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Day 2 - Bouchercon Report

50 Push-ups. 50! That is how many push-ups Laura Lippman did at the 8:30am 'Would I Lie to You' panel. Our five panelists, Mark Billingham, John Connolly, Ms. Lippman, Chris Mooney, and Karin Slaughter challenged a packed room to suss out the truth from the many colorful lies. Best of the bunch was the news that John Connolly wouldn't kick Daniel Day-Lewis out of bed.

(Mark Billingham)

The next panel was the TV panel which gave me an opportunity to see one of my favorite authors, Duane Swierczynski. It was a good panel with the highlight being Bill Cameron saying some very unkind things about John-Boy Walton.

(Duane Swierczynski)

The rest of the morning was spent with Megan Abbott and Eddie Muller discussing the current state of noir. It was a good to great panel that set the table by showing trailers from No Country for Old Men and The Black Dahlia. As the The Black Dahlia trailer played I was reminded just how rancid that film is/was/and continues to be. Bless their hearts, Eddie and Megan hated the movie too. Both discussed how overplayed the term 'noir' has become even to the extent that it is more a term for marketing departments than a discriptor for a genre.

This tired soldier took most of the afternoon off, although somehow a nap escaped The Hungry Detective. I bummed around the book room sure that most of the vendors had tired of my face. I picked up a couple things, but the gigantic purchase has yet to happen.

My amigo, Jared, hooked up with a high school buddy for dinner. I tagged along getting a little drunk on Jack and Ginger. Almost too tipsy as I considered buying a $600 Zenga suit. Back at the hotel I was able to congratulate Sean Chercover on his Shamus win as he returned to the hotel. Many parties were too be had on this Friday night (especially the Lee Child free for all), but sadly I turned in.

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