Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: michael-scheffel

  • 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!

     

     

     

  • CLUE AWARDS – Police Procedurals, Hard-Boiled Detectives, Thriller/Suspense/Mystery – in the SPOTLIGHT – CIBAS

    CLUE AWARDS – Police Procedurals, Hard-Boiled Detectives, Thriller/Suspense/Mystery – in the SPOTLIGHT – CIBAS

    So, how do you get a clue? 

    A hard-boiled detective pulls his overcoat a little closer, leans against the northern wall at Village Books in downtown Bellingham. Washington. The state.

    It’s late. It’s raining. It’s a typical Autumn night in the Pacific Northwest. So, what makes this night different than any other night?

    Glad you asked.

    Our gumshoe is hot on the trail of those killer stories that make you turn the page. You know the kind, police procedurals, good-man-gone-wrong tales, the who-dun-its and the why-didn’t-I-see-that-coming books that leave you breathless, reaching for the Alka-Seltzer or the next book in the series.

    Our gumshoe is nervous, see? He knows there’s more to discover out there, winners, maybe, that are just waiting to be discovered. That’s why he’s standing there, waiting. Oh, just a second… he’s gone now… Guess he got tired of waiting in the rain.

    But he left a message…

    “Get your manuscripts and novels ready, because the deadline to the 2019 CLUE Awards is coming before you know it. Submit your books and manuscripts to the best book awards on the planet by September 30, 2019, if you know what’s good for you.” 

    That was short and sweet. What are you waiting for?

    Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the very best books dealing with Detectives, P.I.s, Noir – stories that build suspense
    and pay off in spades. 

    The deadline for the 2019 CIBA CLUE Awards is September 30, 2019.

    Submit your work today right here.

     

    We thought you might enjoy some of our past winners…

    2018 CIBA Grand Prize Winner in CLUE – Timothy Burgess for California Son

    2018 1st Place Category Winners:  (Book reviews are slated for the ones without links). 

    • The Only One Left by Pamela Beason
    • Facing The Dragon by Philip Derrick
    • Forgotten Rage by Melodie Hernandez
    • Do Not Ask by Elaine Williams Crockett
    • Scare Away the Dark: A Stone Suspense by Karen Dodd
    • The Blind Pool by Paul McHugh
    • Hong Kong Central by Marilynn Larew

    2017 CIBA Grand Prize Winner in CLUE – Kaylin McFarren for Twisted Threads

    2017 1st Place Category Winners: (Book reviews are slated for the ones without links). 

    2016 CIBA Grand Prize Winner in CLUE – Keith Tittle for A Matter of Justice

    2016 1st Place Category Winners:

    2015 CIBA Grand Prize Winner in CLUE – Lonna Enox for Blood Relations

    Blood Relations by Lonna Enox

    2015 1st Place Category Winners:

    2014 CIBA Grand Prize Winner in CLUE – Rachel B. Ledge for The Red Ribbon

    The Red Ribbon by Rachel B. Ledge

    2014 1st Place Category Winners:

    Who is going to take home the Grand Prize for the 2019 CLUE Awards? It could be you! 

     

    The deadline is fast approaching!

    Submit your work today right here.

  • St Louis Affair: The Adventures of Herbert Falken by Michael Scheffel – Historical Thriller/Detective

    St Louis Affair: The Adventures of Herbert Falken by Michael Scheffel – Historical Thriller/Detective

    This tantalizing whodunit is set in 1899 St. Louis and revolves around the heinous murder of a prominent wealthy citizen, Charles Garrett, whose body is discovered on the banks of the Mississippi River. Because the crime scene is devoid of clues and political pressure for a fast resolution abounds, the city police turn to professional Inquiry Agent, Herbert Falken, for assistance.

    Falken, also known by the public as Major Falken from his heroic exploits fighting renegade raiders along the US – Mexican border, is well respected for his deductive abilities and previous success in solving a perplexing string of grisly crimes. What the public doesn’t know is that Falken is haunted by his own personal and professional demons.

    Not long after departing from this crime scene, however, Falken discovers a curious fact: Charles Garrett’s public and private personas are polar opposites. Faced with a growing list of suspects and demands from the Governor on down to the average citizen for an immediate arrest, Falken feels the pressure. If it weren’t for James Westfall (former army officer mustered out due to a permanent leg injury) Falken’s aide-de-camp, our hero would be in dire straights. Westfall not only records critical crime scene and subject interview information, but he also cares for and tries to protect Falken—sometimes from himself.

    A strong cast of well-drawn and individually distinctive characters who aid, circumvent, and forestall Falken’s pursuit of justice adds richness to the story.

    Scheffel’s use of architectural design, clothing and accouterments, individual and class attitudes, and various character traits and dialects to resurrect old St. Louis is a true highlight of the book. He deftly crafts different scenes in smooth, articulate detail without hindering the story’s pace. Whether it’s inside Falken’s dining room, traveling across uneven paving bricks in a horse-drawn buggy, trudging along the muddy banks along the river, descending into a seedy opium den, or watching Falken get his butt kicked in a bare-knuckle brawl, the reader is right there. Another treat is the seamless placement of real-world news events into dialogue, which adds both authenticity and consistency to the setting.

    Overall, St Louis Affair: The Adventures of Herbert Falken is an entertaining turn-of-the-century page-turner with plenty of twists to keep the reader guessing to the end.  Michael Scheffel grabs the reader’s attention from the first sentence and doesn’t let go until the very last in St. Louis Affair: The Adventures of Herbert Falken, a fast-paced, page-turner that will have the reader hoping that he is hard a work penning a new tale involving Herbert Falken, Inquiry Agent.