I spend this past weekend at Love is Murder, a local mystery/thriller convention. Attendance seemed to be down a bit this year (probably due to the snowstorm that hit late last week) but it didn't stop Lee Child, Tess Gerritson, Barry Eisler, and countless others from making the trek to Chicago.

Sean Chercover's BIG CITY, BAD BLOOD won the Lovey for Best Debut Novel. Marcus Sakey's THE BLADE ITSELF was also nominated in that category making the choice tough for voters because both novels are terrific reads. I picked up a copy of Marcus Sakey's sophmore effort, AT THE CITY'S EDGE, and will be reviewing that for Dark Scribe Magazine shortly.

In other news, I just received my copies of HELL IN THE HEARTLAND, an anthology of Illinois horror, published by Annihilation Press. It is a great collection of stories set in Illinois and penned by Illinois authors. Featured authors include: Lawrence Santoro, Wayne Allen Sallee, Michael Penkas, Richard Chwedyk, and Henry Perez to name a few. More on HITH coming soon.