Book tie-ins with video games are not an uncommon practice anymore. AAA titles like Gears of War, Mass Effect, and even Splinter Cell have seen novels written using source material. Now, L.A. Noire will be joining the ranks with a short story collection entitled...L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories.

Coming June 6, 2011 to all major digital book distributors.

Published by Mulholland Books, L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories will contain short stories written by eight authors of acclaim: Namely Megan Abbott, Lawrence Block, Joe Lansdale, Joyce Carol Oates, Francine Prose, Jonathan Santlofer, Duane Swierczynski and Andrew Vachss. Any fan of literature should see one or two names pop out immediately.

The world of L.A. Noire will be used as the basis for all of the stories, which will be utilizing characters and cases from the game, hence the post-game release date. Players should have enough time to get familiar with characters like protagonist Cole Phelps or one of Phelps' partners, Stefan Bekowski.

To get a taste of the kind of stories to come, Rockstar Games has made one of the stories, "The Girl" by Megan Abbott, available now on their website for literary consumption. You can also take a look at the cover below.

It used to be that video game novelizations were a trite money grab to try and capitalize on fanboys' wanton need to collect anything related to the product. That trend has changed significantly and, not only do video game novels build on the mythos of the game's world, they add detail and answer questions that players may come to ask as they play the game.

Unusually enough, the book will not be coming out on paperback - and will only be available through Ebook retailers. Perhaps a calculated move by both Rockstar and Mulholland to ensure that more people will be apt to purchase the book if they're interested - and not really think about spending the $7-$10 as they would for the physical product. That money can be spent on things like DLC.

L.A. Noire will be releasing May 17, 2011 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.