The Big Four Contest: Did You Win?

Today marks the fourth anniversary of The Rap Sheet’s official launching on May 22, 2006. But I’ll wait until tomorrow to recap the last year’s highlights, as I traditionally do on each such birthday. Instead, I want this day to be all about The Rap Sheet’s latest giveaway contest.

That competition, you will recall, launched on Monday and offered a total of eight terrific prizes: four free copies of the new Mike Hammer detective novel, The Big Bang, written by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins, plus four free copies of the latest original Hammer radio novel on CD, “The Little Death.” Readers wishing to enter simply had to submit the names of their four favorite private eye novels of all time. (See how the fourth anniversary theme runs through this competition?) By midnight yesterday, we had received about 70 of those “Big Four” lists, sent from all over the world. We published them in four parts over the last few days (see here, here, here, and here).

After a random drawing of names, we can now announce the winners. The following lucky readers will receive one copy each of The Big Bang:

• Ward Howarth of Richmond, Virginia
• Harvey Dinerstein of Winthrop, Maine
• Carol H. Novak of New Hyde Park, New York
• Jeff Everden of Penticton, British Columbia, Canada

And these four have won one copy each of “The Little Death”:

• David Phillips of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania
• Guy Mills of San Jose, California
• Patrick Foster of Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada
• Ed Mattingly of Austin, Texas

Author Max Allan Collins has taken upon himself the task of mailing the winners their free books and CDs. All of those gifts should arrive at their destinations in short order.

I want to thank everybody again for participating in this special fourth anniversary challenge, and I hope you continue to enjoy The Rap Sheet.