Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: bernadette-pajer

  • 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!

     

     

     

  • Bernadette Pajer presents “Emotional Triggers” at CAC

    Bernadette Pajer presents “Emotional Triggers” at CAC

     vertical bj pajer downloadBernadette Pajer, author of the immensely popular Professor Bradshaw Mystery Series, will present a session on “Emotional Triggers that Resonate with Readers” at the Chanticleer Authors Conference 2014

    Emotional triggers unleash the reader’s imagination and create a resonance between the author and the reader. They build castles in the reader’s mind, they instill fear, or hope, or love, in the reader’s heart. Best of all, triggers engage the reader by allowing them the extreme pleasure of participating actively in the story.

    In this workshop, Bernadette Pajer will share her hard-earned “aha” moment that led her to coin the term “Triggers” and will show how you can use this powerful tool to engage your readers and create a loyal readership. 

    Seattle author Bernadette Pajer’s Professor Bradshaw Mystery Series is traditionally published by Poisoned Pen Press. This fast-paced and highly entertaining series takes place in Seattle in the time of Tesla. All four books in this series thus far have earned the coveted Washington Academy of Sciences Seal of Approval for Science.

    An excerpt of Chanticleer's review of this award winning series:

    “Pajer’s vivid writing takes readers to this exciting time that is in the crossroads of scientific investigation and innovation, when automobiles and horse drawn carts compete for the same streets, and the United States reels with political unrest and social upheaval. Readers will warm to the curmudgeonly and reserved professor who has a heart of gold and a penchant for investigation.”

    Discover how “emotional triggers” can take your writing to a new level and increase your readership–no matter what the genre, fiction or non-fiction!

    We invite you to meet other members of the Chanticleer International Community of Authors at this fun and informative three day event featuring:

    • CBR Awards Banquet – You don’t have to be a CBR winner to attend this exciting event.
    • Sessions, workshops, and panel discussions
    • Keynote Speakers: Shari Stauch, Tyler Bird, and Diane Isaacs
    • Networking opportunities
    • Prizes and drawings
    • Books By the Bay Bookfair

    Join us at the elegant  Hotel Bellwether on beautiful Bellingham Bay. Register today! 

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  • An Editorial Review of “Fatal Induction” by Bernadette Pajer

    An Editorial Review of “Fatal Induction” by Bernadette Pajer

    Set against the backdrop of a national tragedy—the assassination of President McKinley—Fatal Induction by Bernadette Pajer follows Professor Benjamin Bradshaw as he scrambles to catch a killer. The year is 1901 and Seattle is a vibrant and up-and-coming city. Bradshaw, a professor of electrical engineering and a passionate inventor, has entered a new invention competition for a  device that will carry the sounds of a musical theater production through telephone wires to listeners in the comfort of their own homes.

    Bradshaw is unaware that a seemingly trivial domestic concern at home is about to sweep him into the underworld of Seattle. With the needling of his housekeeper, Mrs. Prouty, Bradshaw inspects a peddler’s cart that has been abandoned near his house. “Ralph’s Redeeming Restorative” is emblazoned across the side and upon further investigation, Bradshaw discovers a small and well-loved doll inside the cart that must surely belong to a young girl.

    Bradshaw turns to good friend Detective James O’Brien for help in locating the girl and her father. He discovers the missing peddler’s body in his own neighborhood and quickly realizes that the only witness to his murder may be his missing daughter, Emily, which puts her in grave danger.

    When Bradshaw finds that solving the murder of a roving peddler is not high on the police department agenda, he must rely on his own skills of deduction to locate Emily. Bradshaw finds himself delving into the seedy underbelly of Seattle, the wicked tenderloin district. Death threats are quick to follow and Bradshaw finds himself embroiled in something much larger and more far-reaching than he ever suspected. Bradshaw has something else to cope with as well—his growing affection for a young woman named Missouri, the niece of his best friend and a woman Bradshaw feels he can never be with.

    Pajer’s vivid writing takes readers to this exciting time that is in the crossroads of scientific investigation and innovation, when automobiles and horse drawn carts compete for the same streets, and the United States reels with political unrest and social upheaval. Readers will warm to the curmudgeonly and reserved professor who has a heart of gold and a penchant for investigation. All four books in the series have earned the peer reviewed Washington Academy of Sciences Seal of Approval for scientific accuracy.

    Like all important novels, this mystery has wider implications for the larger world than the story is set in. We posit that the Professor Bradshaw series is on its way to being considered a classic in the mystery genre.

    “Fatal Induction” by Bernadette Pajer was awarded the Overall Grand Prize for Best Book in the Mystery and Mayhem Awards 2013, a division of Chanticleer Blue Ribbon Writing Competitions.

     

  • Bernadette Pajer, author of “The Professor Bradshaw Mystery Series”

    Bernadette Pajer, author of “The Professor Bradshaw Mystery Series”

    Bernadette Pajer“Thanks, Chanticleer, for all you do to help the world of books!”