Partners in Crime is changing the format of our meetings. We’ll now have informal dinner and book discussion meetings several times a year. Our first is this Wednesday, January 13, 2010, at Zest Restaurant in Leawood. Come and enjoy the company, discuss the books you’ve been reading, and get suggestions and recommendations from other members.

Hope to see you there!

Friends, food and books—arguably the best things in life! Please join the board of Partners in Crime at 6 p.m. at Romano’s Macaroni Grill (93rd and Metcalf ) to discuss the proposed evolution of the chapter into an informal mystery discussion group that would meet without a program on an occasional basis. We have enough money left in the treasury to give an amount (undetermined) to each paid member for his/her dinner. (Lisa has a list of paid members.) If we have any money left, we’ll decide what to do with it. (A donation to the library is one choice. If you have others, let Jill know.)

This get-together (separate checks) will be the last meeting of PIC in 2009. If you can’t come to the meeting but would like to contribute to the discussion, send an email to jilldraper@att.net.

RSVP (yes only) for the dinner to bsmith1900@aol.com. Indicate if you are a paid member. Please respond by Tuesday, November 10, if you can attend.

Giles Fowler will discuss his new book Deaths on Pleasant Street: The Ghastly Enigma of Colonel Swope and Dr. Hyde. The book is based on the 1909 true crime story about the wealthy Swope family of Independence, Missouri, which captured national headlines 100 years ago.

Based on court transcripts, national newspaper coverage and personal memoirs, Fowler pieces together the suspicious deaths of three Swope family members, including Colonel Thomas Swope, millionaire donor of Kansas City’s Swope Park. The book presents evidence from the trial of Swope’s nephew-in-law, Dr. Bennett Clark Hyde, charged with the alleged poisoning.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Fowler began his career in journalism working for The Kansas City Star as a reporter, film and theater critic ,and editor of the paper’s Sunday magazine. He taught at Iowa State University’s Greenlee School of Journalism and has contributed academic articles and short fiction to various publications.

The meeting is free and open to the public.

Dinner
We meet at 5:30 at Romano’s Macaroni Grill before the meeting (just south of Border’s in the same shopping center). Please join us. Ask for the Partners in Crime table. No reservations required, and the restaurant gives us separate checks.

Judge Robert Berger of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Kansas, will talk about Bankruptcy and Bankruptcy Crimes. Judge Berger says bankruptcy filings increased nationwide more than 35% last fiscal year and were up a comparable percentage the year before.

The meeting is free and open to the public.

Dinner
We meet at 5:30 at Romano’s Macaroni Grill before the meeting (just south of Border’s in the same shopping center). Please join us. Ask for the Partners in Crime table. No reservations required, and the restaurant gives us separate checks.

Longview Literary Festival
Longview Literary Festival
Friday and Saturday
October 2 and 3, 2009
10 a.m. to 7 p.m. both days
Longview Community College
500 SW Longview Road
Lee’s Summit, Missouri 

This is a two-day celebration of literature and panel discussions on writing. For more information, contact Susan Satterfield at Susan.Satterfield@mcckc.edu or phone 816.524.4852.

Featured Speaker:
Richard Jennings, writer and co-founder of Rainy Day Books

Confirmed Guests:
Al Beck
Andrea Caspari
M.C. Chambers
Lewis Diuguid
Charles Gusewelle
Katie Horner
Lindsay Martin-Bowen
Mary-Lane Kamberg
Brad Meehan
Stephen Francis Murphy
Carlos Perez
Jerry Plantz
Missi Rasmussen
Eric Reynolds
Susan Satterfield
Catherine Stang
Ana Victoria Wackeria
Maryfrances Wagner

Confirmed Writers’ Groups
Kansas City Horror Club
Kansas City Metropolitan Verse, the Kansas City Chapter of the Missouri Poetry Society
Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society
Kansas City Writer’s Group
Kansas City Writer’s Place
Missouri Writers Guild
Summit Scribes Writers Group (Lee’s Summit, MO)

Stan Hamilton will speak on his book, Machine Gun Kelly’s Last Stand. Stan has a degree in Journalism from KU. He worked for The Kansas City Star for seven years as a reporter and copy editor and then moved to Washington, D.C., where he covered Congress and also worked as a copy editor. He was with the National Press Club for 12 years.

Stan was featured in a recent article in the Lawrence Journal World.

The meeting is free and open to the public.

Dinner
We meet at 5:30 at Romano’s Macaroni Grill before the meeting (just south of Border’s in the same shopping center). Please join us. Ask for the Partners in Crime table. No reservations required, and the restaurant gives us separate checks.

Investigator Pepper Jaso will talk about Scams and How to Protect Yourself. Pepper is an investigator for the Economic Crimes Unit and was Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe‘s Trial Assistant when he was an Assistant District Attorney building the unit. She has a paralegal degree from JCCC.

Join us for dinner before the meeting at 5:30 at Macaroni Grill, across the parking lot from Borders.

Visitors Welcome. Please join us!

Every crime story needs a bad guy! Our June speaker will be Suzanne Arruda, president of the Border Crimes chapter of Sisters in Crime and author of five mysteries set in 1920s Kenya, featuring main character Jade del Cameron, animal wrangler, photojournalist and neophyte pilot. Suzanne will talk about creating villains in mysteries.

Suzanne’s novels include Mark of the Lion, Stalking Ivory, The Serpent’s Daughter, The Leopard’s Prey, and Treasure of the Golden Cheetah, which will be published in September 2009.

Visitors Welcome. Please join us!

Mary Stephenson has been practicing criminal law for the past 14 years, including 8 years as an assistant district attorney in Johnson County and the past 6 years as a criminal defense attorney in Miami County. She’ll talk on some of the highlights of being both a prosecutor and a defense attorney and a few of her more interesting cases.

Newsletter
Partners in Crime also puts out a great newsletter full of recommendations and reviews of recent mysteries. Our latest issue has a nice list of historical mysteries, a list of Miss Zukas books by Jo Dereske (featuring an intrepid librarian), local scams to be aware of, and a description of the arrest of the month.

Author Event
Author Lee Child will talk about his new book, his life, his work, answer audience questions and he will autograph copies of his new book purchased from Rainy Day Books.
7 p.m.
Tuesday
June 2, 2009,
Unity Temple on The Plaza—Sanctuary
707 W 47th Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64112

Admission Package: $27.00 plus Tax, includes from Rainy Day Books, One (1) Stamped Ticket, One (1) Guest Ticket (if needed) and One (1) Copy of Lee Child’s new book, Gone Tomorrow (Hardcover), to be autographed after the author presentation.

Visit the Rainy Day website for more details.

Rainy Day is finalizing details for fall appearances by Michael Connelly and Sue Grafton, please watch our web site for additional details.

Visitors Welcome. Please join us!

Tom Averill, award-winning author and Writer-in-residence and Professor of English at Washburn University in Topeka, will talk about his novel, The Slow Air of Ewan McPherson, with an additional discussion on plots and plotting.

Tom won the O. Henry Award for his short stories. His story collections include Ordinary Genius, Seeing Mona Naked, and Passes at the Moon. He has written two novels, Secrets of the Tsil Cafe and The Slow Air of Ewan McPherson, as well as numerous poems and articles. Tom helped to found and was the first director of the Washburn Center for Kansas Studies. He has edited several books and, as his alter ego, William Jennings Bryan Oleander, is a commentator on Kansas Public Radio at the University of Kansas.