CrimeCONN 2025: Crime & Punishment

The Friends of Ferguson Library in partnership with Mystery Writers of America – NY Chapter present CrimeCONN, Connecticut’s own one-day mystery lovers' conference.

The theme this year is Crime & Punishment, where crime writers and experts look at the law from every angle. You'll hear from lawyers turned crime writers and formerly incarcerated writers. You'll also learn how a M**der trial really works from a judge, a prosecutor, a defense attorney and a homicide cop. We'll discuss the blurred lines between crime writing, non-fiction and general fiction, the guilty pleasures of the revenge novel and navigating the lives of private, professional, real and imagined detectives.

Books will be available for sale and signing.

CrimeCONN will be presented as a hybrid event so you can choose to attend in person or via Zoom webinar.

TICKETS
Online registration will close Friday, May 16 at noon.
Tickets will be available at the door.

MWA members, Friends members, seniors and students
$45 per person

Through April 17 - Early Bird Registration
$50 per person

After April 17
$60 per person

Virtual Event
Available via Zoom webinar from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
$25 per person
Zoom login will be provided in advance of the program.

Here are some of the conference highlights. More details and full agenda to come.
(Schedule subject to change.)

Keynote Speaker
Lauren Willig is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 25 books, including The Girl from Greenwich Street, Band of Sisters, the RITA Award-winning Pink Carnation series, and five novels co-written with Beatriz Williams and Karen White.
Presented in conversation with John Valeri, book critic, author and host of the web series, Central Booking.

Writers Workshop
Hallie Ephron is the New York Times bestselling author of Careful What You Wish For and Never Tell a Lie. Writing & Selling Your Mystery Novel (now in a "Revised and Expanded" edition) was an Edgar and Anthony award finalist. The crime fiction book reviewer for the Boston Globe for a dozen years, she won the Ellen Nehr Award for mystery reviewing.

Also scheduled to appear:

Mally Becker, two-time Agatha Award-nominated author of the Revolutionary War Mysteries, which include The Turncoat's Widow, The Counterfeit Wife, and The Paris Mistress.

Michelle Clark, Medicolegal Death Investigator for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s in Connecticut

Reed Farrel Coleman is the New York Times bestselling author of 30- plus novels including six in the Jesse Stone series for the estate of Robert B. Parker.

Penny Goetjen is a national multi-award-winning author of mysteries, crime fiction, and suspense novels.

Jessica Hall is a social worker and activist who has served vulnerable populations in New York City for over 30 years. She also founded and piloted Pr*son Writes, a therapeutic literacy development program.

V.S. Kemanis is a lawyer and an award-winning author of legal suspense novels, including Power Blind. Her latest novel, Indelicate Deception is a multigenerational family story.

Chris Knopf is the author of 18 mystery/thriller novels. His most recent book is Blood Bank.

Jodé Millman is the multi-award-winning author of the true-crime inspired Queen City Crimes series.

Allison Montclair (a pseudonym for Alan Gordon) is the author of the Sparks and Bainbridge Mysteries, starting with The Right Sort of Man, the ALA Reading List Council's "Best Mystery of 2019," and most recently, An Excellent Thing in a Woman.

Tim O'Mara is the author of five Raymond Donne novels, three Aggie novellas, and many short stories.

Chandra Prasad is the author of young adult novels Mercury Boys and Damselfly.

Charles Salzberg is a former journalist and is the author of the Henry Swann mystery series and over 20 non-fiction books.

Alex Segura is the bestselling and award-winning author of Secret Identity and the YA Spider-Verse adventure, Araña/Spider-Man 2099: Dark Tomorrow.

Jonathan Stone has published 10 novels, including the e-bestsellers Moving Day and The Teller, as well as his recent serio-comic novel, The Pr*son Minyan.

Wendy Walker is the internationally bestselling author of multiple psychological thrillers, including What Remains and Blade, coming in January of 2026.

Mario F. Wright is a poet, youth advocate, urban scholar, children’s book author, and justice-impacted professional who published his two-part poetry anthology Poetic Freedom 1 & 2 after his return from Pr*son in 2022.

Host or Publisher Ferguson Library