The best new crime writer in the country is a guy named Craig McDonald, and here's the thing: You can give his books as gifts for free this holiday season.

That's right, for free.

It's not just McDonald's books, either. Madison-based Bleak House Books has just launched one of the most unusual Christmas campaigns in retail history.

Bleak House, a small press that received three Edgar nominations -- the Oscar of the mystery book world -- last spring, is making nearly its entire catalog of mystery and crime books, more than 100 titles, available at no cost other than shipping and handling.

"It's a chance to make the holidays more enjoyable, to take the stress and uncertainty out of it for people," Bleak House publisher Ben LeRoy was saying Thursday. They will send the books either to the gift-giver or directly to the recipient, supplies permitting.

Bleak House was originally going to call the campaign "taking the mystery out of holiday gift-giving."

"But then I realized we're putting mystery into holiday gift-giving," LeRoy said.

Details of the free book giveaway can be found at www.bleakhousebooks.com/freebooks.htm.

LeRoy said the idea came to him in early November, while he was attending a writing conference in Boston with Randy Peffer, a Bleak House author. They were in the car listening to public radio when a story came on about the holiday crunch being felt by consumers in a bad economy.

LeRoy decided to make the entire Bleak House list available, excepting those books of which they had less than 20 copies. There are hardcovers and paperbacks, books by Madison authors John Galligan and Marshall Cook, and the three Edgar-nominated titles from earlier this year: Reed Farel Coleman's "Soul Patch"; the collection "Chicago Blues," with Stuart Kaminsky's nominated story "Blue Note"; and "Head Games" by Craig McDonald.

I am second to no one in my admiration of Galligan and Cook, but I read McDonald's "Head Games" -- his first novel -- last summer and it knocked me out. More recently, I read the follow-up, "Toros & Torsos." It's better yet. Word is getting out and McDonald is a hot property.

Both McDonald books feature a colorful protagonist named Hector Lassiter, a hard-living crime writer whose private life overlaps with his dark and violent fiction.

Lassiter gets drunk with Ernest Hemingway, sleeps with Marlene Dietrich and has a wrestling match with Orson Welles. The real-life figures are compellingly drawn and believable. As for Lassiter, McDonald has said that the character was inspired by the late James Crumley, author of "The Last Good Kiss," the most influential crime novel of the last 50 years.

McDonald, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, is deeply versed in the lore of Hemingway, film noir and crime fiction, and what he doesn't know, he researches, taking care so his work is true to the people and events depicted in the novels.

"Head Games" involves a cross-country chase after the skull of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. "Toros & Torsos" is more complex, spanning nearly three decades and involving a string of grisly murders apparently inspired by surrealistic art. LeRoy calls it "an epic book."

There are a total of seven novels in the Lassiter series -- all completed in manuscript -- but the last five will not be published by Bleak House.

In the manner of a Triple A baseball manager whose best player gets called up to the Major Leagues, LeRoy recently lost his star, McDonald, to the big show.

The next Hector Lassiter novel, titled "Print the Legend," will be published in fall 2009 by St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne Books.

Asked whether he was disappointed to see McDonald go, LeRoy said, "I'm not disappointed at all."

LeRoy said he has "long championed the idea" that a Bleak House discovery might be signed by a major commercial publisher.

"Craig is the first person to do that for us," LeRoy said. "It's kind of a proud parent moment."

It was McDonald who woke up LeRoy one morning last January with news of their Edgar nomination for "Head Games." They were together at the awards dinner in New York in May.

Bleak House is a division of Big Earth Publishing. LeRoy said he got some "crazy looks" from top management when he first floated the holiday giveaway idea, but they came around.

Along with it being a decent thing to do -- "It's good karma," LeRoy said -- Bleak House figures the publicity and exposure for their writers will offset any revenue loss. He calls his authors "team players" who are on board with the plan.

It seems to be working. Publishers Weekly, the major industry magazine, interviewed LeRoy about the giveaway earlier this week and word is spreading.

For more details, check the Web site. Most people know someone who would appreciate Pancho Villa's head for Christmas.

Contact Doug Moe at 608-252-6446 or dmoe@madison.com.