Oline Cogdill

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One of the unique things about being a fan of mystery fiction is that there are many regional conferences across the country. This allows readers to meet their favorite authors without having to travel too far.

So if you are anywhere near Indianapolis this weekend, sign up for Magna cum Murder Crime Writing Festival. The conference also is worth a last-minute plane ticket.

Magna cum Murder XIX will be Oct. 25-27 in downtown Indianapolis at the historic Columbia Circle on Monument Circle.

More than 30 published authors will be on hand for panels, discussions and even some dining events.

Guest of honor is Steve Hamilton, left, who has won myriad awards beginning with his first novel A Cold Day in Paradise, which won the Edgar Award, sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America and the Shamus Award, sponsored by the Private Eye Writers of America. That novel also was nominated for an Anthony and a Barry award. Hamilton again won the Edgar in 2011 for his novel The Lock Artist.

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The banquet speaker is Hank Phillippi Ryan, right, whose first novel Prime Time, won the Agatha Award for best new mystery of 2007. She also has been nominated for numerous other awards. Her 2012 novel The Other Woman was chosen as a Best Book of 2012 by Suspense Magazine, and an RTBR Reviewers Choice nominee for Best Mystery/Suspense novel of 2012 and won the Mary Higgins Clark Award. As a journalist, Ryan has won 28 Emmy Awards and 12 Edward R. Murrow Awards for her investigative and consumer reporting. Her latest novel is The Wrong Girl.

Both Hamilton and Ryan are terrific writers and speakers.

Other authors present include Dorothy Cannell,  Jerry Healy, Sandra Balzo, Jeanne Dams, Maureen Jennings,Terence Faherty, Sara Hoskinson Frommer, John Gilstrap, Parnell Hall, Ellen Hart, William Kent Krueger, among others.

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