Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: barbara-venkataraman

  • SPOTLIGHT on M&Ms – Mystery & Mayhem AWARDS CIBAs – Cozy Mysteries, Amateur Sleuths, and more!

    SPOTLIGHT on M&Ms – Mystery & Mayhem AWARDS CIBAs – Cozy Mysteries, Amateur Sleuths, and more!

    Welcome to our SPOTLIGHT on the CHANTICLEER INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS (the CIBAs): the MYSTERY & MAYHEM Awards Deadline is upon us!

    We are seeking the best novels featuring “mystery and mayhem,” amateur sleuthing, romantic suspense, light suspense, travel mystery, classic mystery, British cozy, hobby sleuths, senior sleuths, or historical mystery. We will put them to the test and discover the best among them. (For thrillers, action suspense, detective, crime fiction see our Clue Awards)

    The APRIL 30th deadline for the Chanticleer Mystery & Mayhem Awards (aka M&Ms) has been extended until May 31, 2020 due to many requests for an extension due to these unprecedented times of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    In just a few short days, we go to work to uncover the hidden secrets, the lost key, the answer to the question, Whodunit?

    The 2019 Mystery and Mayhem FINALISTS were posted on April 30, 2020.

    Congratulations to these authors whose works have advanced to this new achievement level of the  Chanticleer International Book Awards in the Mystery and Mayhem Book Awards division.

     

    Michelle Cox won the 2018 GRAND PRIZE for Murder and Mystery for A Promise Given (A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Series, Book 3)

     

    The First in Category, First Place Winners for 2018 are:


     

     

    Carl & Jane Bock are the M&M Grand Prize winners in 2017 for Coronado’s Trail: An Arizona Borderlands Mystery

    The First in Category, First Place Winners for 2017 are:

     

    Alice K. Boatwright is the MYSTERY & MAYHEM Grand Prize winner in 2016 for Under an English Heaven!

    The First in Category, First Place Winners for 2016 are:

     

     

    Wendy Delaney is the  2015’s M&M Grand Prize Winner for There’s Something About Marty

    The First in Category, First Place Winners for 2015 are:

     

     

     

     

    Bernadette Pajer of the Professor Bradshaw Series — Fatal Induction took home the 2013 M&M Grand Prize

     

     

    Pamela Beason won GRAND PRIZE in 2012 for The Only Witness 

     

     

     

    Is your amateur sleuth suspicious of the little old lady who lives next door? Is there something wrong in Mayberry and your hero is going to find out what it is – no matter the cost? Are the stakes so high for your heroine, she succumbs to the hot, sexy delivery man who happens to be the guy with forty bodies buried in his basement? Is your character’s cat helping him solve the latest crime?

    If so, have we got the contest for you!

    Mystery & Mayhem

    Your book could earn a place in our M&M hall of fame for 2020!

    All you have to do is enter.

    And due to these unprecedented times, we have extended the deadline from April 30, 2020 to May 31, 2020.

    Unpublished Manuscripts and recently Published (Indie, Traditional, Hybrid) Novels (after Jan. 1, 2018) are accepted.

    Our Mystery & Mayhem Awards are the Chanticleer International Book Awards search for today’s best cozy mystery fiction books!

    Cozy Mystery Fiction Award

    Do not hesitate – or stop to solve a crime –

    the M&M Awards extended deadline is MAY, 31, 2020!

    Click here to enter – and good luck!

     

     

     

  • ENGAGED in DANGER: A JAMIE QUINN MYSTERY by Barbara-Venkataraman – Cozy Mystery/Thriller & Suspense, Amateur Sleuth

    ENGAGED in DANGER: A JAMIE QUINN MYSTERY by Barbara-Venkataraman – Cozy Mystery/Thriller & Suspense, Amateur Sleuth

    Did I really lose my guy to a Hairy-Nosed Wombat … a Northern Hairy-Nosed wombat? That’s the question that plagues attorney Jamie Quinn while she lays awake and stares at the ceiling every night. But it’s not too long after her boyfriend, Kip, drops his Save the Wombat bomb and flies off to Australia, that she has more immediate issues to keep her awake—secret business machinations, a hint of Russian collusion, blackmail, and murder, for starters.

