Mystery Writers Let Their Hair Down

I could, I believe, get used to attending parties where Anthony Bourdain wanders up to me with a tray of appetizers and insists I dig in. Such was the scene at Partners & Crime, waiting for the beginning of the 10th annual Nevermores ceremony--the Nevermores being a set of joke prizes handpicked by the mystery bookshop's owners. (To give you a sampling of the mood: Thomas Perry--not in attendance--gets the Myra Breckinridge Award for the best series written by a male author starring a female protagonist.) Crime writers who were brave enough to show up included Colin Harrison, who took home a prize for writing the only one of the several recent novels with "Havana" in the title not actually set in Havana, Jason Starr, Alina Adams, Lauren Henderson (who was an awfully good sport about having her book mocked in song), James O. Born, Ken Bruen...and countless others I'm blanking on, plus a guy who looked just like Mark Margolis from Oz. I'm sure that if you visit Sarah Weinman's blog, she can fill you in on everybody I've missed... (The two of us have been effectively representing the blogosphere, her much more than me, since crime and mystery are her home turf...)

Oh, wait, I also ran into Rebecca Pawel, who I had just heard read at Coliseum from her debut novel, Death of a Nationalist, which is up for an Edgar for best first novel. She was joined by fellow nominees James Hime and Robert Heilbrun; all three of their books had great openings, and I hope some day soon I can catch up with them.