Type "Smoked" into your iTunes search bar, and it'll spit several results back at you. Most are not terribly inspiring: there's an iPhone app, for instance, that helps you locate barbecue restaurants around the world, and there are a couple of albums for sale by D-list rapper Smoke D.

Ho-hum.

However, you'll also find one iPad application in the list — an elegant new electronic version of Garry Ryan's new Detective Lane mystery novel Smoked, specially adapted to the iPad and featuring photos, taken by the author, of the real-life Calgary settings that inspired the novel's action. Smoked, which NeWest published as a traditional book in May 2010, went on sale in the iTunes Store on June 12, 2010, with a low, low price of $4.99.

The Smoked app is the first book from NeWest Press to become available on the iPad — and indeed, is one of the few new, contemporary, non-public domain novels for adult readers to have made the leap to Apple's endlessly hyped new portable electronic device. Garry has really taken the lead on this project, and already we've been rewarded feedback from people who've bought the app—ka-ching!—and those comments will be invaluable as NeWest contemplates future electronic releases. We're also hoping, naturally, that the app introduces Garry's writing and the world of Detective Lane to a whole new group of enthusiastic readers.

Hmmm. This seems like the perfect time to repeat the words of ReviewingTheEvidence.com critic Drewey Wayne Gunn, who said, "Garry Ryan is one of our finest novelists in any genre, and Smoked might be the best introduction to the Detective Lane series for first-timers."

In other words, it's the perfect time to discover Detective Lane for yourself: click here to download the Smoked iPad app.

Also, if you happen to be in Edmonton, remember that you can see Garry live at Audrey's Books (10702 Jasper Ave) on Friday, June 18 at 7:30 p.m., where he will be doing a special Pride Month reading alongside fellow gay Canadian mystery author Tony Bidulka.