The Mystery & Mayhem Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Cozy and Not-So-Cozy Mysteries. The Grand Prize Winner, Jeanne Matthews’s book, If Two Are Dead will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the M&M contest page year ’round!
The best part about being a Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Winner is the love and attention you get all year ‘round!
The 2024 M&M Winners were announced at the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!
Join us in celebrating the 2024 First Place M&M Winners!
Patrick E. Craig – The Boy In Blue Denim
Imagine if Miss Marple were Amish!
Jenny Hershberger returns to Apple Creek, Ohio, called by Detective Elbert Wainwright to help solve another cold case—a young Amish boy murdered in a deadly snowstorm and never identified. But as she digs into the case, she finds so many connections to her own life that the story becomes like a house of mirrors. As Jenny and Bobby Halverson travel from Apple Creek to Shipshewana, to Texas and Colorado, and back to Apple Creek, the trail grows warmer each day. But each step uncovers a new murder… and a new twist. Who is the killer? And who is…THE BOY IN BLUE DENIM?
Lori Roberts Herbst – Graven Images
A photo assignment at the cemetery leads Callie Cassidy to a corpse—this one above ground. Now, her search for the killer unearths some long-buried secrets…
Callie’s mother Maggie, a notorious hobby jumper, has embarked on a new pursuit—grave rubbing. When she recruits her daughter to photograph her first endeavor at the local cemetery, Callie brings golden retriever Woody and tabby cat Carl along for the outing. It’s a breathtaking autumn morning in Rock Creek Village, Colorado. Golden aspen leaves rustle in the cool breeze, and the air is filled with the scent of pine. What could go wrong on a day like this?
Then, a ghostly woman emerges from the trees, bleeding from a head wound and claiming to have no memory of how she arrived, or even who she is. Maggie quickly identifies her as a woman who disappeared from the village forty years ago—without a trace.
If that’s not enough intrigue, Woody disobeys her and sprints deeper into the cemetery. When Callie catches up to him, he is sitting sentinel at the tombstone of a recently deceased villager. And behind the stone, a man lies on the ground—with a pickaxe jutting from his neck.
Callie recognizes him as the low-level mobster who has been dating her best friend Tonya’s mother—and they’d been having problems. Did Tonya’s mother kill the man? Could it have been the mysterious woman? Or maybe someone with ties to his crime family?
Callie can’t resist investigating—and this time, Detective Raul Sanchez welcomes her assistance. Because if they can’t solve the crime soon, the town may be facing grave consequences…
Gail Noble-Sanderson – A Cup of Revenge
Swansea Station – 1947 The war is over, and with hopes of reconstruction beginning, rationing ending, and lives starting over, Drew awaits the decision regarding a new position with the railway. But mystery and mayhem arrive aboard an afternoon train carrying the new vicar, Liam O’Neill, and a cadre of visitors from Ireland. Drew’s attention is once again focused on unraveling the threads of revenge and solving another murder. The unfolding of an unexpected relationship with the young vicar proves another mystery for Drew to unravel. This is the second book in the award-winning Drew Davies Railway Mystery Series.
M.K. Graff – Death in the Orchard
The third Trudy Genova mystery from award-winning author M. K. Graff brings Trudy home, leaving her New York City studio consulting job to visit her rural hometown of Schoharie, three hours north. NYPD detective Ned O’Malley accompanies Trudy, primed to meet her family, but with a secret mission to find out what really happened when her father died eleven years ago.
Mario Genova’s death was deemed a tragic accident, but Trudy feels there was more to her beloved father acting out of character the day before he died. After years of hard work building a successful apple orchard business with her mother, Mario cleaned out their bank accounts. No reason-and no money-was ever found. As Trudy and Ned try to investigate without informing her family of their actions, a new death occurs on Genova Orchards property, and once again Trudy’s family is under scrutiny.
Miriam Verbeek – The Forest
She’s hired to find criminals. What if they find her first? She’s racing to stay alive and bring them to justice.
Saskia is an unlikely hero, a computer geek and mountain bike enthusiast, but when she arrives in the highlands of Australia to help restructure a family-owned logging company, she soon finds herself in the heart of a wild chase to uncover a surprising plethora of crimes. With the fate of a logging community hanging in the balance, can Saskia unravel the mystery in the forest before it’s too late?
From Chanticleer:
The Forest, a slow-burning mystery and the second book in Miriam Verbeek’s Saskia van Essen series, follows a young investigator trying to unravel a mystery that sits deep in the core of a private logging organization.
Saskia, a co-owner of International Financial Services, is requested by Tania to help uncover a network of criminal activity in her family’s Australian timber business. After taking over the company as its new director, Tania doubts the legitimacy of their remarkable profits, given high expenses, severe competition, and a substantial reduction in timber production that should have made it difficult to make any substantial gains.
Wasting no time, Saskia travels to Australia, having agreed to investigate possible criminal activity while helping the timber mill restructure.
Kari Bovee – The Pryce of Conceit
1885. Arabella Pryce is struggling with heartbreak. In keeping with her late husband’s final wishes, she must leave behind her dazzling celebrity and breathe new life into their namesake hotel in Colorado.
But when a beloved town beauty is found dead, all eyes—and suspicion—turn to her.
With blood-stained evidence, handsome sheriffs, and libelous journalists turning her investigation into a dangerous drama, this determined thespian fears she’s missed her cue for survival.
Amid whispered betrayals and shadowed secrets, a mischievous ghost guides her through a maze of perilous clues, drawing her ever closer to a truth more shocking than the lies surrounding her.
Can she unmask the true killer and clear her name before her reputation is ruined forever?
Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 M&M First Place Winners!
Your book can join the Tiers of Achievement, but only if you submit to the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!
Got a Cozy Mystery? The 2025 M&M Book Awards are open through the end of July!
