Left Coast Crime 2026 Newsletter

October 24, 2025

Get Ready for the Lefty Nominations!

Don’t forget to make notes about all the wonderful books published in 2025 that you’ve read this year so you are ready to respond when your Lefty Nomination Form arrives by email in mid-December. 

The categories are …

• Best Humorous Mystery Novel
• Best Historical Mystery Novel (The Bill Gottfried Memorial), covering events before 1970
• Best Debut Mystery Novel
• Best Mystery Novel (not in other categories)

A Cabaret of Crime

Get ready for a unique live entertainment when a four-person ensemble performs songs of crime, murder, and detection — and what it takes to write about them! 

Meet the Performers

• Hal Glatzer is the author of mysteries, historical and contemporary, both in print and in audio. But he’s also an entertainer, best known in the U.S. and Europe for performing the “Great American Songbook" from Tin Pan Alley and Broadway.
• Scrumbly Koldewyn, founding member of the sexual outlaws, Cockettes, performed and wrote songs with them, and has been writing and performing in Cabaret and ‘legit’ theater for the past 55 years. He is depicted in a star role in the new headed-for-Broadway musical, Midnight at the Palace.
• Bonni Suval began performing onstage at the ripe age of 4. Since that time they have acted, sung, danced, choreographed, performance-arted, dark-burlesqued, stripped, written, and played drums in various theatre groups/bands/states/cities/situations. Wherever there is stage light and an audience to connect with, Bonni will be there.
• Kathy Frankovic returned to singing and performing after 32 years as Director of Surveys and Producer at CBS News. Now it’s theater (and Gilbert & Sullivan) in Hawaii, cabaret New York, and just singing wherever she goes.

A Cabaret of Crime will take place on Thursday evening from 8:30-9:30 PM.

Advertising in the Program Book

Attention Authors! Please encourage your publisher to advertise in the Left Coast Crime Program Book. There are sizes and prices for every budget. Don’t be left out! The deadline for reserving ad space is December 31, 2025.
Details and Advertising Form

Sponsorship at Left Coast Crime

Left Coast Crime encourages organizations to sponsor a variety of events such as the Opening Reception, the Awards Banquet, the Friday “Meet the New Authors” breakfast, the Saturday breakfast, and the Hospitality Room. Other options include sponsoring one of our Guests of Honor or supporting Left Coast Crime by sponsoring products such as the convention book bag or name badge holder.

Please email Lucinda Surber if you are interested in learning more about our sponsorship opportunities.

Walking Tours

I’m getting psyched for Left Coast Crime and San Francisco fun. There are so many wonderful things to do in The City, it’s going to be hard to choose! Before the pandemic, my friends and I booked a “self-guided” tour in the form of a Spy Mystery. It was a game with teams competing to find and decipher clues hidden all over the city. I forget what the point was, we were all “killed” by the other team and ended up in Ghirardelli Square at the end of one of the most wonderful San Francisco adventures ever. I’ve madly searched to find this tour again, but no luck! However, get your walking shoes ready. You’ve got plenty of scandals, cons, and crimes ahead. Here are some walking tours you can book now.

• San Francisco Ghost & True Crime Tour
  San Francisco's dark and scandalous history ending up in San Francisco’s oldest bar. (3 hours)
• Ghost Hunt in Chinatown with a Professional Investigator
  Complete with your own EMF detector, explore eerie alleys, historic neighborhoods, and infamous sites like Gold Rush cemeteries and Chinatown’s old red-light district. You’ll hear chilling tales of paranormal activity, murders, and mysterious deaths. This tour mixes ghost stories with true crime. (1 hour 55 minutes)
• Walk with Spirits: A Haunted Pub Crawl in San Francisco
  Your guide will tell you tales about the Goldrush era and more while you walk by historic places like Jackson Square, The Old Ship Saloon, and more. (2 hours 40 minutes)
• San Francisco: Vintage Murder Mystery Guided Walking Tour (2 hours)
  Agatha Christie once said, “Crime is terribly revealing.” Walk in the footsteps of serial killers, bandits, and activists on this dramatic tour of San Francisco’s most famous crime scenes. Did you know the Zodiac Killer sent dozens of letters to the San Francisco Chronicle? Or that a woman tried to shoot President Gerald Ford at the Saint Francis Hotel?

Breaking News!

Left Coast Crime 2027 Location Chosen

The Big Chile Returns, the 37th Left Coast Crime convention, will be held April 1–4, 2027, at the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Santa Fe, New Mexico was recently selected as the #1 city in the U.S. in Travel + Leisure's 2025 World’s Best Awards and placed #2 in Condé Nast Traveler's 2025 Best Small Cities in the U.S.

More information and registration coming later this fall on The Big Chile Returns website.