Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: david-t-isaak

The 2025 Clue Spotlight for Thriller/Suspense Fiction
Lock Your Doors and Leave the Lights On!

The Clue Awards Spotlight the Darker Side of Crime Fiction

The submissions for the 2025 Awards are underway, and Clue closes submissions on July 30, 2025!

The Clue Awards celebrate the grittier, more intense side of crime and mystery fiction—where shadows hold secrets, justice comes at a cost, and the line between hero and villain blurs. While cozy mysteries offer comfort, the Clue Awards recognize the authors who aren’t afraid to explore the darker corners of human nature and criminal minds.

From psychological thrillers that keep readers awake at night to political conspiracies ripped from today’s headlines, the Clue Awards honor the storytellers who understand that the best crime fiction doesn’t just entertain—it reveals uncomfortable truths about the world we live in.

You know you want it…

The Categories That Define Crime Excellence
- Detective/Crime features the classic investigative stories where seasoned detectives and determined cops work to solve cases that challenge both their skills and their moral compass.
- Suspense/Thriller delivers heart-pounding tension and psychological complexity—think Gone Girl meets The Silence of the Lambs, where every page turn could reveal a shocking twist.
- Private Eye/Noir captures the atmospheric world of hard-boiled investigators and morally ambiguous characters navigating corruption and betrayal in the tradition of Raymond Chandler and modern masters like Tana French.
- Legal/Medical/Police Procedural combines professional expertise with compelling storytelling—from courtroom dramas to forensic mysteries that showcase the intersection of science and justice.
- US Political Thriller explores the dangerous world of power, corruption, and conspiracy in American politics, more relevant than ever in today’s climate.
- Spy/Espionage/Undercover delves into the shadowy world of international intrigue, double agents, and high-stakes missions where one wrong move could mean death.
- True Crime/Investigation represents our newest unique non-fiction category, recognizing the section in the bookstore right next to thrillers. Stories of real criminal events that will chill you.
Celebrating Our 2024 Clue Grand Prize Winner for Thriller/Suspense!

John DeDakis with his Clue Grand Prize Ribbon

After months of reviewing entries, we’re thrilled to announce that John DeDakis claimed the 2024 Clue Grand Prize with his politically charged thriller Enemies Domestic! This achievement is particularly meaningful given DeDakis’s extraordinary background as a CNN Senior Copy Editor and former White House correspondent who covered presidents Reagan and Carter.

DeDakis brings authentic expertise to the political thriller genre that few authors can match. His 25-year career at CNN, including his role as Senior Copy Editor for “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” provides him with insider knowledge of how political crises unfold—knowledge that translates into gripping, believable fiction.

Enemies Domestic represents the pinnacle of political thriller writing: a story that feels ripped from tomorrow’s headlines, crafted by someone who’s spent decades in America’s newsrooms. In addition to all the featured posts that have already gone out for the Clue Awards, Enemies Domestic will be regularly promoted throughout the year and for the next five years in our upcoming Hall of Fame post. John DeDakis will also be invited to participate in a Chanticleer 10-Question Interview, and Enemies Domestic will receive a coveted Chanticleer Editorial Review.

Looking for Your Next Edge-of-Your-Seat Read?

Check out some of these incredible crime and thriller books we’ve reviewed recently that showcase the diversity and intensity of the genre!

BUTTERFLY PINNED
By Leslie Liautaud

Fleeing a small and troubled life back home, college student Marin falls headfirst into the attention of the fabulous, wealthy, and mercurial Bette. In Leslie Liautaud’s psychological thriller Butterfly Pinned, Marin gives body and soul to Bette for agonizing want of transformation.

Marin has toiled for the chance to become someone new and continues to fall back into her old limitations. Even as she moves to Chicago with a college scholarship, she struggles to escape the shadows of anxiety and poor self-esteem. But a chance meeting with Bette Winston casts her in glorious and terrible light.

Bette enthralls Marin with poetry, luxury, and the backdoor invitation to a world of refined grandeur. She convinces Marin to double-major in philosophy, while pulling her away from classes and all other mundane responsibilities. Marin gets to share this new world with Bette’s high-class friends Ozzie and Harry, shunning any connection to her old, embarrassing life. But as she meets those who know Bette beneath her lustrous glamor, Marin glimpses a sinister history.

Read more here!

