The Mystery at Bouchercon

Where do murderers, victims, thieves, cops, suspects, and private detectives meet, eat and party together? Once a year they all get together at Bouchercon. Bouchercon is the biggest and oldest mystery book convention in the world.

Typically held on a long fall weekend from Thursday through Sunday in a different host city each year. The 2007 convention will be the 38th, and held in Anchorage Alaska. The first Bouchercon was held in Santa Monica, California in 1970. Three countries have hosted Bouchercons: United States, Canada, and United Kingdom.

Bouchercon is where fans mingle with authors, authors look for agents and agents corner editors. The average day is filled with panels where writing professionals are given a topic to discuss, then answer fan questions from the floor. After each panel session, fans line up with books to get autographed. Everybody here is a mystery fan. Almost everybody here is an author or a would be author. A few collectors wheel carts full of books around the aisles hunting for signers.

During the convention attendees vote on the Anthony Award nominees; the winners are announced during Saturday night festivities. Distinguished authors and fans are honored during the proceedings, and interviewed to the delight of a huge audience.

I find the panels very interesting. Some authors are also great public speakers, while others drone on like dripping water. Some panels are hilarious; others offer real insights into an authors thinking and creating process. It's refreshing to see and hear, in person, an author you've enjoyed reading. Sometimes they match your preconception, sometimes they look like your third grade teacher. Women outnumber men in attendance in all categories from fan to author. Not a surprise when you scan the book racks and see so many female mystery writers.

There is a book sellers room where retailers, vest pocket dealers and Internet sellers offer a mix of popular, esoteric and rare books. Fans and collectors stalk the aisles, like lions circling prey, all looking for an innocent item to snap up. If you are a reader, you can't resist taking home a treasure or two. But wait, the publishers give away a full bag of new books to all registrants. It's best to take an empty suitcase.

For a mystery fan, Bouchercon is a fantasy trip where you can get lost inside the book creation process, if only for a weekend!

Anthony Boucher was born William Anthony Parker White in 1911. He died in 1968, two years before the first Bouchercon Convention, named in his honor.

Boucher was a writer, editor, translator and reviewer of mystery and science fiction. He helped found the Mystery Writers of America in 1946. He won the Edgar Award and the Hugo Award.

In 1945 he began a successful three year radio career. He plotted over 100 episodes of The Adventures of Ellery Queen, provided plots for the Sherlock Holmes radio dramas, and created his own mystery series, The Casebook of Gregory Hood.