Left Coast Crime: Day Three

Jane Lee and Sharon Hudson

Today was Day Three at Left Coast Crime, a mystery convention being held in Monterey, California. As we get farther and farther into the conference I get more material that I can ever write up while I'm here, so today we'll focus on some photos a a recap of the panel I was on this morning called Mystery Aficionados. 

My fellow panelists and me got to spend the hour making book recommendations, something that I love to do. My fellow panel members, Donus Roberts (owner of DDRBooks, writer at Deadly Pleasures) and Les Blatt (host of Classic Mysteries -the blog and the podcast), graciously let me share their book recommendations here. 

First we talked about our favorite books that we read in the past year and second was our favorite books of all time.

I've added my recommendations at the end. To be fair, all three of us admit picking favorites was very hard and on another day we might have picked different favorites. In any event the following books were excellent. There are recommendations for just about everyone here.

Name three favorite books you've read in the past year:

Donus Roberts:

ENIGMA OF CHINA by Qiu Xialong
THE SHINING GIRLS by Lauren Beukes, 
THE GODS OF GOTHAM by Lindsay Faye

Les Blatt:

HE WHO WHISPERS by John Dickson Carr
MURDER MUST WAIT by Arthur W. Upfield
HAMLET, REVENGE by Michael Innes

Me:

NIGHT FILM by Marisha Pessl
THE EXPATS by Chris Pavone
MORTAL BONDS by Michael Sears

List your Top-5 all-time favorite crime fiction books:

Donus Roberts:

THE BLACK ECHO by Michael Connelly
TIME’S WITNESS by Michael Malone
A PLACE OF EXECUTION by Val McDermid
THE RED BREAST by Jo Nesbo
GAUDY NIGHT by Dorothy Sayers.

Les Blatt:

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES by Arthur Conan Doyle
THE THREE COFFINS (UK title: "The Hollow Man") by John Dickson Carr
THE DOORBELL RANG by Rex Stout
THE NINE TAILORS  by Dorothy L. Sayers
LAMENT FOR A MAKER by Michael Innes

Me:

THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE by Laurie R. King
THE EIGHT by Katherine Neville
NIGHT FILM by Marisha Pessl
THE EYRE AFFAIR by Jasper Fforde
A GREAT DELIVERANCE by Elizabeth George

Here are a couple of photos from the conference. Later this week I will work on more in-depth write ups of LCC sessions like the new authors breakfast, Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller and Jan Burkes history talk and Ann Cleeves preview of the Red Bones series.

Marcia Clark at the book signing tables

Photos of Brad Parks by Darrell Hoemann Photography.