Fiction 2025
Guests of Honor
Bios A-Z below
All Fiction A-Z
Lucinda Berry
Featured author
USA Today bestselling author Lucinda Berry is a former psychologist and leading researcher in childhood trauma. With millions of books worldwide, she’s written multiple bestsellers including THE PERFECT CHILD, SAVING NOAH, and KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE.
Her work has been optioned for film and translated into several languages.
Alafair Burke
Founding Honorary Co-Chair
Alafair Burke is a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent novels include THE NOTE, FIND ME, THE BETTER SISTER, THE WIFE, and THE EX which was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel.
She has also been the co-author of the bestselling UNDER SUSPICION series with Mary Higgins Clark. She currently serves as the President of Mystery Writers of America, the first woman of color to be elected to that position.
A former prosecutor, she now teaches criminal law and lives in Manhattan and East Hampton. For more information, visit alafairburke.com
Steve Cavanagh
Featured Author
Steve Cavanagh is the bestselling and award-winning author of several books, including the Eddie Flynn series and KILL FOR ME, KILL FOR YOU.
A former lawyer, he was born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he still lives. Find out more at SteveCavanaghAuthor.com
Alyssa Cole
Featured Author
Alyssa Cole is an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers and romance (historical, contemporary, and sci-fi). Her books have received critical acclaim from Library Journal, BuzzFeed, Kirkus, Booklist, Jezebel, Vulture, Book Riot, Entertainment Weekly, and various other outlets.
When she’s not working, Alyssa can usually be found watching anime or wrangling her many pets.
Carrie Doyle
Author and Moderator
Carrie Doyle is the bestselling author of multiple novels and screenplays that span many genres, ranging from cozy mysteries to chick lit to comedies to Young Adult.
Carrie’s latest book, SOMETHING’S GUAVA GIVE, was released on January 25, 2022. It is the second book in the Trouble in Paradise Series. Book one, IT TAKES TWO TO MANGO, was named one of the best books of 2021 by King’s River Life Magazine.
Also trending is Carrie’s book THE MURDER GAME, which was nominated by Suspense Magazine as one of the best YA mysteries of 2021.
A born and bred New Yorker, Carrie has spent most of her life in Manhattan and East Hampton, with the exception of a six-year stint in Europe (Russia; France; England) and five years in Los Angeles. A former Editor-in-Chief of the Russian edition of Marie Claire, Carrie has written dozens of articles for various magazines, including countless celebrity profiles. She is also a screenwriter, and her movie INTERN (co-written with Jill Kargman) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Carrie currently splits her time between New York and Long Island, with her husband and two teenage sons. She is also one of the co-founders of Hamptons Whodunit.
Ashley Elston
Featured Author
Ashley Elston worked for many years as a wedding photographer before turning her hand to writing. She lives in Louisiana with her husband and three sons. Elston has written six young adult novels.
FIRST LIE WINS is her adult fiction debut.
Abby Endler
Moderator
Abby Endler is the creator of Crime by the Book, a crime fiction-focused Instagram account with over 160,000 followers. She is the host of Criminal Types, a crime fiction author interview podcast, and she also curates Crime by the Box, a crime fiction subscription service.
She serves as the Fiction and Marketing Director for Hamptons Whodunit, and by day, she is a Marketing Manager for Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House.
Joseph Finder
Featured Author
Joseph Finder is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen suspense novels, including HOUSE ON FIRE, THE FIXER, and SUSPICION. Two of his novels have been adapted into major motion pictures—PARANOIA (starring Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman) and HIGH CRIMES (starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman).
Four more have won the industry’s top best novel awards—KILLER INSTINCT (the International Thriller Writers Award), BURIED SECRETS (the Strand Critics Award); GUILTY MINDS (the Barry Award), and COMPANY MAN (the Barry Award).
His new novel, a spy thriller, THE OLIGARCH’S DAUGHTER will be out from Harper on 1/28/2025.
Joseph lives in Boston, Massachusetts. For more, visit his website.
Alex Finlay
Featured author
Alex Finlay is the bestselling author of the 2021 breakout novel, EVERY LAST FEAR, the 2022 Goodreads Choice nominee for Best Mystery and Thriller, THE NIGHT SHIFT, the 2023 Library Reads Hall of Fame recipient, WHAT HAVE WE DONE, and his latest release, the USA Today bestseller, IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO ME.
Alex’s novels are regularly on “best of the year” lists, have been translated into twenty-five languages, and have been optioned for film or television. EVERY LAST FEAR is in development for a major limited series.
Alex lives in Washington, DC and Virginia.
A.J. Finn
founding Honorary Co-Chair
A. J. Finn lived in England for many years before returning to his native New York.
His debut novel, THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, has been published in more than forty languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. In 2021 it was adapted for the screen in a huge film starring Amy Adams and Gary Oldman.
His latest book, END OF STORY, was published last year.
Lucy Foley
Guest of Honor
Lucy Foley studied English literature at Durham University and University College London and worked for several years as a fiction editor in the publishing industry. She is the author of five novels including THE MIDNIGHT FEAST and THE GUEST LIST.
Lucy lives in London.
Tess Gerritsen
Guest of honor
Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D. While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction and in 1987, her first novel, CALL AFTER MIDNIGHT, was published. It was just the first of 32 suspense novels that she’s written over a 36-year writing career.
Tess’s 1996 medical thriller, HARVEST, marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list and her novels have hit bestseller lists ever since. Among her titles are GRAVITY, THE SURGEON, THE SPY COAST, and THE SUMMER GUESTS. Her books have been translated into 40 languages, and more than 40 million copies have been sold around the world.
