Got a Marketing Conundrum for Your Cozy Mystery?
Solve It by Entering the M&M Awards!
The submissions for the 2025 CIBAs are underway, and Mystery & Mayhem Awards close submissions on July 31, 2025!
The Mystery and Mayhem Awards celebrate the art of the puzzle, inspired by the legendary Agatha Christie and the tradition of mysteries where brilliant minds triumph over criminal schemes. While our Clue Awards focus on gritty thrillers and our Global Thriller Awards feature high-stakes suspense on a global scale, M&M honors the cozy (and not-so-cozy) mysteries where amateur sleuths reign supreme and the violence often happens off-page.
Why rely on police detectives when a curious librarian, a sharp-eyed baker, or a meddling village resident can solve the case just as well? From quaint English villages to small American towns, the M&M Awards recognize stories where wit, observation, and a good cup of tea are often more valuable than forensic labs and SWAT teams.
The Categories Where Curiosity Conquers Crime
- Amateur Sleuth features everyday heroes who stumble into mysteries—think Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series or the Thursday Murder Club, where regular people use extraordinary insight to catch criminals.
- Romantic Mystery blends heart-fluttering romance with puzzling crimes, proving that love and mystery make the perfect pair—whether it’s a meet-cute over a murder scene or romance blooming during a dangerous investigation.
- Historical Mystery transports readers to bygone eras where period details and historical context add richness to the puzzle—from Victorian London to Jazz Age speakeasies, these stories prove that human nature and criminal minds are timeless.
- Classic/British Cozy honors the tradition of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and modern masters who understand that the most satisfying mysteries often happen in drawing rooms rather than dark alleys.
- Mystery Caper/Adventure features lighter, more playful mysteries with humor and hijinks—think Knives Out energy where the puzzle-solving is as entertaining as it is clever.
- Animal Mystery showcases our four-legged detectives and the humans who love them, proving that sometimes the best witness has fur and four paws.
- Small Town Cozy Mystery explores the dark secrets hiding behind picket fences and friendly facades, where everyone knows everyone—and someone knows too much.
- Blended Genre celebrates mysteries that incorporate elements of fantasy, paranormal, or other genres while maintaining that cozy mystery heart.
Congratulations once more to our 2024 M&M Grand Prize Winner
Jeanne Matthews for
If Two Are Dead!
Set in 1867 Chicago, this compelling novel showcases everything we love about historical mysteries: rich period detail, complex characters, and a puzzle that keeps readers guessing until the final revelation. Matthews’ masterful blend of historical authenticity and classic mystery plotting in the Historical Mystery category exemplifies the sophisticated storytelling we seek to recognize. In addition to all the featured posts that have already gone out for the M&M Awards, If Two Are Dead will be regularly promoted throughout the year and for the next five years in our upcoming Hall of Fame post. Jeanne Matthews will also be invited to participate in a Chanticleer 10-Question Interview, and If Two Are Dead will receive a coveted Chanticleer Editorial Review.
Looking for Your Next Puzzling Read?
Check out some of these incredible cozy and not-so-cozy mysteries we’ve reviewed recently that showcase the delightful diversity of the genre!
RED HERRINGS RADIO: The Media Mysteries Series Book 6
By Gail Hulnick
From its very first page, Red Herrings Radio, from Gail Hulnick’s Media Mysteries series, evokes the classic mystery novels of days gone by. We meet protagonist Lillian on September 7, 1964, in the pre-dawn hours as she heads to work. The early shift at a bustling radio station may seem like excitement enough, but soon Lillian’s faced with unexpected and unpleasant thrills: there’s a dead body at work, and it’s one of her best friends.
Red Herrings Radio uses many elements of classic mystery, even down to the noir lighting of the early-morning streets. Yet it also diverges from mystery-novel tradition in interesting ways.
Unlike many older mystery books, it has not only a female sleuth, but a focus on the challenges and barriers faced by a woman in the 1960s. The book is studded with authentic period details, from Beatles mania and folk music to the Royal Tour and the World’s Fair. It also doesn’t shy away from the weightier topics of the era. As Lillian investigates Susan’s death, she finds herself grappling with looming issues like abortion and gender equality. Author Gail Hulnick gives these issues their due complexity, painting a realistic picture of the 1960s as an era of global change and growing pains.
A HAUNTING At LINLEY: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel
By Michelle Cox
Dire darkness descends upon Castle Linley in A Haunting at Linley by award-winning author Michelle Cox. Lord Linley is dead, black blankets and sashes cover windows, mirrors, and all sources of light. Mourning overtakes all—well, almost all.
Henrietta and her husband, Inspector Clive Howard, return to England and the estate. They come to offer comfort, but quickly discover the family needs much more help than anticipated.
Lord Linley’s death is only the first.
TOMMY ROCKET And The GOOBER PATROL
By Thomas R. Kuhn
Tommy Rocket and the Goober Patrol by Thomas R. Kuhn follows Nate, a young boy growing up in the 1970s, whose friendship with the kid genius robot builder, Tommy Rocket, leads him into mysterious adventures.
Tommy’s father invented the Prometheus chip that gives sentience to robots, and from a young age Tommy started creating a gang of robots called the Goober Patrol. Eccentric and wheelchair-bound, Tommy prefers to tinker with his robots at home. But he befriends Nate after he saves Tommy from bullies.
When Tommy’s aptly named ‘Monster-bot’ gets loose, Nate is tasked with finding and securing the rogue bot before anyone finds out. But the two boys soon find out there is more at work than one missing robot. There’s another tinkerer in town and they’re building their own special group of robots—which look just like one of Tommy’s creations. Nate and Tommy have to find out who has gotten their hands on the Prometheus chip before it’s too late.
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.
These reviews represent just a glimpse of the clever plots and charming characters waiting to be discovered in today’s mystery fiction.
See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!
We’re excited about all the wonderful mysteries we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. Throughout this year’s M&M Book Awards, we had the pleasure of promoting over 70 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 Mystery Remain Unsolved!
The cozy mystery market is more vibrant than ever, with readers hungry for clever puzzles, charming characters, and satisfying resolutions. Whether your amateur sleuth is a retired teacher with a knack for observation, a small-town baker who stumbles upon murder, or a historical figure solving crimes in a bygone era, the M&M Awards provide the recognition and promotional platform your mystery deserves.
Mystery fiction has the unique power to engage readers’ minds while providing the comfort of justice served and puzzles solved. Don’t let your story remain a cold case—submit to the M&M Awards today and join the ranks of celebrated mystery writers who’ve found their audience through Chanticleer!
