HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - It’s a Mystery Why Fans Would Come Here May 5, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel, Upcoming Events , 1 comment so farHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
It’s a Mystery Why Fans Would Come Here
People who enjoy mystery stories are a funny lot. They relish tales of murder and mayhem, but when they get together to talk about dastardly deeds, they tend to pick meeting-places with remarkably low crime-rates. Like the Big Island.
If you’re among the myriad folks who have a passion for, uhh . . . crimes of passion, then you might want spend next March 7-12 here.
“Say Aloha to Murder” is the theme of next year’s Western Regional Mystery Conference. Better known as Left Coast Crime, it’s been run since 1991 by and for mystery fans, and is generally held in the western (left side, as you face the map) states. Next year the LCC is on a “left coast,” at Marriott’s Waikoloa Beach Resort.
A typical LCC includes discussion-groups on various genres of mystery fiction, like police-procedurals, suspenseful thrillers, detectives’ cases, raditional “cozies,” or crimes of the (”woo-woo”) supernatural world. Also presentations about true crime, by law-enforcers and crime-lab experts. And at this LCC, of course, an intensive focus on mysteries, real and otherwise, set in Hawaii. Widely-read authors are the guests-of-honor. There’s even a ghost-of-honor: Earl Derr Biggers, who created Charlie Chan. And someone will win the Lefty Award for writing the funniest mystery novel of the year.
An un-conventional convention, yes; but not amateurish. According to a published mystery-writer who lives here on the Big Island, the organizers have in California run both an LCC and a Bouchercon (the biggest mystery convention); and they have hosted unrelated conventions at the Waikoloa hotel for more than ten years.
Of course, LCC is still ten months away. But with recent uncertainties in the travel industry, a wise visitor should plan next-year’s visits at least as far ahead as a criminal might plan the next caper.
