Detectives Beyond Borders

Shots

Three from Bristol shot by me, one from New Orleans not.

© Peter Rozovsky 2016, 2017

Labels: Ali Karim, Bouchercon 2016, Crimefest 2017, J. Kingston Pierce, Keith Raffel, Mike Stotter, Parker Bilal, photography, Steve Cavanagh

Crimefest 2017, Part II: Savvy programming and more pictures

This year's Crimefest offered some clever programming, notably continued revision of the festival's final event. For years, that was a Criminal Mastermind quiz, which Martin Edwards won so many times that he was finally barred, and in which I finished second to Peter Guttridge in 2012 and would have won if the English could speak better English.

Barry Forshaw, Peter Guttridge, Mike Ripley

Last year's Sunday afternoon send-off pitted a team of three male crime writers against three female counterparts in a quiz that involved guns, wandering hands, and lots of salacious giggling. This year Barry Forshaw, author of the new book American Noir, faced Mike Ripley, author of Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, about the Golden Age of the British thriller, in a quiz-cum-yukfest moderated by Guttridge. Once again, more good fun.

Steve Mosby, Kevin WIgnall

Earlier, Steve Mosby made a discerning and intelligent moderator of a panel on "Past And Present: Skipping Through Time To Create A Story," and I teased some good answers out of Parker Bilal and Katti Hiekkapelto in the question period that followed a panel on political crime fiction. And Kat Hall led Mario Giordano, Merle Kröger, Volker Kutscher, and Melanie Raabe through a discussion of German crime fiction that included brief readings in two languages. The authors read well.

Katti Hiekkapelto, Kjell Ola Dahl

And now, a few more photos from Crimefest 2017, by Peter Rozovsky on special assignment from Detectives Beyond Borders, except where noted.

Don Bartlett, Karen Sullivan

Steve Cavanagh

Bristol Cathedral

Nadia Dalbuono

Me at a panel, courtesy Ali Karim

Ali Karim and your humble blogkeeper prior to
bolstering our strength with beer and fish at
Catch 22 in Bristol.

Me, Martyn Waites, Kevin Wignall, and Mike
Stotter looking like a bunch of guys named Bert,
courtesy Ali Karim.

Labels: Crimefest, Crimefest 2017

Crimefest 2017, Part I

Another edition of this fine Bristol crime fiction convention has wrapped up, the most enjoyable of the seven Crimefests I've attended even though a seagull shit on my head the convention's first day. Details of the convention will follow over the next few days, minus the bird shit.

Martin Edwards

In the meantime, a few words about Martin Edwards and Peter Lovesey, as entertaining and informative a combination of interviewer/moderator and subject//panelist as has ever graced a crime festival stage. I've read just a few novels from Lovesey's extensive output, but they include one of the best of all angry-cop novels (The Last Detective) and the most virtuosic performance by a crime writer that I have ever been privileged to read (Bertie and the Seven Bodies). Lovesey was a guest of honor at this year's Crimefest, and it was a pleasure to see him interviewed on stage by Edwards, to hear him hold forth during a panel on short stories, and to offer my compliments on his work, to which he reacted with humility and good humo(u)r.

Peter Lovesey

Edwards has changed my ideas about traditional mysteries, served as a model of how to moderate a panel, and won a number of crime fiction quizzes in which I finished second several times and fifth once. He was also a member of a panel I moderated at Bouchercon 2016 in New Orleans, where we enjoyed a convivial pre-convention dinner discussing his subject for the panel (Michael Gilbert), the legal profession (Edwards is a lawyer), and the differences between the profession as practiced in the United Kingdom and the U.S.

Edwards and Lovesey obviously love the work they do, are good at it, and are engaging and entertaining when talking about their own writing and the history of crime fiction. Edwards often attends Bouchercons and Lovesey will be a guest of honor at Bouchercon 2019 in Dallas. You should see these guys on this side of the ocean or that.