WHERE The SLEEPING LADY LIES
By M.E. Schuman

An Environmental Thriller inspired by the 9.2 Good Friday earthquake of 1964 in South Central Alaska, M.E. Schuman’s Where the Sleeping Lady Lies is a story of political espionage and environmental danger.

The legend of the Sleeping Lady is a tale of a giant woman who falls asleep waiting for her lover to return from battle. When tragic news arrives that her lover was killed, the other women cannot bear to wake her, and to this day the Sleeping Lady still lies as part of the landscape.

In the present day, Sam is on her way back to Alaska, a few weeks after a catastrophic earthquake has hit.

Read more here!

SMITE The WATERS: The Isaak Collection
By David T. Isaak

Smite the Waters by David T. Isaak begins with the xenophobic billionaire Rex Atwater whose goal is to eliminate terrorism. His certainty that it’s “us” or “them” has led him to one horrifying conclusion: he must nuke Mecca.

Convinced of his twisted plot’s perfection, Atwater assembles a deadly team. Carla Smukowski is a military assassin mourning the death of her brother. Boyce Hammond works as a covert FBI agent deeply entrenched in a right-wing movement. And rounding out the cast is Gerald Graves, a nuclear expert willing to commit this heinous crime. Together, they vow to annihilate terrorism.

Virtually every character in this story is fully fleshed out, gritty and driven, to draw the reader deep into their individual stories.

Read more here!

SOMETHING I KEEP UPSTAIRS
By J.D. Barker

An old and hungry thing wakes beneath the house on Wood Island. It calls out to another generation of children. In J.D. Barker’s supernatural mystery, Something I Keep Upstairs, a circle of New Castle teenagers digs up the unholy secrets of those who came before them.

When the hermit Geraldine Rote dies without clear cause, her grandson Spivey inherits Wood Island and the historic house upon it. He plans to spend the summer as a carefree sixteen-year-old rather than submitting to another round of cancer treatments. With the help of the mysterious estate lawyer Marston, Spivey escapes his parents’ reach.

At first, the island becomes a perpetual party, drawing an endless stream of kids and alcohol. But only a few learn the truth behind Wood Island’s dark stories.

Read more here!

These reviews are only a glimpse of the compelling criminal minds and complex investigations waiting to be discovered in today’s crime fiction.

See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!

We’re excited about all the exceptional books we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. Throughout this year’s Clue Book Awards, we had the pleasure of promoting more than fifty books as they advanced through our competition tiers. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!

This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each advancement tier is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter! Your book deserves to be discovered.

Don’t Let Your Crime Story Remain Unsolved!

Submission Deadline: July 30, 2025

The crime and thriller market is more competitive than ever, but readers are hungry for authentic, well-crafted stories that keep them guessing until the final page. Whether your thriller explores political corruption, features a hardboiled detective, or investigates a real criminal case, the Clue Awards provide the recognition and promotion platform your work deserves.

Crime fiction has the power to illuminate society’s darkest corners while delivering the satisfaction of justice served. Don’t let your story remain in the shadows—submit to the Clue Awards today and join the ranks of celebrated crime writers who’ve found their audience through Chanticleer!

Submit to the Clue Awards today!
June 16, 2025
Memorial Day Tribute: Remembering Why Men and Women of the Military Sacrifice for Us

Remember and Honor the Military Personnel Who Died While Serving on this Memorial Day!

Few figures stand as prominently in American history as the Founding Fathers of the United States. They were men of words, deeds, and oratory. We rely on their words to set legal precedents for this great nation, and to tell the world how our vision of a “government of the people, and by the people” should be structured and what our core values should be.

In the U.S.A., Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance of those who died in service to their country. The holiday was officially proclaimed in 1868 to honor Union and Confederate soldiers who lost their lives in the Civil War.

The latest historical research has the Civil War death toll at 850,000. This number has surpassed all the other wars the U.S.A. has fought in combined. The population was estimated to be approximately 31 million (not counting Native Americans or Black Americans).

Click here to access the U.S. Census Memorial Day Infographic for more information and the complete infographic.

The important takeaway from this graphic is that all other wars, skirmishes, conflicts, and battles that the US has been involved with combined, none have taken the toll that the war that took place on the U.S. soil—the Civil War—has. Period.

