The Clue Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Thriller and Suspense Mysteries. The Grand Prize Winner, John DeDakis’s book, Enemies Domestic will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Clue 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 Clue 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 Clue Winners!
Pamela Beason – If Only
With her housemate Blake away and her lover Chase also absent, Sam Westin embarks on a backpacking trip in the North Cascades, hoping to photograph elusive gray wolves. Blake, reeling from a recent breakup, has taken a six-week job far away in Evansburg, caring for three gorillas while their owner, Dr. Grace McKenna, is on vacation. But events take a dark turn when the baby gorilla is shot by an intruder, prompting Grace’s lover, Detective Finn, to investigate.
Sam’s impromptu trip becomes dangerous when she finds a corpse and then stumbles upon an injured immigrant and packhorse carrying drugs. After a gunshot forces her to flee her campsite, Sam faces a perilous cross-country journey with the injured man and horse in tow.
In Evansburg, while following the trail of the gorilla shooting, Detective Finn stumbles upon a murdered woman in a nearby abandoned house and her child hiding in the gorilla barn. With both investigations going nowhere fast, it will take Sam visiting Blake and the gorillas to spot a clue that may be the link needed to solve all the crimes.
Jeff Nania – Musky Run
Olympic medalist Anna MacDonald comes home to Namekagon County to emcee the Great Wilderness Race as predators stalk the Northwoods. While occasional interactions with potentially dangerous animals are old hat for most residents, this changes when unpredictable behavior patterns make it unclear who is the hunter and who is the hunted. Sheriff John Cabrelli and the new Musky Falls chief of police work swiftly to keep the community calm as they try to piece together the clues before it is too late.
Musky Run is the fourth book in the award-winning Northern Lakes Mystery series, following Figure Eight, Spider Lake, and Bough Cutter.
Sean Hagerty – Jones Point
By day, we’re your neighbors. Your boss. Your teacher. By night, we hunt the monsters who hunt our children.
As a Special Operations soldier, Dane Cooper was trained and tested to handle the toughest, most dangerous situations around the world. He was not, however, prepared for the abduction of his daughter.
That kidnapping sends him into a downward spiral, the depths of which are unknown even to Dane. But a lifeline is thrown to him by a mysterious cabal, which sees his skills as paramount to helping others.
Now investigating other grieving parents’ cases, Dane must conceal his efforts from the zeal of an FBI agent hot on the trail of the vigilante cabal, a dedicated Virginia Bureau of Investigation team, and an elusive network of monsters at the center of it all. Punishing the wicked while searching for his little angel, Dane must also overcome the struggle with his own demons.
Kathryn Caraway – Unfollow Me
This harrowing true crime novel telling the story of the authors experience with a stalker is not yet released, but we are excited to see it come out eventually and see her story told! Unfollow Me is also Chanticleer’s 2024 Journey Grand Prize Winner and won a First Place for Cover Design in Non-Fiction. For more information see the authors website at kathryncaraway.com and unfollowme.com for the authors advocacy project for stalking awareness.
From Chanticleer:
When you’re a target of stalking, “Each day is a fight to stay alive. Even while sleeping, you must be ready.” So reveals Kathryn Caraway in Unfollow Me, a spine-tingling true crime novel tracing a life shattered by severe stalking.
Although the author uses the pseudonym “Kathryn Caraway” throughout this novel to protect her identity, her harrowing tales of being the target of a stalker and fighting for her rights to freedom and safety are a testament to the real danger she was exposed to. Caraway’s experience creates a compelling story of one woman’s brave quest for justice against her torturer.
Kathryn emotionally, mentally, and physically falls apart at the hands of a violent, ubiquitous presence. Despite the severity of the crimes committed against her, Kathryn’s concerns are routinely dismissed as irrational and hysterical by law enforcement officials, lawyers, and even long-time friends.
Before a malicious intruder targets her, Kathryn is a beloved mother, a wonderful friend, and a confident employee. But after she is introduced to Todd, he begins to slowly strip her life from her control.
Carl Vonderau – Saving Myles
When the FBI can’t help, an unassuming banker takes matters into his own hands to bring his son home
Wade, a respected banker in La Jolla, CA, and his estranged wife, Fiona, make the unbearable decision to send their teenage son, Myles, away to an expensive treatment center after a streak of harmful behavior. After a year of treatment, Myles comes home, seemingly rehabilitated. But soon, he sneaks off to Tijuana to buy drugs—and is kidnapped.
When the ransom call comes, Fiona is frantic and accepts help from Andre, the Quebecois whose charity Fiona runs. Wade is wary of Andre’s reputation and the bank he owns, but seeing no other way to secure a kidnap negotiator or the ransom, he swallows his doubts to get his son home.
In order to get the ransom money, Wade makes a deal with Andre—he’ll work for Andre’s bank in exchange for the cash. But as Wade races to rescue Myles before his kidnappers lose their patience, he realizes he’s wrapped up in more crime than just a kidnapping—he’s now indebted to a cartel.
Shanessa Gluhm – A River of Crows
In 1988, Sloan Hadfield’s brother Ridge went fishing with their father and never came home. Their father, a good-natured Vietnam veteran prone to violent outbursts, was arrested and charged with murder. Ridge’s body was never recovered, and Sloan’s mother—a brilliant ornithologist—slowly descended into madness, insisting her son was still alive.
Now, twenty years later, Sloan’s life is unraveling. In the middle of a bitter divorce, she’s forced to return to her rural Texas hometown when her mother is discharged from a mental health facility.
Overwhelmed by memories and unanswered questions, Sloan returns to the last place her brother was seen all those years ago: Crow’s Nest Creek. There, she is shocked to hear a crow muttering the same syllable over and over: Ridge, Ridge, Ridge.
When the body of another boy is found, Sloan begins to question what really happened to her brother all those years ago. What she discovers will shock her small community and turn her family upside down.
Michael Pronko – Shitamachi Scam
In Tokyo, there isn’t always respect for older people. Sometimes, it’s the opposite.
After the suspicious deaths of a seventy-something woman and a student recluse, Detective Hiroshi tracks down a gang of scammers who target retirees, robbing them of their pensions, life savings, and even the deeds to their homes. Hiroshi teams up with Detective Ishii, who’s been running a women’s crime task force. Together, they find out who has been ripping off the pensions, life savings, and deeds to homes in shitamachi, the older, eastern side of the city.
With his personal life on hold (almost), Hiroshi finds out how complex the traditional life of Tokyo still is. With old-school Detective Takamatsu and ex-sumo wrestler Chief Sakaguchi watching his back, he finds out who’s behind the scams, and who’s behind the scammers.
Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 Clue 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 spine-tingling thriller?
The 2025 Clue Book Awards are open through the end of July!
Lucy Carol – 
While spending some time with his sweetheart, animal behavior scientist Grace McKenna and her adopted family of gorillas, Detective Matthew Finn finally endures a kiss from Neema while keeping an eye on the huge silverback Gumu. He accepts a ‘toy’ from their baby, Kanoni. But upon further inspection, Matt and Grace believe the object might be part of a human finger bone. Where did it come from? How did it get in the gorillas’ remodeled barn? The homicide detective knows he’ll need to investigate, but just then, his cell phone chirps.
Paul Cutsinger, head of Amazon’s Alexa Code Labs will present and keynote.
