William Boyd writes Land Rover-sponsored book

NEW YORK – Soon after turning out the latest James Bond novel, British author William Boyd agreed to write another thriller based on a famous brand: the Land Rover.

Boyd’s nearly 17,000-word story, “The Vanishing Game,” came out Wednesday as a free download through Amazon.com, Apple and www.thevanishinggame.com. It tells of a 35-year-old British actor named Alec Dunbar and the troubles he encounters when a pretty young woman convinces him to deliver a flask from London to Scotland. His transport is a certain four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Boyd, paid in the low six figures for the project, said he signed on because Land Rover made so few requests.

“They said they wanted an adventure and they said, ‘Somewhere in this adventure it would be good if a Land Rover appeared.’ But it was left entirely to me the extent I concentrated on that or made it fleeting and passing,” the 62-year-old author said.

“I invented the story, I invented the characters, I invented the locations,” Boyd said.

But Land Rover provides other reminders of its involvement in the book. Its logo appears at the top of the screen and the occasional word or phrase, such as “river” or “cross country,” links to a picture of a Land Rover or a real-life story about a Land Rover user.