Ayo's Baltimore Beat

Part 2 of Ayo Onatade's report from Bouchercon 2008

Bouchercon has certainly started! The hotel has slowly started to fill up and various authors and participants have started to arrive. The authors that have been seen including the delightful Laura Lippman who is the American guest of honor, Lee Child, Adrian Magson, Natasha Cooper, Jason Starr, Martyn Waites, Mark Billingham who is Toastmaster for the whole of the Convention. International guest of Honour John Harvey, Barbara Peters and Robert Rosenwald who are due to receive a lifetime achievement award, Zoe Sharp and numerous other authors, Fans have come from far and wide including Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Last evening there was a small dinner to which a number of people (including myself) had been invited, This gathering had included all the guests of honour and was primarily held to say thank you to a number of the volunteers. The dinner party was held in the elegant Enoch Pratt Library. Prior to the dinner we were given a guided tour of the H L Mencken room and his papers. Henry Louis Mencken was a renowned Baltimore journalist and critic who had a long and friendly relationship with the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

The conference has well and truly got on its way and while the panels do not start until today it is nice to see a huge number of people gathering in the bar and discussing which panels they are planning on attending.

I am not sure that the hotel have realised what hit them!