It’s All About the Images

As I mentioned yesterday, I flew off to Bouchercon in Baltimore last Wednesday without my digital camera. (Yeah, yeah, I know: I should’ve been more methodical in my packing, but some traditions--such as cramming clean clothes into a suitcase just as the cab is pulling up to my parking strip--are simply not to be messed with.) So I was dependent on others to take and send me photographs from that most excellent convention.

Among those shutterbugs is Ali Karim, a regular contributor to The Rap Sheet (in addition to being a contributing editor of January Magazine and the assistant editor of Shots). One of the best-connected crime-fiction critics I know, and a positive fiend with a flash, Ali took hundreds of shots while we were all in Charm City, and he has sent a selection of them along for my entertainment--and yours. Here are some of the highlights:

Your hosts for this adventure: J. Kingston Pierce and Ali Karim

Ali Karim with Jon Jordan of Crimespree Magazine

Christa Faust (Money Shot) and Ali Karim

Icelandic crime novelist Arnaldur Indridason (Arctic Chill) and blogger Peter Rozovsky of Detectives Beyond Borders

Novelist and Rap Sheet contributor Gary Phillips with fellow wordsmith Joseph Finder

Dan Fesperman, Jason Pinter, and the pseudonymous Tom Cain

The infamous “booze and writing” panel. From left to right: Ali Karim, Michelle Gagnon, Ken Bruen, Jason Starr, Elizabeth Zelvin, and Con Lehane. Notice the bottle of Gordon’s Gin at the moderator’s end of the table

All hands on deck! Rap Sheet contributors Ali Karim, J. Kingston Pierce, Linda L. Richards, and Declan Burke

Ali Karim, Canadian novelist John McFetridge (Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere), and ... well, that guy again

An encounter not to be forgotten: Ali Karim, J. Kingston Pierce, Dennis Lehane, and Roger Jon “R.J.” Ellory

Friends Laura Lippman and Dennis Lehane

J. Kingston Pierce and Peter Rozovsky, together with author Declan Hughes (The Price of Blood)

Joseph Finder, Ali Karim, and Jason Starr

Laurie R. King goes to accept the Crimespree Reader Award

Authors Stuart MacBride and Peter James

Marcus Sakey (At the City’s Edge, The Blade Itself) and Jennifer Jordan (Expletive Deleted)

Novelist Reed Farrel Coleman, organizer Judy Bobalik, and Bouchercon’s International Guest of Honor, author John Harvey

Ken Isaacson, J. Kingston Pierce, and Max Allan Collins

British writers Martyn Waites and Martin Edwards

David Simon--journalist, TV writer-producer (Homicide: Life on the Street, The Wire), and Laura Lippman’s husband--along with Lawrence Block, who was commended during Bouchercon for his “Distinguished Contribution to the Genre”

Roger Ellory and Lee Child

Ali Karim and Roger Ellory with “Edgar Allan Poe” at this year’s Shamus Awards banquet, held at Baltimore’s Westminster Hall

Reed Farrel Coleman shows off his Shamus Award (for Soul Patch), along with Megan Abbott and F. Paul Wilson

Anthony Award nominees J. Kingston Pierce and Ali Karim flanking author-blogger Linda L. Richards

Roger Ellory, together with Cathy and Edward Wright (winner of this year’s Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel) and Deadly Pleasures contributor Larry Gandle

Going out for a most convivial post-Bouchercon dinner on the edge of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor were (left to right) blogger-author Sandra Ruttan and her boyfriend, Brian Lindenmuth; Roger Ellory; J. Kingston Pierce and his wife, Jodi; Linda L. Richards and Peter Rozovsky (seated)

READ MORE: “Digging the Scene with a Gangster Lean: Tales of a Bouchercon Virgin,” by Brian Lindenmuth (Observations from the Balcony); “The Insider’s View of Mystery Convention Bouchercon,” by Sarah Weinman (Los Angeles Times); “The Bar at Bouchercon,” by Elizabeth Zelvin (Poe’s Deadly Daughters); “100,000 Not Out,” by Declan Burke (Crime Always Pays); “Reflections,” by Martin Edwards (‘Do You Write Under Your Own Name?’); “Ayo’s Bouchercon 2008 Roundup,” by Ayo Onatade (Shotsmag Confidential); “Charmed by Baltimore,” by Linda L. Richards.