Left Coast Crime

Left Coast Crime is an annual conference organised by mystery fiction fans for mystery fiction fans, first held in San Francisco in 1991. It is concerned with western North American region mysteries, but the conference itself travels worldwide, having been held in Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as different parts of the United States. The conference enables fans to mix with authors. A prominent author of western mystery fiction is invited to be guest speaker.

Conference participants have voted on an award for the most humorous mystery novel since 1996. The Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery (for a mystery set prior to 1950) has been voted since 2004. The PANIC is an award for the best Los Angeles noir in memory of Paul Anik and the first, for 2009, will be awarded at the 2010 conference in Los Angeles.

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