I came across this event listing on our Calendar page and had to share:

The Bouchercon World Mystery Convention
Event Date: October 4th, 2012 -
Event Time: TBA - TBA
Location: Marriott Renaissance Hotel
Contact: Marjory Mogg - marjorymogg@bouchercon2012.com
Event Details: The oldest and largest annual mystery books conference will bring $1 million to $2 million to Cleveland in October. The Bouchercon World Mystery Convention has been held annually in various cities since 1970, but has never been hosted in the state of Ohio. Downtown restaurants and clubs can expect to entertain over 1,500 mystery fans, authors, and publishers with plenty of time to explore the city. The conference will be held at the Marriott Renaissance Hotel on October 4 – 7, 2012.
The Bouchercon itself, and the Anthony Awards, which are announced at the conference, are named in honor of the renowned author, editor and mystery devotee, Anthony Boucher (rhymes with voucher). The theme of the 2012 conference will be “Crime Fiction Rocks,” with the opening ceremonies to be held at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
Guests of honor for 2012 include authors Elizabeth George, Robin Cook, John Connolly, and Cleveland’s own Les Roberts. Mary Higgins Clark will be recognized with an award for lifetime achievement.
Details and registration information can be found at bouchercon2012.com .
The chair of the conference is Cleveland area librarian, Marjory Mogg.
Contact: Marjory Mogg, marjorymogg@bouchercon2012.com
http://bouchercon2012.com

R.L. Anderson Jr. is a resident of Concord Township who grew up in Lake County.  The self-employed small businessman is working on his Will Nickerson Mysteries series, which he recently emailed me about.

Anderson writes:

My first novel, Ranch Park, is set at a fictional theme park that has some similarities to Lake Metroparks Farmpark, but I have located it near a fictional town that I call New Oslo, North Dakota. I chose North Dakota because I had a ranch there for awhile and know that state very well and wanted to write a novel with a North Dakota setting. My second novel, It's A Place For Trees, takes place at a fictional arboretum that has a few similarities to both Holden and Penitentiary Glen, but I've located it in my dad's home state of Pennsylvania, also near a fictional town. I have a third novel in the works. All feature Will Nickerson, a small town businessman turned amateur detective. They are light and easy reading mysteries, with a touch of very light and playful romance woven in, along with lots of action, suspense and surprise, and, although I have adult readers in mind, the language is 100% clean.

Check out R.L. Anderson's author page on Amazon for more information on the author and his books. From there -- and for just $6 -- you can get the Kindle edition of both of his books (or, borrow them for free through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library). Anderson also said he occasionally offers free promos.

Another author I previously profiled: Annmarie Cleversey, who used Painesville and Morley Library as inspiration for her Hailey Hanson Mysteries.

Are you an author in the area or one who has taken inspiration from the beauty of Lake and Geauga counties? Drop me a line so I can share your work with my blog's readers.


-- Cheryl Sadler | CSadler@News-Herald.com | @nhcheryl

My grandmother and I have passed along several book recommendations to each other, sometimes lending the other books we've just finished reading. Here, I'll review a book she recently recommended to me.


"All That Remains: a Scarpetta Novel" by Patricia Daniels Cornwell follows Dr. Kay Scarpetta as she tries to track down the person who has murdered the daughter of an up-and-coming Washingtonian and her boyfriend. Their deaths mirror those of several other couples, and Scarpetta works to link them together and figure out who is responsible for the crimes.

The action and suspense in the book kept me reading. I often made my way through 100 pages without realizing that I had been sitting still for that long. But I also found that the book occasionally seemed to drag. I take issue with romantic subplots in action stories that are seemingly put in there to entertain the women but to me are just distractions and wasted space that could be used to further the plot.

The end of the book had a plot twist ... sort of. I think it was supposed to, but it seemed to me like the idea was just thrown in without enough pages to explain why. I couldn't figure out the point of inserting the twist that late in the story, and it made me leave the book on a sort of bad note.

Overall, Grandma, this book was fine for its suspense, but I don't know if I would recommend it, nor read it again.


--Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com