The day after Chris Kyle was killed in February, a short ebook appeared on Amazon.com. It was called American Sniper in Hell, and the author was listed as “Lou Cipher.” The premise, according to the description, had something to do with the just-slain sniper meeting Satan in Hell.
I only know about this ebook because I also wrote an ebook about Chris Kyle. Mine was a reported narrative, an expanded version of this feature in the April issue of D Magazine. Since Kyle’s death, there have been at least four ebooks about him, a re-issuing of his own bestselling autobiography, and the release of American Gun, the book Kyle was working on, with a foreword from his widow, Taya. (There is also a movie in the works, with Clint Eastwood attached to direct.) A few people mentioned to me that when they searched Amazon for my book, they also found this other, strange looking ebook.
Though I think it may have been available at one point for free, I never read American Sniper in Hell. Frankly, it looked pretty low-rent and offensive. The cover was similar to American Sniper, but all red, with flames at the bottom. The reviews were mostly death threats to the anonymous author. Someone in an all-things-sniper forum also saw the book, and it got ugly fast.
Now though, the Amazon page for the book is gone. So are the threatening reviews and the “look inside.” The only remnant is this probably-soon-to-go “Customers who viewed this item” page.