Civil War Death Toll: 850,000 deaths (latest research)

All Other US Military Involvements since 1870s until 2020: 707,081 deaths

Memorial Day is one of three official days The United States has to honor those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces.

In remembrance of the many military troops who have given their lives defending our country throughout its history, we’ve put together a list of quotes from our Founding Fathers. The principles they wrote down in the Founding Documents are the ideals our troops continue to sacrifice their lives to defend.

Each quote selected for this patriotic collection not only captures the essence of the revolutionary spirit that permeates our national conscience. The following quotes also illuminate the intellectual thought, moral depth, and strength of conviction infused into the American democratic system.

The Federalist Papers, authors Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay

“To all general purposes we have uniformly been one people each individual citizen everywhere enjoying the same national rights, privileges, and protection.” ― Alexander Hamilton

“A good Government implies two things: first, fidelity to the object of Government, which is the happiness of the People; secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best attained.” ― James Madison

“Justice is the constant and perpetual will to allot to every man his due.” ― John Jay

Common Sense, author Thomas Paine

“The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind.”

“Such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.”

“Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.”

Articles of Confederation and the Massachusetts Constitution – The Continental Congress

“In a republic, power is shared among the people.”

“All states are equal and have an equal voice in Congress.”

“The central government cannot infringe upon individual liberties.”

The Declaration of Independence

“A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people”

“We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America…solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”

The Constitution of the United States

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens.”

“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

And one last quote from a Founding Father for all our book lovers!

“I cannot live without books.”

– Thomas Jefferson

Thank you to veterans everywhere!

As many of you know, the head and founder of Chanticleer Book Reviews, Kiffer Brown is a self-described military brat. Her father, brother, her Aunt Ellen, nephews, and cousins have served or are serving in the military. Recognizing and honoring the service of those in the Armed Forces is a longstanding tradition for Kiffer and her family.

All of us at Chanticleer have family who have served, and that makes holidays like Memorial Day important to us. We ask you to take time out of your day to remember the veterans in your life and those who have died in active service on this day of reflection.

In the United States, Memorial Day occurs annually on the last Monday in May. This year that date falls on May 26th. We want to celebrate the authors who bring our soldiers’ stories to life on the page. Here are just a few reviews of books with a military theme that we highly recommend!

A GRAND PAUSE: A Novel on May 14, 1945, the USS Randolph, Kamikazes, and the Greatest Air-Sea Rescue
By Gary Santos

In A Grand Pause: A Novel on May 14, 1945, the USS Randolph, Kamikazes, and the Greatest Air-Sea Rescue by Gary Santos, readers board the US Naval aircraft carrier alongside its crewmen as World War II’s Pacific Theater reaches a critical point.

This compelling novel opens with a startling description of the US Navy caught in the bloodiest and longest battle in its history. Through a wide cast of characters, from sailors to pilots, officers to the deck crew, everyone plays a vital role in keeping the USS Randolph running amidst the most heated naval combat of World War II.

Santos writes every moment of these nightmarish battles with intensity and authenticity.

Rich details provide a visceral experience for the reader as they feel, see, and breathe each nuance of the desperate fight to stop the kamikazes from reaching their targets. These kamikaze attacks move so quickly readers will need to catch their breath. To feel as if an attack is truly happening while turning the pages is a testament to Santos’s talent. His entwining of fact with fiction is seamless.

Continue reading here…

COMBAT MISSIONS (non-fiction)
By Burl D. Harmon
Military and Front Line First Place CIBA Winner

Sometimes, a close and personal story can reveal the true weight of major historical events. Combat Missions, a memoir from WWII veteran Burl D. Harmon, achieves this by detailing how Europe’s vicious aerial battles shape a young boy’s entry to manhood.

On December 7, 1941, Harmon is summoned to his high school’s auditorium to hear President Roosevelt proclaim it as, “a day which will live in infamy…” Soon after, his draft notice arrives. Harmon’s junior college studies and work at the local Rexall drug store are put on hold as he joins the vast flood of young American men and women conscripted into military service. Leaving his small Iowa town and a family mostly sheltered from the grim realities of the outside world, he travels to New York City with people from every imaginable background.

Read the full review here!

