I Read Books: A Conventional Murder
Kris Morrison is an art teacher and artist. She’s going back to her old SF convention, Extracon, for the first time for years, selling art in Artist’s Alley. Extracon runs on Daylight Savings Weekend so you get an “extra” hour. But sadly tragedy has struck; her wife Tammy has died. She’s borrowed the money from her parents to pay for the table, she’d arranged for her mother to babysit her son. So she goes anyway.
Sandy Anderson is the driving force behind Extracon, a moderately successful fantasy author. She runs everything and has scored a coup. Graham Grant, riding high on the TV series of his Royal Swords books is coming, and will be reading an excerpt from his long-awaited final volume, ahead of the final series of the TV show. Sandy and Kris started at Extracon, many years ago, as teenage girl fans. Kris knows people here, old friends, old weirdo fans, even some students.
Sandy has plans; she hopes to get Kris’s art in front of people from the publishers. Kris just wants to make back the money she borrowed. But every time she tries to get back to her table something gets in the way.
The worst of them being when Graham Grant won’t answer his hotel room door and is discovered dead inside.
Kris calls the cops, specifically her brother Nick Morrison. With no obvious suspect he relies on her to get him up to speed on who’s who and what goes on in the convention. But that means the suspects are people she knows, people she’s spent time with, people she’s taught. Every bit of evidence she brings up points the finger at someone she wishes it wouldn’t.
A brisk high concept whodunnit with an interesting setting. This being an SF convention, it’s filled with weird events and people. The extra hour comes up several times; enough to bend around from, oh right to, not this again to wait what, and then back to oh yeah I see.
Read This: Fun murder mystery with a pleasant protagonist
Don’t Read This: The only thing you like less than murders
are SF conventions
I Got This: As a backer reward for the author’s kickstarter
for Bard City Blues
Comments