A great weekend ahead for LA crime fans

Book Lovers in or around Los Angeles have a great weekend ahead with the upcoming Los Angeles Times Festival of Books kicking off this Saturday. For two days at the UCLA campus at 405 Hilgard Avenue, tens of thousands of people will have the chance to come face to face with more than 400 of their favourite authors.

And, unlike the upcoming Auckland Writers & Readers Festival (sorry, couldn't resist), there are plenty of fanstastic crime writers amongst the authors in attendance. In fact, there are several crime fiction-specific events each day, run in association with the Mystery Writers of America. The even better news for those who can attend is that general admittance to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is free, and even the ticketed events generally only have a nominal charge.

One major highlight for any crime fiction fan is the Saturday morning panel "Mystery: The Kingpins", featuring Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, and T. Jefferson Parker. What a fantastic line-up! You can attend this panel at 11am at the Broad 2160 location on campus. In my opinion, this is an absolute must, if you are anywhere in the Los Angeles area.

The evening before the Festival of Book, the winners of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes will also be annouced at a ceremony at the Los Angeles Times building at 8pm. There is a Mystery/Thriller prize, and the five finalists for this year are:

1. Megan Abbott, Bury Me Deep
2. David Ellis, The Hidden Man
3. Attica Locke, Black Water Rising
4. Val McDermid, A Darker Domain
5. Stuart Neville, The Ghosts of Belfast

There are several other fantastic crime fiction events over the two days of the Festival of Books, starting off with:

SATURDAY 24 APRIL AT THE DODD147 LOCATION
(sponsored by Mystery Writers of America)

• 10:30 AM - Mystery: The PageturnersDavid Ellis
  Andrew Gross
  Gregg Hurwitz
  Karin Slaughter
• 12:00 PM - Mary & Carol Higgins Clark in Conversation with Connie Martinson
• 1:30 PM - Mystery: Crime and Punishment
  Megan Abbott
  Attica Locke
  Stuart Neville
  Domenic Stansberry
• 3:00 PM - Mystery: Dark Tales from the Golden State
  Denise Hamilton
  Gary Phillips
  Stephen Jay Schwartz
  John Vorhaus

You can check the Sunday schedule here.
I am green with envy. I hope all of you crime fiction fans in the area head along. It should be a fantastic weekend. So, how's going? Which authors would you most like to see? Thoughts and comments welcome.