SMITE The WATERS: The Isaak Collection
By David T. Isaak

Smite the Waters by David T. Isaak begins with the xenophobic billionaire Rex Atwater whose goal is to eliminate terrorism. His certainty that it’s “us” or “them” has led him to one horrifying conclusion: he must nuke Mecca.

Convinced of his twisted plot’s perfection, Atwater assembles a deadly team. Carla Smukowski is a military assassin mourning the death of her brother. Boyce Hammond works as a covert FBI agent deeply entrenched in a right-wing movement. And rounding out the cast is Gerald Graves, a nuclear expert willing to commit this heinous crime. Together, they vow to annihilate terrorism.

Virtually every character in this story is fully fleshed out, gritty and driven, to draw the reader deep into their individual stories.

Continue reading here…

THE WOLF HUNTER: DESOLATION: Mack Murphy Series Book 1
By Terrence O’Malia

In The Wolf Hunter: Desolation, Book One of Terrence O’Malia’s Mack Murphy series, staff sergeant Mack Murphy is convinced there are three types of people: sheep, wolves, and hunters.

The sweet, innocent, dutiful sheep are blissfully unaware of the deadly wolves that could strike at any time. But thankfully, the hunters protect the sheep and even seek out the wolves to prevent their attacks on the flock. Mack defines himself steadfastly as a wolf hunter. He loves his family with all his heart and would do anything to protect them.

Mack’s protective nature continues into his military life where he is part of a team based in the mountains of Afghanistan. Just as it is with his family, he pledges his full allegiance to his team.

Continue Reading here…

Frozen Conquest
By Randall Krzak
Global Thriller First Place CIBA Winner

Frozen Conquest by Randall Krzak is a thrilling and intense conflict between the cold of Antarctica and the blazing ambition of those seeking global control, fusing the issues of power, greed, and survival into a high-stakes adventure.

The icy edge of Antarctica serves as the center of a sinister organization, Diablo Corps. The ruthless leader, Walter Brown, threatens global mayhem if his aspirations for power are not met. With technological efficiency and the ability to disrupt critical infrastructure, Diablo Corps is poised to leverage its capabilities against the G7. Soon, an anonymous climate-related warning is sent out, with events such as the hacking of the London metal exchange proving to authorities the true weight of that threat.

Continue reading here…

Thank you again to the authors who wrote these wonderful books.

Do you have a book with a military theme that deserves to be discovered?

You can always submit your book for an Editorial Review with Chanticleer!

Chanticleer Editorial Review Packages are optimized to maximize your digital footprint. Reviews are one of the most powerful tools available to authors to help sell and market their books. Find out what all the buzz is about here.

Have an Award Winner?

Your Story of Service Matters

Submitting to Book Awards is a great way to get your book discovered!

Anytime you advance in the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards, your name and book are promoted right here on our website, through our newsletter, and across social media. One of the best ways to engage in long tail marketing!

Make Your Military Story Stand Out

Speaking of making books discoverable – if you’re heading to Memorial Day events, summer conferences, or local bookstore appearances with your military-themed book, don’t forget the power of those eye-catching details that help readers notice your work. Our foil stickers have helped countless authors make that crucial first impression at hand sales events.

To honor this Memorial Day weekend, we’re offering 10% off all sticker orders through May 31st with code SPRINGSTICKERSALE. Whether you’re showcasing a military fiction novel, memoir, or historical work, a professional foil sticker can make all the difference when your book is competing for attention at events where service stories matter most.

Ready to make your story shine? Visit our sticker selection here and use code SPRINGSTICKERSALE at checkout to save 10%.

We honor all those service members who continue to inspire us, protect us, and who have sacrificed their lives for our nation!

Thank you again to the authors who wrote these wonderful books, and to all those service members who continue to inspire us!

May 25, 2025
SMITE The WATERS: The Isaak Collection by David T. Isaak – Terrorism Thriller, Conspiracy Thriller, International Mystery & Crime

Smite the Waters by David T. Isaak begins with the xenophobic billionaire Rex Atwater whose goal is to eliminate terrorism. His certainty that it’s “us” or “them” has led him to one horrifying conclusion: he must nuke Mecca.

Convinced of his twisted plot’s perfection, Atwater assembles a deadly team. Carla Smukowski is a military assassin mourning the death of her brother. Boyce Hammond works as a covert FBI agent deeply entrenched in a right-wing movement. And rounding out the cast is Gerald Graves, a nuclear expert willing to commit this heinous crime. Together, they vow to annihilate terrorism.

