Remember that classic scene with Humphrey Bogart and the sexy bookstore clerk in The Big Sleep? She takes off her glasses, lets her hair down, lowers the blinds and serves Marlowe a drink—and more. Okay, Book Carnival in Tustin is nothing like that, but it is eccentric and wonderful, a 20-year-old local indie bookseller specializing in mystery, suspense, sci-fi and fantasy, the smell of stale cigarette smoke and the frisson of illicit pleasures lingering in the stacks. Owners Ed and Pat Thomas know more about genre fiction than anybody, anywhere. So it’s no surprise that Michael Connelly, crime-fiction god, will visit the tiny but well-stocked shop to sign his newest novel, The Brass Verdict, 14th in his Detective Hieronymus Bosch series. Catch up with Harry’s exploits in earlier books and hear what he’s up to noir.
Sat., Oct. 18, 12-1:30 p.m., 2008
