The Digital Magazine

There are a lot of fun ways to spend a weekend in East Hampton. The Hamptons Whodunit Festival happens in the bridge season, just as the town starts to wake up and show signs of spring.

For three days in April, the village fills with mystery writers, true crime experts, and readers who want to be in the room for both. The Hamptons Whodunit Festival feels intentionally small, although it grows every year. In year four, it drew a mix of New Yorkers, locals, and out of town visitors who planned their weekend around panels, book signings, workshops, and interactive events. As proof of its growing popularity, this year some events sold out within days of going on sale.

During the day, everything is within walking distance, so you can divide your time between true crime and fiction, or pick a seat and chat with other festival goers between sessions.

The Art of the Good Question

There were fiction panels where authors asked questions of their peers, and others where moderators guided the conversation toward craft and process. On several panels I attended, moderator Abby Dunn asked the questions the audience wanted answered, and kept the conversation moving.

In two others, Charlie Donlea and Alex Finlay asked direct questions of their peers, which kept the audience engaged and laughing for most of the hour. Their familiarity with each other’s work made for great conversations, and kept the atmosphere light.

Small Enough to Matter

The festival’s size makes the authors and experts more accessible, and the events are small enough to stay comfortable. There is time for Q and A, and there are enough seats. If you encounter a line, it is likely at a book signing or at Bostwick’s Chowder House, a local seafood spot that’s popular with locals and festival goers.

When It’s Real

The mix of true crime and fiction adds another layer of interest. On a true crime panel, Brad Beeler and Joe Giacalone walked the audience through interviewer techniques and interviewee tells. Both Beeler and Giacalone are friendly, clear, and direct with the capacity to peer through you in a way that belies their professional training. Barbara Butcher showed her maven colors in talking about her early days as a death investigator in a male-dominated department. She also shared her approach to crime scenes, with a focus on respecting the dignity of the person at the center of the investigation in a considerate, thoughtful way. Butcher’s humanity shone through in the way she reflected on the dead, which after a career of seeing the ugliest of the ugly, is a testament to her strength.

In “Restoring Identity through Forensic Art,” Joe Mullins gave a detailed look at how facial reconstruction works using human skulls. That session was followed by “Facial Approximation from Skeletal Remains,” a hands on workshop where participants could try to recreate a person’s identity from the clues provided. Mullins revealed the skull images we were using were of his real life friends, who randomly took images on a machine they had access to and gifted them to him to use with students.

What You Take Home

Full disclosure, if I had to choose a new favorite this year, it would be Gregg Hurwitz. If his writing carries even a fraction of the wit and charm he brought to the panel, I will enjoy every one of his Orphan X thrillers. Joe Mullins came in a close second, breaking down complex scientific process in a fascinating way that would be welcome at any dinner party. My reading list always gets longer after this festival, and this year was no exception.

Part of what makes this festival work is how easy it is to be in East Hampton this time of year. The leafy, picturesque town is calm, and easy to move around in, a sharp contrast to peak summer. You move from one panel to the next on foot, run into the same faces more than once, and pick up conversations again without effort. It feels like a small town weekend built around stories.

Once again, I left the 4th annual Hamptons Whodunit Festival with signed books, new people to follow and connect with, good stories, and plans to come back.