Virtually every character in this story is fully fleshed out, gritty and driven, to draw the reader deep into their individual stories.

Carla stumbles through a haze of alcohol, no job prospects and no money to fall back on. But even under the influence, she carries herself with violent prowess, showing the years of military action that have made her such a valuable operative for Atwater. And her dire straits are no position from which to refuse his offer—not that the rage over her brother’s death would let her anyway. Well-used to death, Carla drowns sympathy for the innocent under blood spilled by the guilty.

Hammond, after years deep undercover, wants out. But the chance to catch a man like Atwater is too great for his superiors to allow his return to his own life. Catching the FBI’s white whale means putting himself in greater danger than ever, and even the Bureau couldn’t have predicted the scope of Atwater’s plan. As he realizes the true global peril Atwater poses, Hammond has to put his own safety aside for the sake of countless others.

Dr. Gerald Graves is rescued from a rough and wrongful Patriot-Act empowered imprisonment and delivered the means to address serious nuclear disarmament—at least, as far as Atwater cares to tell him. Because, while some people can be paid enough to work any scheme, true believers in a mission are driven beyond their own sake. And as Atwater knows very well, that true belief can be directed to unparalleled violence.

This dynamic cast is a highlight of Smite the Waters. Readers of the thriller genre might be used to shadowy figures who forward the narrative without much character behind them, but in this book, every person has their reasons for being here—whether they stand with or against Atwater.

Smite the Waters careens like a nuclear bomb towards total disaster.

Atwater’s goal—the destruction of Mecca to shatter the Muslim world and remove it as a threat to America—spurs intrigue and tension alike. Thriller readers will obsess over every revealed detail, trying to intuit how the grand plan will play out as some forces move to make it happen and others work against the clock to prevent it. Highjacking a cargo ship full of nuclear waste from Indonesia, turning it into a destructive bomb, and delivering it to its intended target is all in the plan, but can it be executed?

Smite the Water by David T. Isaak is a thriller filled with action and intrigue that takes you on a complicated, perilous race. Along the way, it’s left to the reader to find out who it is that will reap the rewards, and who will suffer the consequences.

April 16, 2025
The 2024 M&M Mystery and Mayhem Awards Spotlight for Cozy & Not-so-Cozy Fiction
Got a Marketing Mystery for your Cozy Mystery?

Solve it by entering the M&M Book Awards!

The Mystery and Mayhem Awards is inspired by the works of Agatha Christie, one of the most influential crime writers in history, and along with Arthur Conan Doyle, led to the prevalence of the British Crime genre, in both TV and Books. M&M focuses on Cozy Mysteries, where the violence is often pushed aside, and the Amateur Sleuth reigns supreme. Why have Police and Detectives solve a mystery when meddling old ladies like Miss Marple can do it better.

In contrast to this we have the Clue Awards. Clue is the more violent, gritty, thriller and suspense type mysteries.

The Categories for the M&M Awards are:
- Amateur Sleuth
- Romantic Mystery
- Historical Mystery
- Classic/ British Cozy
- Mystery Caper/ Adventure
- Animal Mystery
- Small Town Cozy Mystery
- Blended Genre
You know you want it…

Enter Today!

We are delighted to celebrate the 2023 Winners of the Mystery & Mayhem Awards who have already started to make their mark on the genre!
- Liese Sherwood-Fabre – The Adventure of the Purloined Portrait
- Gail Grant Park – We Are Shadows: An Irish Ghost Story
- Rebecca Olmstead – Dreams and Illusions
- Elizabeth Crowens – Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles
- Patrick E. Craig – The Quilt That Knew
- E. W. Finke – Coyote’s Wail
- Lyn Squire – Immortalised to Death
The Grand Prize Winner for the 2023 Mystery & Mayhem Awards is:

A Haunting at Linley

A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel

By Michelle Cox

And now it is our pleasure to highlight some of the best Cozy and Not-so-Cozy Mystery Books we’ve had the pleasure of reading this summer!

IF TWO ARE DEAD: A Garnick & Paschal Mystery
By Jeanne Matthews

An enigmatic raven-haired beauty mysteriously murdered and cast into a stranger’s grave, left for scurrilous resurrection men to uncover in the dark of night! In Jeanne Matthews’s historical mystery If Two Are Dead, Detectives Quinn Paschal and Gabriel Garnick take up this case of vicious murder and ignite a mire of secrets and resentment at the pinnacle of 1867 Chicago society.

