On October 7, 1992, Carol Babel, a freelance writer, spoke at a meeting of the Business and Professional Women held at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, KY. Her closing paragraph was this:
“I’m setting up the Louisville Chapter (of Sisters in Crime) and am looking for MYSTERY LOVERS—readers, writers, or just interest supporters as new members. We’re open to men and women. We want to see the mystery genre continue its increased growth in sales so all—men and women authors will share in the market place and a place in the sun.”
And so, the chapter began to take shape. The first set of meetings were held at the Jeffersontown Library and were primarily a book discussion group.
By 1994, the chapter had a new name, the Ohio River Valley Chapter, a new meeting place, and a new format for the meetings. And the newsletter, Footprints, was first published. The chapter no longer discussed mysteries, but instead presented programs to help writers and readers of the genre. Speakers ranged from a variety of police officers, forensic specialists, poison experts and other professionals who helped solve crimes for a living. Also added to the repertoire were authors, many home-grown, who told tales of the travails of getting published.
To help members onto the ‘published’ rolls, in 2004, the chapter published its first anthology, Derby Rotten Scoundrels, short stories of murder and crime centered around the Kentucky Derby. Two years later, a second anthology, Low Down and Derby, was published. In 2020, the chapter published Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon.