Left Coast Crime Conference 2013

This year’s Left Coast Crime Conference takes place in Colorado Springs, March 21-24. I will moderate the Meet the New Authors Breakfast on Friday and the Meet the Established Authors Breakfast on Saturday. I am honored to be one of the finalists for the Lefty Award for the best humorous mystery of 2012. Here’s the list of finalists for the awards given at the conference:

The Lefty has been awarded for the best humorous mystery novel since 1996. This year’s

nominees are:

§ Mike Befeler, Cruising in Your Eighties Is Murder (Five Star)

§ Laura DiSilverio, Swift Run (Minotaur)

§ Jess Lourey, December Dread (Midnight Ink)

§ Lisa Lutz, Trail of the Spellmans (Simon & Schuster)

§ Brad Parks, The Girl Next Door (Minotaur)

§ Nancy Glass West, Fit To Be Dead (Southwest Publications)

The Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award (first awarded in 2004) is

given to mystery novels covering events before 1960. This year’s nominees are:

§ Rhys Bowen, The Twelve Clues of Christmas (Berkley Prime Crime)

§ Rebecca Cantrell, A City of Broken Glass (Forge)

§ Dennis Lehane, Live by Night (William Morrow)

§ Catronia McPherson, Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for a Murder (Minotaur)

§ Jacqueline Winspear, Elegy for Eddie (HarperCollins)

The Rocky, for the best mystery novel set in the Left Coast Crime Geographical Region

(first awarded in 2004). The nominees are:

§ Margaret Coel, Buffalo Bill’s Dead Now (Berkley Prime Crime)

§ Chuck Greaves, Hush Money (Minotaur)

§ Beth Groundwater, Wicked Eddies (Midnight Ink)

§ Darrell James, Sonora Crossing (Midnight Ink)

§ Craig Johnson, As the Crow Flies (Viking)

The Watson, for the mystery novel with the best sidekick (first awarded in 2011).

The nominees are:

§ Juliet Blackwell, In a Witch’s Wardrobe (Obsidian)

§ Robert Crais, Taken (Putnam)

§ Chris Grabenstein, Fun House (Pegasus)

§ L.C. Hayden, When the Past Haunts You (CreateSpace)

§ Rochelle Staab, Brouja Brouhaha (Berkley Prime Crime)