After catching the body-snatchers in the act of stealing a freshly buried corpse to sell for medical research, Quinn and Garnick realize the body found in Emmett Buck’s grave is by no means that of a young man, but that of a woman, whose bloody head and clean clothes point to a complex mystery. With only her appearance and some identifying jewelry, Quinn insists they can and will catch the killer of ‘Marietta A.V.’ Enlisting the help of an unscrupulous journalist, they locate her husband, a wealthy and influential doctor.

The woman’s husband, Dr. Horace E. Vinings, offers them an incredible reward if they can find Marietta’s killer. But Quinn and Garnick suspect he might not like the answer he receives.

Read more here!

PARALLEL SECRETS
By ML Barrs

In the small Missouri town of Walkers Corner, it seems everyone has a dark secret. In Parallel Secrets by ML Barrs, a TV journalist comes to town to do a magazine piece on a missing girl and begins uncovering many of those hidden stories.

Motivated by feelings of guilt for not following up on a previous unsolved case, Vicky Robeson’s joins the search for the missing child. She’s tenacious in her investigation. As a TV station journalist currently between jobs, she has well-honed investigative skills, specifically in her ability to wheedle stories from even the most reluctant people. She’s familiar with Walkers Corner; and as a reporter for a St. Louis TV station, she covered the case of a never-identified mystery girl. She believes the two cases are connected. The similarities that link these cases to her own experiences as a child make her unable to let this new story go.

Safe to say, her investigating is not welcomed by most of the locals in this close-knit town.

Read more here!

THE GHOST In The GARDEN
By Alisse Lee Goldenberg

In Alisse Goldberg’s engaging young adult mystery, The Ghost in the Garden, a curious 11-year-old must face the challenges of moving to a new city, losing old friends, making new ones, and encountering historic specters in her new home.

Sophie Madison seems none too happy about her recent move from the bustling city of Calgary, Ablerta to the smaller, quieter landscape of Stratford, Ontario. But upon arrival with her parents, she begins noticing the charm of the place, appearing like a step back in time. Their new house in particular catches her interest, with its tall turret topped by stained glass window panes where Sophie’s bedroom will be. In addition, the wild beauty of the backyard garden draws her in.

Soon, a mysterious blonde-headed girl named Tabitha appears in the garden.

Read more here!

THINGS UNSEEN
By David T. Isaak

After the murder of his sister, Dr. Walker Claybourne journeys to the Yucca Valley to wrap up Claire’s affairs– including the investigation, in David T. Isaak’s mystery novel, Things Unseen.

As a geology professor at the University of California in San Diego, a leading authority on volcanic landforms of the Southwest, Walker lives a life as solid and routine as the very rocks he studies. He has his tenure, his condo, and his quiet existence. On sabbatical to write a textbook, Walker plans on staying in Claire’s rented house just long enough to pack her things. However, he isn’t there long before guilt sets in as he realizes how little he knew his only sister.

With his parents both dead and his only other sibling teaching at Cambridge, Walker realizes how very alone he is, and he decides to investigate Claire’s murder.

Read more here!

Thank you to these authors for sharing these wonderful mysteries with us!

We hope to see your work in the 2024 M&M Awards!

This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs Levels of Achievement is so worthwhile! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each list is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter!

Your book deserves to be discovered
September 19, 2024
EARTHLY VESSELS by David T. Isaak – Metaphysical Fiction, Coming of Age, Mystical Fiction

In Earthy Vessels by David T. Isaak, Crystal Keeling encounters a mystical power that sends her on a journey of true chaos.

Crystal wasn’t necessarily seeking spiritual enlightenment on the streets of Manhattan, but there were certainly plenty of fools and charlatans peddling it back in 1969 – as well as both legal and illegal means of achieving ‘higher consciousness’ one way or another.

Fortunately – and unfortunately – for Crystal, the man who found her, cult leader Anton Reginald LaMarr, and his Children of Pan were the real deal, whether they knew it or not. They had discovered a ritual that could draw down the soul of a Hero, and planned to implant that Hero’s soul into Crystal – using the usual orgiastic methods.

