From The New York Times:
Nobody had to pay author Karin Slaughter to put a BMW in one of her books: it’s what the protagonist, Dr. Sara Linton, drives in five Grant County crime novels. In the acknowledgments for “Indelible” in 2004, Ms. Slaughter wrote, “I’ve had Sara drive a BMW in every one of these books in the hopes that the nice folks over in Munich will thank me with a shiny new 330Ci.”
Ms. Slaughter never did get that car, but in a bit of serendipity, her publisher, Random House, was tapped by the automaker to produce a series of short audio books that featured BMW cars. Along with the authors Don Winslow, James Flint and Simon Kernick, Ms. Slaughter contracted to write a short story that weaves a BMW into the plot.
The stories run from about 35 minutes to an hour — the length of typical commutes, a Random House statement explained — and have been uploaded to the site www.bmw-audiobooks.com every two weeks.
