“It is so good to see each other in person,” was a refrain that was heard over and over during the convention and it wasn’t just the fans who were saying it. The authors were equally as happy.

I’m not a regular attender of Left Coast Crime (average attendance around 500) because I prefer the larger Bouchercon events and my wife only lets me off the leash once a year. But it had been about 2-1/2 years since I had seen my good friends and I was going to take the opportunity while Covid was subsiding (hopefully for good) to meet and break bread with them.

It really was great to see many old friends such as “Mystery” Mike Bursaw (my roommate), Maggie Mason, Nancy Mitchell, Chris Aldrich and the Fan Guest of Honor at the convention – Kristopher Zgorski. There were also several authors whom I consider friends, but I won’t list them for fear of being too presumptuous. We made a special effort to connect with Marv and Carol Lachman, who live an hour away in Santa Fe, and had a wonderful luncheon with them on Saturday. It was definitely a highlight. Because of his advanced age and various infirmities (he turns 90 years old on July 6th), Marv has decided to forego attendance at any future mystery conventions, so we don’t know when we will see Marv and Carol again.

“Mystery” Mike is a bookseller and has sold books at Bouchercon for several decades. As a result, he hasn’t attended a convention panel in 25 years, so this was a chance for him to finally experience some panels and there were some good ones. I’m also not a big panel attender (I’d rather smooze with authors and friends), and I enjoyed the ones I attended.

The interview of Mick Herron by his editor Juliet Grames was especially good.

One story from that interview: Mick confessed that he hadn’t re-read his Slow Horses series for a long time when he was asked to consult on the TV series (now appearing on Apple TV+). During one consulting session when the script writer was reading a bit of dialogue for the show, Mick started shaking his head. When asked why, Mick said, “Jackson Lamb would never say that.” Mick was abashed when the writer told him that the Jackson Lamb dialogue was lifted from Mick’s novel. [This got a big laugh from the audience]

Mike Lawson (the Joe Demarco series) is one of my favorite authors so we (Mystery Mike and I) went to dinner with Mike and his lovely wife Gayle on Friday night. Mike’s career keeps sailing along at a good speed. His first standalone thriller, REDEMPTION, just came out. Then it’s back to his wonderful Joe DeMarco series next year.

Mystery Mike and I set up an author dinner on Friday night and invited some new and old friends for an evening of conviviality. Those who came were David Morrell, John McMahon, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Matt Coyle (and his vivacious girlfriend, Juliet Grossman, who is a public defender), Glen Erik Hamilton, Lee Goldberg, William Kent Krueger and Reed Farrel Coleman. We laughed a lot. As I was leaving, David Morrell was the last to get up. I asked our waiter if he knew who Rambo was and he enthusiastically replied, “Yes!” Then I pointed to David and told the waiter that he was the creator of Rambo. We walked over to David and I asked him if he could give the waiter something signed by him and he pulled a card out of his wallet and signed it. The waiter was over the moon!

Authors I got to know better: David Heska Wanbli Weiden (a lively personality), John McMahon (I’ve got to read more of his P. T. Marsh series!) and Matt Goldman. Matt Goldman is coming out with a standalone, CAROLINA MOONSET, on May 31st. He gave me an advance copy which I have just finished reading. I liked it quite a bit and it will be reviewed in the upcoming issue.

Of any kind of convention panel, the one I enjoy the most is a panel where the panelists talk about their favorite mysteries. Apparently Kristopher Zgorski has similar tastes in panels because he arranged an excellent one called Books By Decade. The panelists were Kristopher Zgorski (reviewer, blogger), Dru Ann Love (reviewer), Janet Rudolph (in absentia), Judy Bobolick (fan), and Lucinda Surber (convention organizer and webmaven).

On Saturday night, I was asked to present the Lefty Award for Best Mystery Novel (because I had been a previous Left Coast Crime Fan Guest of Honor – Tucson, 2000). It was my honor to present William Kent Krueger the award for his novel LIGHTNING STRIKE. I commented that I also presented Kent with an award for his first novel IRON LAKE.

Many thanks to Lucinda Surber and Stan Ulrich for putting on a great convention and overcoming a lot of challenges.