Crystal was fine with the ritual sex but had not signed up for imprisonment and pregnancy. She ran far and fast and never looked back.

When she discovered that she really was pregnant despite the birth control regimen she religiously maintained, she took it in stride – as did all the other members of whichever commune or co-op she happened to be living in at the time.

The child, however, a boy she named Rainbow Bounty, rebelled against her counterculture lifestyle every bit as much as Crystal had rebelled against her conservative upbringing before him.

Thus, readers follow Rainbow Bounty, who calls himself by his initials RB, pronounced ‘Arby’, because having people in the early 2000s think you’re named for a brand of fast food is much better than advertising that your mother was and still is a ‘flower child’. Arby makes his way from a job in the oil fields of Bahrain to Portland, Oregon because his mother hinted that there is a life-threatening event on the horizon.

But she’s not the one whose life is about to be threatened and thrown off its course.

The ritual that gave Arby life is about to come crashing down on his head – one way or another – and the fate of the world rests on him reconnecting with the abilities of his past lifetimes.

Whether those abilities will help or hinder is a crapshoot of the highest order, because Arby isn’t the avatar of some long-dead Hero or God. That would be much too easy. Arby is, as he has so often been in his life, the avatar of chaos, the embodiment of Murphy’s Law.

Arby is destiny’s Fool, and his purpose is to cast all plans into disarray. Even his own.

Earthly Vessels, beginning as it does in the counterculture movement of the 1960s, reads with a sense of nostalgia for that brief era, and Crystal’s acceptance of and equally brief involvement with the Children of Pan fits right in with books of the time, from the Harrad Experiment to Stranger in a Strange Land.

As the story moves from Crystal to Arby, a different perspective emerges, as the reader learns Arby’s place in the post-9/11 world right along with him. Arby discovers his expected role at a compelling pace, as there are forces beyond his understanding searching for him – on both sides of the cosmic balance that human shorthand calls ‘good’ and ‘evil’.

The scope of Arby’s story, diving deeply into that longest of long-running battles, with avatars fighting on both sides of the divide, will remind readers of both Good Omens and American Gods.

Earthly Vessels is both a deep exploration of the philosophy of the cosmos and a compelling thriller in one breathless story.

Arby is a protagonist readers can easily empathize with, an Everyman who rises to an occasion he never dreamed was possible, doing his damnedest along a path he doesn’t fully understand.

This story will keep readers turning pages as fast as they can, from the first until the surprising, fitting, and delightful last.

April 24, 2024
A MAP Of The EDGE by David T. Isaak – 1960s, Coming of Age, Psychological Fiction

To say that fifteen-year-old Rick Leibnitz has had a difficult childhood would be an understatement. Abandoned by his mother when he was eleven and left with a physically and mentally abusive father, Rick’s teenage anger is justified in A Map of the Edge by David T. Isaak.

After a violent episode with his father, Rick is caught holding drugs for a girl he hopes to impress and is sent to a juvenile detention center. There, he refuses to capitulate to the demands of his jailers until his probation officer offers him not only a possible reprieve but also, for the first time in his life, listens to Rick’s problems.

When he is handed back to his father’s custody, his nightmare life continues until Rick is befriended by Lincoln Ellard. Linc finds Rick a place to stay after a vicious beating from his father, and the two quickly become inseparable, with Linc eventually bringing Rick in on his drug dealing business. In his adolescent mind, Rick has it made–drugs, girls, popularity, but the good times end abruptly when a rival drug dealer attacks Rick and Linc, leaving their relationship perpetually plagued. When a close friend nearly overdoses, Rick again finds himself in over his head.

The novel’s title perfectly sums up Rick’s predicament. He is on the edge of everything.

Rick hovers on the edge of adulthood in many ways. At fifteen, he is too young to get a job or to be on his own, stuck living with his cruel, angry father who takes out his own wasted choices on everyone else. Rick can remember the beatings his mother suffered, and he feels that her leaving him is justice for his lack of action to protect her. But now, he has become the target of his father’s wrath and can’t legally escape it. Eventually, he refuses to even try to get along with his father and chooses defiance, which leads to even worse treatment.

