Standing Out from the Crowd

I wasn’t able to attend this year’s Left Coast Crime gathering, but Bay Area author and photographer Mark Coggins was in attendance. He sent back several of his favorite shots from the four-day event.

(Above) Southern California writer Naomi Hirahara won the 2024 Bill Gottfried Memorial Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel for her most recent book, Evergreen.

Friday evening saw Christa Faust interviewing Guest of Honor Megan Abbott (right) on stage. During their wide-ranging conversation, Abbott revealed that she is working on a TV series adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest (1929) with the crew who gave us this year’s Monsieur Spade.

A Friday morning panels highlight was “There’s No Gum on My Shoe: The Modern P.I.” Left to right: Moderator Lisa Bush’s not-so-confidential informants on the subject were Tim Maleeny, Mark Coggins, James D.F. Hannah, and Pamela Beason.

Let’s Hear It for the Leftys

During a banquet last evening at the Left Coast Crime convention, being held this weekend in Bellevue, Washington (just east of Seattle), organizers presented the winners of the 2024 Lefty Awards.

Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel: Cheap Trills, by Wendall Thomas (Beyond the Page)

Also nominated: Hot Pot Murder, by Jennifer J. Chow (Berkley Prime Crime); The Great Gimmelmans, by Lee Matthew Goldberg (Level Best); A Sense for Murder, by Leslie Karst (Severn House); Hop Scot, by Catriona McPherson (Severn House); and Dying for a Decoration, by Cindy Sample (Cindy Sample)

Bill Gottfried Memorial Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel (books set before 1970): Evergreen, by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)

Also nominated: Night Flight to Paris, by Cara Black (Soho Crime); The Bitter Past, by Bruce Borgos (Minotaur); Death Among the Ruins, by Susanna Calkins (Severn House); A Newlywed’s Guide to Fortune and Murder, by Dianne Freeman (Kensington); and Time’s Undoing, by Cheryl A. Head (Dutton)

Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel: Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon (Morrow)

Also nominated: Play the Fool, by Lina Chern (Bantam); Scorched Grace, by Margot Douaihy (Gillian Flynn); Dutch Threat, by Josh Pachter (Genius); and The House in the Pines, by Ana Reyes (Dutton)

Lefty for Best Mystery Novel (not in other categories): Hide, by Tracy Clark (Thomas & Mercer)

Also nominated: All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron); Odyssey’s End, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview); Everybody Knows, by Jordan Harper (Mulholland); Face of Greed, by James L’Etoile (Oceanview); and The Raven Thief, by Gigi Pandian (Minotaur)

Congratulations to all of the contenders!

Send Your Dampness and Darkness Here

As we mentioned just recently, Western Washington writer and sometime Rap Sheet contributor Jim Thomsen has been enlisted to edit an anthology of short stories in connection with the 2024 Left Coast Crime convention, which will be held in Seattle from April 11 to 14. Now he’s announced the title of that book—A Killing Rain (so appropriate for the Emerald City)—and issued a call for submissions by September 3, 2023. From the press release:

Stories need not be set in the Seattle area, but “should contain an element of the Puget Sound region—its darkness, dampness, drizzle and brooding dangerousness—as a real or imagined place,” says anthology editor Jim Thomsen. Those whose stories of 2,000 to 5,000 words are selected for the collection, to be released through Down & Out Books just ahead of the conference in Bellevue, Washington, will be paid $100.

Proceeds will benefit Left Coast Crime’s longtime charity partner, Page Ahead Children’s Literacy Program.

More details about submitting to this anthology can be found here.