E-book involved in Florida copycat murder case -

Just as Amazon defended, and then took down a Kindle paedophile guide, a recently-published e-book in the U.S. has become part of a grisly copycat murder case story, and has been recalled from publication as well. In addition, Florida police have named the author as "a person of interest' in the case and interviewed him at his home, according to sources. A detective on the case is reading the book now and looking for clues, the sources said.

When "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure" by Phillip Greaves was selling on Amazon, it caused bookworms to call for a boycott of the online retailer until the offending title was removed. It was.

Patrick J. F. Quere, 27, published "Grognard" as an e-book with Sunbury Books in Pennsylvania in September. On Halloween Eve, October 31, Quere's long time friend, Beau Bruneau, allegedly murdered his own mother in her house in Hollywood, Florida.

Not Hollywood, California, but Hollywood, Florida, a suburb of Miami-vice Miami. Who knows, both the book arc and the murder story now unfolding might both be headed for the Hollywood treatment soon enough.

For now, it's a police case. Miami police say they got their man, and he is under arrest and has been indicted for the crime. But they now consider Quere to be a person of interest too.

Bradley Winterton, a British ex-pat in Taiwan, who writes for the Taipei Times, reviewed Quere's book in September, mostly panning it and wondering why it was ever published.

But when he recently learned that Quere's former buddy Beau Bruneau is under arrest for the
Halloween murder, Winterton wrote a front page recap of the entire affair for the newspaper's feature section, complete with quotes from Quere, who he interviewed by email, and the publisher, Lawrence Knorr.

According to Winterton, Beau Bruneau, 29, is in police custody in Florida and is suspected of having murdered his 62-year-old mother, Nancy Bruneau, in a manner similar to the murder of a prostitute described in Quere's own print-on-demand novel.

"Quere admits his character Felix was largely based on Beau Bruneau, and the author was in fact the last person Bruneau tried to call before the murder was committed," Winterton wrote in the Taipei Times.

For his part, Quere told TechEye last week that he was glad the book has been withdrawn for now and feels depressed that his novel has drawn media attention in a surreal and tragic way.

"Given the evidence, and my friendship with the accused, there are too many coincidences for this tragedy for it all to be a coincidence," he said. "I regret [it, but I must say] that it is my personal belief that 'Grognard' served as a sort horrific guideline for the accused to commit this murder. I am deeply saddened by the whole thing, and personally I wish I never wrote the novel. But there exists the element of hope. Hope that something can be learned by this tragedy from a mental health point of view so that it can save lives, and make the invisible visible."

According to a source, earlier this month, "Florida police had never heard of Quere -- or his strangely-compelling (or his compellingly-strange) book before, and, they cannot think of any reasons they'd want to speak with him since Beau Bruneau confessed to the crime and the evidence against him is indisputable."

But now TechEye has learned that Florida police have questioned Quere at his home and consider him to be a person of interest in the case now.

End of story? Not on your life. Stay tuned for further... denouements.

Meanwhile, read Winterton's backstory interview with Quere here.