Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: mimi-barbour

  • 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.

  • SPECIAL AGENT FRANCESCA (Undercover FBI Book 1) by Mimi Barbour – entertaining wild ride

    SPECIAL AGENT FRANCESCA (Undercover FBI Book 1) by Mimi Barbour – entertaining wild ride

    From the city that never sleeps to Sin City, Mimi Barbour’s “Special Agent Francesca: Undercover FBI” is a thrill-fest, rapid-paced investigative novel with a lot of heat.

    Mimi Barbour takes her reader in a rush to Sin City, piling on the intrigue and mystery within the first few pages, and, of course, introduces FBI Agent Frankie Donovan. Miss Fran Murphy, an alias our heroine uses while posing as a new hotel owner in order to fight the thugs who threatened the last owner. All in the chase to get Mr. D, an evil and violent crime boss in the city that never sleeps.That isn’t all Frankie has on her back: part of her undercover background is Sean Collins, her fake fiancé, so-called body-guard, and all heart-throbbing desire. As an initial series of bad impressions melt away, along with Frankie’s rigid professional control, she is able to help Sean realize his deepest dreams.

    Frankie is struggling to leave the shadow of her icy, overbearing, type-A mother behind in New York City while wrapping her head around the recent, sudden revelation that her father is actually alive and living in Las Vegas as a detective – with a wife and three more daughters. As they plunge into building the father-daughter bonds denied to them for more than twenty years, professional intrudes on the personal, and Frankie heads for Los Angles to investigate a pair of kidnappers for her father. Sean takes co-pilot, until Frankie lets loose a little more control, and their impromptu vacation heats up fast.

    Author Mimi Barbour does not pull punches in the drama and keeps the tension wound, throwing Frankie, who deplores violence, into fight after fight, culminating in a prize-fight challenge that could put Frankie in way over her pretty head.

    And she’s not the only one with mysteries to solve and confrontations to face: something is going on with Sean’s best friend, and he’ll bring all his experience as a psychologist to figure it out. Anticipation and action ride high and higher still in this rapid pace investigative novel, dangling the hope of happiness for Special Agent Francesca over the threat to her life.

    Barbour professes to enjoy cop TV shows and that  was what inspired her to create her FBI agent series. She placed the first in the series in the hotbed of Las Vegas, the gambling capital of North America. The story explodes with steamy scenes, gritty language, and a lot of action – a lot of page turning action in this entertaining debut.

  • Vicarage Bench by Mimi Barbour

    Anyone looking for a heart-warming mix of romance and the new frontiers possibilities of time travel and body sharing will find The Vicarage Bench an endearing and engaging mix of the two.  Add suspense and the zing of strong sexual attractions and the result is a real winner. (more…)