The Heirs of Anthony Boucher Marvin Lachman

The Nineteen-Nineties and Twenty-First Century
Friday morning there were three (four on Saturday) tracks of programming.
The program did not have pictures or biographies of the participants, but it did
have a good history of the short story by Edward D. Hoch; a short story set at the
1991 Bouchercon by English-born writer Peter Robinson, who lives in Toronto; and
an article on Canadian crime fiction by David Skene-Melvin.
Panels included a slide show of covers of Doubleday Crime Club mysteries, the
subject of a forthcoming book by Ellen Nehr. Art Scott did another of his slide shows
on sexy paperback mystery covers.
People who had attended past Bouchercons said that panel subjects were becoming
“old hat,” and some seemed to brag about how many panels they did not attend.
“Done to Death” was different. It was a panel with Gary Warren Niebuhr, Bob
Samoian, Orietta Hardy-Sayles, Don Sandstrom, and I describing some of the worst
clichés in the mystery. This was the funniest and most popular panel in Toronto. A
crowd of 125 people filled a small room, some even sitting on the floor and others
standing in back and outside the door. (The panels were taped and this one sold more
copies than any other.) The microphone was one step below the dais, and I tripped
over that step and fell returning to my chair. There was so much laughter during the
panel that some people were convinced I had taken the pratfall deliberately.
Two other unusual events were a panel on “Murder in Traditional Folk Music,”
with two folk singers to give examples, and an afternoon tea party and hat contest,
with Professor B. J. Rahn winning with her mystery-decorated chapeau.
Mystery fans were increasingly referring to themselves as part of a “family,” and
Toronto provided a perfect example. Naomi Hoida of Japan attended though she did
not speak English well and did not know anyone there, except through correspondence
in MDM. She was welcomed warmly, and when she returned home she wrote,
“Now I am… truly missing Bouchercon XXIII and MDM family I met. I heartily
enjoyed my first Bouchercon for their warm friendliness. MDM members are my
great family.”
Guest of Honor Margaret Millar, born in Canada though living in Santa Barbara,
California, broke her hip shortly before Bouchercon and was unable to attend.
Dorothy Salisbury Davis succinctly summed up Millar’s contributions. Also succinct—and
humorous—were Toastmaster Otto Penzler and Lifetime Achievement
Awardee Charlotte MacLeod, another Canadian living in the US. For the first time
since 1983, there was no Fan Guest of Honor. Chairman Navis decided to create suspense
at the banquet regarding the vote for the 1995 Bouchercon. Nottingham, England,
was competing with two American cities: Miami and Washington, DC. Navis
kept postponing the decision until Ric Meyers, who reported on Bouchercon for
TAD, threatened to come up on stage and force the issue. Finally, Navis announced
that Nottingham had won, with almost twice the votes of its competitors combined.
1993: Omaha
Omaha, Nebraska, may have seemed an unlikely spot for Bouchercon, but not to
fans who attended enjoyable Midwest Mystery & Suspense conventions there from
1990 through 1992. About 1,000 people attended the 24th Bouchercon October 1–3
at the Holiday Inn Central, the hotel that had become infamous at those gatherings
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