CrimeCONN 2025: Crime & Punishment

The Friends of the Ferguson Library, in partnership with Mystery Writers of America – New York Chapter, present CrimeCONN 2025, 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 murder 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 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.

In-Person Event includes coffee, continental breakfast and lunch.

Register here.

Tickets
$50 per person early bird registration through April 17
$60 per person after April 17
$45 per person for MWA members, Friends members, seniors and students

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

Visit our CrimeCONN web page for CrimeCONN 2025 schedule of events.

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 appearing:

Mally Becker is a 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 is a 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 more than 30 novels including six in the Jesse Stone series for the estate of Robert B. Parker.

Christy Girard - Detective First Grade Girard has been a Greenwich Police officer for over 26 years, with 20 years of experience assigned to the Detective Division.  She worked in the Greenwich Special Victims section, specializing in sexual assault investigations, and is currently assigned to the Cold Case Unit.  

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

Juliet Grames is the national and international bestselling author of The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna and The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia.  

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

V.S. Kemanis is a lawyer and an award-winning author of legal suspense novels.

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

Joseph Lopez is the Inspector General for the City of Hartford, charged with investigating citizen complaints of police misconduct.  He is a former criminal defense attorney with 28 years of experience with the Division of Public Defender Services.

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, the author of the Henry Swann mystery series and more than 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 Prison 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 prison in 2022.