She has won both the Nero Wolfe Award (for VANISH) and the Rita Award (for THE SURGEON). Time Magazine named THE SURGEON one of the best mystery/thrillers ever written. Her novels featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the hit TNT television series “Rizzoli & Isles,” starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.
Tess lives in Maine.
Helen A. Harrison
Featured Author
Helen A. Harrison, award-winning author of the ART OF MURDER MYSTERIES, is a former New York Times art critic, NPR arts commentator, and director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton.
Emiko Jean
FEATURED AUTHOR
Emiko Jean is a New York Times best-selling author of adult and young adult fiction. Her books have been published in over thirty languages. Her work has been featured on Good Morning America as a GMA Book Club pick, by Reese Witherspoon as a Young Adult Book Club pick, and in publications such as Marie Claire, Entertainment Weekly, Time, Cosmopolitan, Shondaland and Bustle.
She lives in Washington with her husband and two kids.
Vera Kurian
Featured Author
Vera Kurian is a writer and scientist based in Washington DC. Her debut novel, NEVER SAW ME COMING (Park Row Books, 2021) was an Edgar Award nominee, was named one of the New York Times’ Best Thrillers of 2021, and has sold in 15 countries.
Her short fiction has been published in magazines such as Glimmer Train, Day One, and The Pinch.
Her second novel, A STEP PAST DARKNESS, was published in February of 2024.
Nanci LaGarenne
FEATURED author
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Nanci moved to the woods of East Hampton over thirty years ago. She was a freelance writer for Dan’s Papers.
Her books are CHEAP FISH (2013) and the sequel, THE BITTER END (2021), both murder mysteries set in Montauk. REFUGE (2015), her fictional tale of surviving domestic abuse is set in Brooklyn and Ireland.
SCAPE GHOST is her latest novel based on the 1962 Alcatraz escape and one man’s unique road to freedom.
Her next book, a murder mystery, is about to be released. MOTHERING PIRATES is set in the California Delta, a tale of two Irish women, best friends and descendants of the most famous female pirates, Anne Bonny and Grace O’Malley.
Shari Lapena
Guest of Honor
Shari Lapena is the internationally bestselling author of the thrillers THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR, A STRANGER IN THE HOUSE, AN UNWANTED GUEST, SOMEONE WE KNOW, THE END OF HER, NOT A HAPPY FAMILY, EVERYONE HERE IS LYING, and WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?, which have all been New York Times and The Sunday Times (London) bestsellers. Her books have been sold in forty territories around the world.
Shari lives on a farm outside Toronto.
Jessa Maxwell
FeatureD Author
Jessa Maxwell is the nationally bestselling author of THE GOLDEN SPOON, I NEED YOU TO READ THIS, and DEAD OF SUMMER. She is also the author and illustrator of five picture books for children.
Her comics and cartoons have been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times and her writing has been published in Slate, Marie Claire, and many others.
Jessa now lives in Jamestown, Rhode Island, with her husband, two cats and three-legged dog.
Anna Sophia McLoughlin
DEBUT AUTHOR
Anna Sophia McLoughlin lives in Litchfield County with her family, where she teaches creative writing and profiles artists and designers for various publications.
A GIRL LIKE US is her first thriller.
Clémence Michallon
Featured Author
Clémence Michallon was born and raised near Paris. She studied journalism at City University of London, received a Master’s in Journalism from Columbia University, and has written for The Independent since 2018. Her essays and features have covered true-crime, celebrity culture, and literature.
Clémence moved to New York City in 2014 and recently became a US citizen. She now divides her time between New York City and Rhinebeck, NY.
Andie Pliego
DEBUT AUTHOR
When not reading or writing, Ande Pliego can usually be found dabbling in art, scheming up her next trip, or making constant expeditions to the library. Born in Florida, raised in France, and having left footprints all over the globe, Ande is settled in the Pacific Northwest with her craftsman husband and little son.
YOU ARE FATALLY INVITED is her debut novel.
Jason Rekulak
Featured Author
Jason Rekulak is the author of THE LAST ONE AT THE WEDDING, an instant New York Times bestseller, HIDDEN PICTURES, a national bestseller and winner of a Goodreads Choice Award, and THE IMPOSSIBLE FORTRESS, a finalist for the Edgar Award.
He is represented by Doug Stewart at Sterling Lord Literistic, and by Rich Green and Ellen Goldsmith-Vein at The Gotham Group.
Jason lives in Philadelphia with his family.
Sophie Stava
DEBUT AUTHOR
Sophie Stava received her BA in English literature from UC Santa Barbara. She currently resides in Southern California with her family.
COUNT MY LIES is her first novel.
Tessa Wegert
AUTHOR AND MODERATOR
Tessa Wegert is the author of the popular Shana Merchant novels, which include THE COLDEST CASE, DEATH IN THE FAMILY, THE DEAD SEASON, DEAD WIND, and THE KIND TO KILL.
Tessa grew up in Quebec and now lives with her husband and children in Coastal Connecticut, where she studies martial arts and is co-president of Sisters in Crime CT.
Carter Wilson
Featured Author
Carter Wilson is the USA Today bestselling author of ten critically acclaimed, standalone psychological thrillers. He is an ITW Thriller Award finalist, a five-time winner of the Colorado Book Award, and his works have been optioned for television and film.
Carter lives outside of Boulder, Colorado. Dynamic and compelling, he now hosts his own podcast, Making It Up, interviewing authors like S.A. Cosby, Daniel Handler, Stuart Turton, Xio Axelrod, and Julie Clark to talk shop and riff an original story live. The result is a charming, authentic peek into the writing process.