Not physically big enough to stand up to his father, he seeks an escape in alcohol and drugs, a decision which leads to his first sexual encounter with the girl whose punishment he took on himself. Both the juvenile detention and that encounter push him again closer to the edge of adulthood. He romanticizes his imprisonment as a chivalrous gesture that is sure to lead to a grateful and lovesick Stacy. When she refuses him after his release, he’s pushed beyond his emotional capacity and turns to self-harm in multiple ways.

After meeting Linc, Rick thinks his life is finally turning around.

Linc convinced Rick that the drugs they sell and use aren’t really hurting anyone but instead are expanding their thinking. The two of them skirt the edge of reality and LSD-induced illumination. For a time, Rick lives on this edge of 1960s teenage idealism. He parties, with others and alone, has sex with lots of girls, and makes excessive amounts of money with little effort. He listens to Linc’s pontificating, believing him to be enlightened and knowledgeable.

When the boys are attacked by rival drug dealers, Rick reaches the edge where the fun stops and danger becomes real. His entire perception changes, and he cleans himself up as he and Linc drift apart. When Lisby, one of Linc’s many girlfriends, tries to commit suicide, Rick finally takes the advice of his probation officer, Leo, seriously. As his only true champion, Leo has attempted to keep Rick on the straight and narrow throughout the novel, but it isn’t until this last near-tragedy that Rick seems to understand. While the edge is exciting, its precariousness leads to destruction.

March 20, 2024
THINGS UNSEEN: The Isaak Collection by David T. Isaak – Murder Mystery, Amateur Sleuth, Mysticism

After the murder of his sister, Dr. Walker Claybourne journeys to the Yucca Valley to wrap up Claire’s affairs– including the investigation, in David T. Isaak’s mystery novel, Things Unseen.

As a geology professor at the University of California in San Diego, a leading authority on volcanic landforms of the Southwest, Walker lives a life as solid and routine as the very rocks he studies. He has his tenure, his condo, and his quiet existence. On sabbatical to write a textbook, Walker plans on staying in Claire’s rented house just long enough to pack her things. However, he isn’t there long before guilt sets in as he realizes how little he knew his only sister.

With his parents both dead and his only other sibling teaching at Cambridge, Walker realizes how very alone he is, and he decides to investigate Claire’s murder.

His initial stop with the detective covering the case leaves him more confused than enlightened, so Walker turns to Claire’s friends, a strange group of both mystics and intellectuals. He quickly begins to see the complex woman his little sister was– counselor, reformer, and spiritual pilgrim. As the mystery deepens, the questions yield a plethora of suspects, while Walker faces multiple attacks on himself. He gradually begins to questions his own beliefs and long-standing intellectualism the more he learns about Claire.

This novel offers a fresh and complex take on the journey of self-realization.

In the beginning, Walker is a well-established skeptic and intellectual. His entire existence is built upon scientific observation and proof, the kind one can see and touch. He absolutely refuses to believe in the psychic visions of Claire’s friend Mandy or the Wiccan glamour spell entrancing him to another friend, Melanie.

Where Claire is passionate, seeing the power in the beautiful and often deadly landscape surrounding her, Walker is coldly calculating, analyzing those measurable traits easily explained by his many years of study and research. He admits that his life has been about endurance, a “doggedness” that has gotten him both his tenure and his lack of true friends.

However, Walker knows this stubbornness is exactly what he needs to keep him on the scent of Claire’s killer.

The more Detective Bolles pushes against his investigation, the more resolve Walker has to understand Claire and make up for all the years he’d wasted. He often wonders if his newfound obsession with knowing Claire’s mind and inner circle is healthy, or just a way of assuaging his guilt with the thrill of achievement in finding her killer.

However, this very uncertainty is, in itself, personal growth for Walker. As a goal-oriented man, he is always clear in his expectations and desires, but by investigating his fierce, loyal sister, he steps out of his “normal,” and likens the experience to his brain splitting and evolving.

Along the way, Claire’s friends and eventually Claire’s presence– whether in his mind or as a true spirit– convince him not to ignore the things for which he has no real explanation.

Walker begins to think that his years in academia have just been a way to hide rather than face life head-on as Claire always did, and he begins to truly notice the little details he sees every day. While Walker isn’t sure what the correct life path is, he no longer believes it’s simple. The path to truth, just like the mystery of Claire’s death, is a winding mixture of factual and spiritual, but one full of strong friendships and deep devotion.

March 6, 2024