct it to.  Once it’s on your computer  you can print it and put it in your backpack to read on the bus, move it to your handheld, or delete it.  You can even share it if you like.  Email it to a friend, or an enemy.  You can’t make money off it, but that’s for lawyers to deal with.

I think this is pretty fucking cool.

I expressed displeasure to Random House about what I felt was the exclusionary nature of their previous free ebook offers, and they came back with this idea.  It’s not small cheese.  It’s big cheese.

The previous offers also still apply.

iPhone and iTouch owners can find the Henry Thompson trilogy preinstalled in their library when they download Stanza from the app store. (I had a middling experience with Stanza’s beta reader for windows desktop, but I hear the iPhone/iTouch version works very well. )

Kindle owners can find the Hank Thompson trilogy available for free at Amazon’s Kindle store, along with free books by Alan Furst, David Liss, and some other great writers.  An offer that expires on February 28th.

Free books.  Read ‘em.