Book Festival: Mystery Rocks

In a Newsweek article in support of the National Book Festival, Librarian of Congress James Billington coughed up a great mystery quote. When asked what the biggest attraction at the 2006 festival would be, Billington said:

I think maybe fiction. Mystery people are very intense, and they really get into the books, they love to have a chance to ask the mystery writer why the other guy wasn’t the killer. But there are always several things going on simultaneously.

The National Book Festival brought more than 100,000 booklovers to the National Mall on September 30. The crime fictionists who took part were Harlan Coben, Michael Connelly, Vince Flynn, Brad Meltzer, George Pelecanos, Kathy Reichs, Lisa Scottoline, Daniel Silva, Alexander McCall Smith, and Scott Turow.