This is the first chance I’ve had to report on the mystery festival that was held in Easton and Westport last weekend.
“Murder 203” was co-sponsored by the Easton and Westport libraries and appears to be off to a great start. The dates for the second “Murder 203” have already been announced — April 17 and 18, 2010.
The writers I talked to in Easton on Saturday were very happy with the response and the readers clearly got a big kick out of having a chance to meet and listen to a very potent group of mystery writers, headed up by the charming guest of honor Linda Fairstein (left).
There are already a number of popular mystery events held every year around the country — Bouchercon and Left Coast Crime which move every year, ThrillerFest in Manhattan each July and our own region’s New England Crime Bake held in the fall in Dedham, Mass.
These things tend to take more than year to plan because of the complicated publishing and writing schedules of the novelists. The conferences also seek notable guests of honor as a selling point — Sue Grafton will be doing those honors at the Crime Bake this year and Michael Connelly will be the star attraction at Bouchercon in Indianapolis in October.
So, it was somewhat amazing for the “Murder 203” folks to get the best-selling Fairstein as their linchpin and more than two dozen other top writers to participate in panels and signings in much less than a year’s planning time.
The two panels I moderated on Saturday included Fairstein, S.J. Rozan, Parnell Hall, Reed Farrel Coleman, Jason Pinter, Justin Scott and Rosemary Harris — all personal favorites of this mystery fan.
I’ve attended several Bouchercons and Crime Bakes and I have always been impressed by the graciousness and the warmth of folks who spend their professional lives writing about violent crime and the darkest impulses of humanity.
As writers, Ruth Rendell, Carl Hiaasen, Carolyn Hart, Marcia Muller, Lee Child and Harlan Coben don’t have a lot in common but as people they couldn’t be nicer to visit with at a mystery conference.
Over morning coffee last Saturday I asked one writer — Toni L.P. Kelner from Boston — why crime writers seem so much nicer than the “literary” fiction crowd.
“Maybe we get all of our anger and frustration out in the stories we tell!,” she said with a grin.
(For regular updates on the next “Murder 203” visit the event Web site at www.murder203.com)
