Hamptons Whodunit, a mystery and true-crime festival now in its third year in East Hampton Village, kicks off with a cocktail party at the Maidstone Club next Thursday evening and continues with three days of discussions, tours, book signings, and interactive events.
This will be the first year that the festival has become its own nonprofit, led by one of its founders, Carrie Doyle. Those fascinated by mysteries, thrillers, forensics, cold cases, and real-life investigations will find plenty to intrigue them.
“We’re bringing these amazing New York Times best-selling fiction authors to talk about the art of writing mysteries and thrillers,” Ms. Doyle said. The more than two dozen fiction writers on the list of participants include Alafair Burke, also a founding honorary co-chair of the festival, Alyssa Cole, Joseph Finder, Alex Finlay, A.J. Finn, and Tess Gerritsen.
There will also be an impressive roster of true-crime experts, including reporters, retired police officers, and a retired F.B.I. special agent. In that category will be presenters like Martin H. Tankleff, now a lawyer, law professor, and special counsel who was himself wrongfully convicted as a teenager and served 17 years in prison before being exonerated. Nicholas Petraco, a forensic expert and art fraud investigator, will be one of the presenters, as will Sheryl McCollum, founder of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute. And East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen, a former village police chief and a co-founder of the festival, will give a talk of his own on Sunday on a confounding case involving the kidnapping, rape, and assault of a 14-year-old here in 1955.
The true-crime events will offer deep dives into cases that have made headlines over the years, from the Boston Strangler to Luigi Mangione, accused of killing Brian Thompson, a health insurance executive.
“People really respond to the cases they know,” said Ms. Doyle, a mystery writer herself. And attending programs like the ones to be found here next week, “you realize you don’t even know half the story.” Locals tend to come out for the true-crime programming, whereas the fiction authors tend to have followings that will travel from far and wide, she said.
Fiction programming will be primarily at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church’s Hoie Hall, while true-crime discussions happen at the East Hampton Library, but there will also be programs at Guild Hall, BookHampton, and Clinton Academy. Hugh King, East Hampton’s town historian, will lead free cemetery tours, and there will be free escape room challenges at the library.
“We’re really trying to promote it as a great experience for multi generations,” said Ms. Doyle, who is also a village board member. The festival’s mission “is to bring people into the village in the off-season to promote our businesses, but additionally we have an educational component.” To that end, Hamptons Whodunit will have two programs at East Hampton High School on Friday, April 11: one with an F.B.I. interrogator on the “art of interrogating,” and an interactive one on jury selection with two attorneys, Jacob Rolls and Cary London.
Ms. Doyle is excited to be working for the first time this year with Guild Hall, where on Friday, April 11, Ms. Burke will talk about the upcoming Prime Video adaptation of her thriller “The Better Sister” with its show runners, Olivia Milch and Regina Corrado. Chloe Melas of NBC News will moderate. Guild Hall members can attend this one for free.
A full list of events can be found at HamptonsWhodunit.org. Day passes cost $71.21 for Friday or Saturday panels and $28.52 on Sunday. Weekend panel passes are $128.89.
Tickets to the kickoff cocktail party at the Maidstone Club next Thursday from 6 to 8 are $150, with a pricier option for early access at 5 p.m.
