Writers, fans and stars of the crime genre to participate in Bouchercon World Mystery Convention

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An international fan convention for mystery readers and writers will be welcoming some of the genre’s top talent to Calgary next week, including Louise Penny and Kathy Reichs.

Penny, Reichs and a number of other writers will be guests of honour at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, which will be held at the Calgary Telus Convention Centre from Oct. 21 to 25.

Unfortunately, registration is now closed for the main convention, but spots are still available for Kids Bouchercon, on Saturday, Oct. 24 at the Central Public Library. It features guest of honour Kevin Sands, the Ontario author of the Blackthorn Key adventures and Thieves of Shadow series.

The convention is held every year in different cities, although rarely in Canada. It began in 1970 in Santa Monica and has only been in Canada on three occasions, all in Toronto.

Roughly 1,400 attendees are expected to descend on Calgary over five days, with fans travelling from Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and throughout the United States. Thirty-four per cent are from Canada, says Pam McDowell, convention chair for Bouchercon 2026.

“It is a fan convention, and we do have a strong literary community here,” she says. “People turn out to WordFest events and other festivals like that in record numbers. We have the readers and fans in Calgary and area, but we also have the writers. It’s also important to have a destination. Bouchercon attendees tend to make this their annual holiday and to come some place as unique as Calgary, and all we offer here was a real popular decision by the membership.”

The convention will host a number of panel discussions, with topics including everything from “Audiobooks as a Cottage Industry” to “Misdirections and Red Herrings that Don’t Cheat” and “Cozies, the Next Generation.”

Other guests of honour include Scottish writer Abir Mukherjee, author of the bestselling Wyndahm & Banerjee crime novels set in colonial-era India; American bestselling author Mark Greaney, author of the Gray Man series; Canadian author Jennifer Hillier, who wrote the bestselling thriller Things We Do in the Dark; and Calgarian P.J. Vernon, author of the Lambda literary-nominated novel Bath Haus.

This year, the convention will also honour the late Steele Curry, a Calgarian known for his love of mystery fiction and thrillers. In 2021, he donated his collection of 8,000 first-edition books and mystery-related publications to the University of Calgary’s special collections department.

The convention will also host the annual Anthony Awards, which will hand out prizes in seven categories. It is the 40th anniversary of the awards.

Louise Penny’s 2005 debut, Still Life, won the Anthony Award for best debut novel. It was the first in her Quebec-set series of novels featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. She has since written 19 more.

She is the Lifetime Achievement guest of honour this year and will present the Anthony Award for best debut novel.