New York Times best-selling author Cassandra King will be joined by a panel of “mysterious women” in conversation about Southern fiction during this year’s ninth annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival. The widow of Pat Conroy and the author of acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction, King will be joined on stage by Agatha Award-winning and USA Today bestselling novelist Susan M. Boyer (The Liz Talbot Mysteries), Alicia Bessette (The Outer Banks Bookshop Mysteries), and Kristen Ness (At Loggerheads). Carrie Feron, vice president and executive editor of Gallery Books, will also participate in this lively discussion as a special guest of the literary festival.
The Mysterious Women panel will be held on Saturday, November 2, at 11:00 a.m. at the USC Beaufort Center for the Arts (805 Carteret St. Beaufort). $15/person registration required, in advance or at the door. A book signing by the participating authors will follow their discussion.
To register for this special lowcountry literary event—and to learn more about the full schedule of events for the ninth annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival on November 1 and 2—please visit https://patconroyliteraryfestival2024.eventbrite.com or www.patconroyliteraryfestival.org.
About the Mysterious Women Panelists
Alicia Bessette is the bestselling author of the Outer Banks Bookshop
Alicia Bessette
mystery series. Book 1 in the series, Smile Beach Murder, was Edgar-nominated for the inaugural Lilian Jackson Braun Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Before penning fiction, Bessette worked as a reporter in her home state of Massachusetts, where she won a first-place award from the New England Press Association. Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary magazines. A pianist and editor, she now loves living in Beaufort with her husband, novelist Matthew Quick.
Susan M. Boyer is the author of the USA Today bestselling Liz Talbot
Susan M. Boyer
mystery series. Her debut novel, Lowcountry Boil, won the 2012 Agatha Award for Best First Novel, the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, and garnered several other award nominations. The third book in the series, Lowcountry Boneyard, was a Spring 2015 Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Okra Pick, and was short-listed for the 2016 Pat Conroy Beach Music Mystery Prize. Lowcountry Book Club was a Summer 2016 SIBA Okra Pick and was short-listed for the 2017 Southern Book Prize in Mystery & Detective Fiction. There are eleven full-length novels and one novella in the Liz Talbot Series. Big Trouble on Sullivan’s Island, a Carolina Tales novel and the start of a new series, won the 2024 Independent Publisher Book Award silver medal in Southeast Regional Fiction.
Carrie Feron is the Executive Editor of Fiction at Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster. She previously worked at Morrow/Avon, where she published more than 30 New York Times bestselling authors. Her legions of loyal writers—many of whom she has worked with for more than 25 years—include Meg Cabot, Deborah Crombie, Christine Feehan, Dorothea Benton Frank, Sunny Hostin, Eloisa James, Faye Kellerman, Lisa Kleypas, Laura Lippman, Sarah MacLean, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Julie Quinn, and Nora Roberts. She has edited at least one winner of every major mystery and romance award (Edgar, Anthony, Agatha, Shamus, RITA), and she herself has won multiple industry awards.
Cassandra King is an award winning and bestselling novelist whose
Cassandra King
fiction has won the hearts of readers everywhere, especially in the American south. Often told in first person, her novels portray strong and memorable characters who struggle with the same timely issues and dilemmas that readers face in their own lives. Before becoming an author, she has taught creative writing on the college level, conducted corporate writing seminars, and worked as a human-interest reporter. Cassandra resides in Beaufort, where she is honorary chair of the Pat Conroy Literary Center.
Kristen Ness grew up in South Carolina and serves as a volunteer for
Kristen Ness
the Island Turtle Team on Isle of Palms. A graduate of Duke University and the University of South Carolina School of Law, she is an immigration attorney obsessed with marine biology. She lives near the coast in Charleston, South Carolina, with her family. At Loggerheads is her first novel.
To learn more about the year-round educational programming of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, please visit www.patconroyliterarycenter.org. The Conroy Center is located at 601 Bladen Street in historic downtown Beaufort and open to the public for guided tours on Thursday through Sunday, noon to 4:00 p.m. (or other times by appointment).
