By Henry Luzzatto

Correspondent

Suspense and intrigue make their way to Suffolk this month in the Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival, which will be held from 1 to 6 p.m. Aug. 22 at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, 110 Finney Ave.

The second festival, a partnership between Suffolk Tourism, the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts and the Suffolk Public Library, will feature 24 different bestselling authors of cozy mysteries, suspense, romance and women’s fiction from all over.

“They’re national bestsellers,” Theresa Earles, Suffolk’s tourism development manager, said. “You can see their books online or at Barnes & Noble. They’re well known.”

The event will feature multiple moderated panel discussions, book signings, writing workshops and more.

Panels during the event will discuss everything from the role of romance in mystery novels to the anatomy of a mystery to how to get published, Earles said.

Before the event opens up to the public, there will be a private VIP meet-and-greet starting at noon. The meet-and-greet is new to the event, said Jackie Cherry, director of the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts.

One can sign up for the VIP meet-and-greet for $15, but there only a few spaces left on the VIP list, Cherry said.

Cherry said she expects this year’s event to be an even larger success than the first Mystery Authors Festival, held in November. Last year, the festival featured 11 authors and had nearly 350 participants.

“The response has been overwhelming,” Cherry said.

Earles said she expects broadening the scope of the event to authors of different genres will help expand participation and get more people interested.

Earles said she is particularly looking forward to some of the big-name writers that will be present at the event, such as Ellery Adams, LynDee Walker, and the two-person writing team known by the pseudonym Sparkle Abbey.

She said Suffolk Tourism hopes to expand the event even more in the future, making it into a two-day event next year, and possibly introducing a movie element or more genres to the festival, she said.

For more information, visit www.suffolkmysteryauthorsfestival.com.