    In Engaged in Danger – A Jamie Quinn Mystery by Barbara Venkataraman anything is possible. And even though Hollywood, Florida where Jamie lives and practices family law is a small, quiet town surprising things happen there.

    Three days after Kip announced his temp job and is packing for a three-month stint in Australia, an elegant, older woman walks into Jamie’s office seeking a divorce. Someone is trying to kill her spouse, but she doesn’t care—she just wants a divorce, and money is no problem. Interest piqued, Jamie soon learns the husband in question is the most “famous/infamous” (translated, rich, powerful, and politically connected) attorney in town. He also proves to be a crafty, dangerous opponent with fingers in many pies. On the home front, Jamie’s neighbors who are caring for their orphaned niece, ask Jamie to look into the details surrounding the recent plane crash that killed the child’s parents.

    Enlisting the assistance of her BFF, corporate attorney Grace Anderson, along with that of the charming PI, Duke Broussard, a good old Louisiana boy who has one foot on either side of the law, Jamie simultaneously takes on the high-profile divorce case and the suspicious airplane crash. What ensues is an intriguing mix of characters and events interwoven into a mystery that satisfies even the pickiest fan.

    While written as a stand-alone, this book is like a gift of Babushka dolls. Allusions to backstories and Jamie’s history with Kip, with her dad in Nicaragua whom she’s never met, with Grace, and with Duke can at times be distracting, at other times, tantalizing.

    Engaged in Danger is a fast-paced, well-written cozy with its complex, quirky characters, and unique plot brings unexpected twists and turns and has more than a bit of romance tucked between its pages. Venkataraman tempers the story with wry, self-deprecating humor that entertains and engages the mind, tickles the funny-bone, warms the heart, and leaves the reader ready for more.

    5 Star Best Book Chanticleer Reviews round silver sticker

     

     

  • The MYSTERY & MAYHEM Awards – First Place Category Winners 2016

    The MYSTERY & MAYHEM Awards – First Place Category Winners 2016

    Cozy Mystery Fiction AwardThe Mystery & Mayhem Awards writing competition recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of  Cozy Mysteries and Not-So-Cozy Mysteries. The Mystery & Mayhem Awards is a division of the Chanticleer Awards International Writing Competitions.

    We are honored to announce the 2016  M&M Awards Official First Place Category Winners.

    • Award Winning M&M Authors Alice Boatwright, Michelle Cox, Lucy Carol, Kate Vale, and Gay Yellen

      Humorous: Hot Scheming Mess by Lucy Carol

    • Romantic Suspense: Secrets Revealed by Kate Vale
    • Amateur Sleuth: Engaged in Danger: A Jamie Quinn Mystery by Barbara Venkataraman
    • Blended Genre: A Girl Like You: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel (The Henrietta and Inspector Howard series) by Michelle Cox
    • Historical Mystery: The Secret Life of Anna Blanc by Jennifer Kincheloe
    • Women Sleuths: The Body Next Door by Gay Yellen
    • Classic/British Cozy: Under an English Heaven by Alice K. Boatwright

    cac16The Mystery & Mayhem Short-Listers competed for these First Place Category positions. They authors and their works were recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Gala, Bellingham, Wash. that was held on April 1, 2017.

     

    CONGRATULATIONS to  Alice K. Boatwright, author of the MYSTERY & MAYHEM Grand Prize winner — Under an English Heaven!

    We are now accepting entries into the 2017  M&M Awards. The deadline is April 30, 2017.  Click here for more information or to enter.

    Congratulations to those who made the M&M AWARDS 2016 FINALISTS and SHORTLISTERS.

    More than $30,000 worth of cash and prizes will be awarded to the 2017 Chanticleer Novel Writing Competition winners! Fifteen different genres to enter your novels and compete on an international level.