Bouchercon World Mystery Convention 2008 Held in Baltimore
Wilda Williams -- Library Journal, 10/14/2008 11:25:00 AM
- Event attracts 1442 writers, editors, publishers, and fans
- Laura Lippman, John Harvey, and Lawrence Block among award winners
- Friday night auction benefits Enoch Pratt Free Library
For four days (Oct. 9-12) Baltimore played host to the 39th annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, 
attracting some 1,442 writers, editors, publishers, agents, and fans. Registration numbers climbed sharply from 2007’s conference in Anchorage, AK, which reportedly drew only 600 attendees, and also up over the 2006 gathering of 1200 in Madison, WI.
This year’s American Guest of Honor was Baltimore’s own Laura Lippman (right), whose best-selling P.I. Tess Monaghan series is set in Charm City. She also was a triple award winner at Bouchercon, garnering the Barry, Macavity, and Anthony Awards for Best Mystery Novel for What the Dead Know. The International Guest of Honor was British crime author John Harvey, known for his police procedurals featuring Charlie Resnik. Honored for Distinguished Contribution to the Genre was Lawrence Block (below), author of the popular Bernie Rhodenbarr and Matthew Scudder series. Barbara Peters and Robert Rosenwald, founders of Arizona’s Poisoned Pen bookstore and press, were recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Other winners at the conference included Irish author Tana French, whose In the Woods hit the trifecta with the Barry, Macavity, and Anthony Awards for Best First Novel, Sean Chercover’s Big City, Bad Blood, which snared the Private Eye Writers of America 2008 Shamus Award for Best First Novel, and Reed Farrell Coleman’s Soul Patch, which took the Shamus for Best Hardcover.
Besides the numerous author panels at the Sheraton Baltimore City Center conference hotel, a number of author events were held at various branches of Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library, which also was the recipient of funds raised by Bouchercon’s annual Friday night auction.
Bouchercon 2009 is scheduled for Oct. 15-18 in Indianapolis. [See In the Bookroom blog for additional coverage.]
