I’m off tomorrow morning for Bouchercon — it’s a mystery convention, as if you didn’t know. I hope to return with photos, good stories, and a new tote bag. It’s been a number of years since by last Bouchercon, so I now have far more Thrillerfest totes.
Speaking of vicious competitions, we’ll find out this weekend if I will win the Macvaity Award for best historical mystery. I’ve been nominated for The Whiskey Rebels, and I very much deserve to win, despite The Whiskey Rebels not really being a mystery at all. I just hope the award doesn’t go to some Romanian, like the Nobel. I’m still bitter. I thought this was my year.

She's laughing at me.
The nominees are:
- Rhys Bowen: A Royal Pain (Berkley)
- Ward Larsen: Stealing Trinity (Oceanview)
- David Liss: The Whiskey Rebels (Thorndike/ Random House UK)
- Jeri Westerson: Veil of Lies (Minotaur)
- Karen Maitland: Company of Liars (Michael Joseph/ Delacorte)
- Kelli Stanley: Nox Dormienda (Five Star)
I won’t mind if Kelli Stanley wins, since she’s my swell pal. If I win, however, I plan to point at her and laugh triumphantly.
Right, then. Not often a Yank gets off first in old Albion, so I thought I would have a go at this: Loved the book. Loved the book. Loved the book. Loved the book. Loved the book.
May the best scribe win.
M