Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: randall-krzak

Spotlight on the October Awards! Don’t be Afraid!
Adventure rises. Will you answer the call?

October is the best month to step out into an adventure. We have three scintillating Programs to Submit to:
- Ozma Awards for Fantasy
- Paranormal Awards for Supernatural Fiction
- Global Thrillers for High Stakes Suspense
This spooky month feels like the best time for stories that inspire us to dream of realities beyond imagining, and threats to the world that leave us white-knuckled and waiting for the conclusion. What better place to find your next reads and submit your work than the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!

Here are the Awards that are hungrier for your work than a horde of zombies.

Ozma Awards

Fantasy is that special world where anything can happen. We often go beyond Earth for this, looking into swords and sorcery, chosen ones and villains awash with power.

Start out with our 2021 Fantasy Grand Prize Winner A Plague of Flies by Laurel Anne Hill.

Excellent prose & description with an effective mingling of historical and fantasy elements. The tension is gripping and the pace is good.

Follow that up with From Brick and Darkness by J.L. Sullivan, a great YA Urban Fantasy.

A new Teen Favorite, this Urban Fantasy delves down passages of mythology and more when Bax Allen unwittingly unleashes a demon into the world.

And then you can wrap everything up with the 2020 Ozma Grand Prize Winner, Divinity’s Twilight by Christopher Russell.

In the epic space opera a group of cadets must face the bloody past of their world, threatened by age-old conflict, and change the course of empires. Highly recommended!

See the full list of 2021 Ozma Winners for Fantasy Fiction here.

Paranormal Awards

What goes bump in the night and who are the superheroes who face them? The supernatural genre often involves vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, and superheroes. The characters may begin as ordinary, but they soon discover they may be extraordinary or transformed to be more than human.

We would be remiss not to crow about J.W. Zarek’s The Devil Pulls the Strings. Reminiscent of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, this book took home the Overall Grand Prize Awards.

J. W. Zarek weaves magic on the page, developing an epic, urban fantasy – first in series – readers will want to stick with for a long time. Highly recommended.

The Insane God by Jay Hartlove brings back the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft in his mystery led by a trans woman.

Sarah is cured of schizophrenia, only to face a battle with The Insane God. Her story balances humor, social issues like gender identity, and cosmic horror. Recommended!

And, of course, it never hurts to remember Stoker’s Dracula with a book like Suburban Vampire Ragnarok by Franklin Posner that won First Place in the Paranormal Awards.

Scott Campbell must face his divorce, job, and thirst for human blood, while caught in his fellow vampires’ political infighting. Recommended!

See the full list of 2021 Paranormal Winners for Supernatural Fiction here.

Global Thriller Awards

When you write a Global Thriller, you write about global consequences. The stakes are higher than ever before, whether or not this is a meticulously researched disease or a terrorist attack of epic proportions, you’ll want to read each one of these stories in one sitting.

Ron McManus’ The Chameleon won the 2021 Global Thriller Awards

Delightful to read with great development of story and characters. Clearly researched with a healthy dash of personal experience. A story to relish.

Then you have First Place Winner Mission: Angola by the prolific Randall Krzak. Anyone who needs a series would be wise to check this one out.

Xavier Sear is caught between dangerous factions and outnumbered in the first book of a new action-packed, tension-filled thriller series. Highly recommended!

For those who prefer more of an environmental story, check out A Divine Wind by Norman M. Jacobs, another First Place Winner.

See the full list of 2021 Global Thriller Winners for High Stakes Fiction here.

You Can’t Win if you Don’t Submit!

Enter the CIBAs today! Your book deserves to be discovered.
October 19, 2022
MISSION: ANGOLA: Xavier Sear Thriller, Book 1 by Randall Krzak – Global Thriller, Action, Suspense

Rescuing the son of an Angolan official turns convoluted and deadly in Krzak’s latest thriller, Mission: Angola.

Peter Mwanga, the son of Angolan cabinet minister Colonel Mwanga, is a doctor at the Christian Aid Mission DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). While he converses with foreign missionaries at a village hospital, a raid nearly overtakes the area, and Congolese Marxist Jonah Alimasi and his rebels kidnap Peter.

Almost four thousand miles north in Lisbon, Portugal, government official João Regaleira calls Xavier Sear—an American ex-CIA operative and the best man in his wedding—inviting him to celebrate their twentieth anniversary. Soon afterward, he receives word from an old friend that Theo Mwanga, Peter’s father, is asking for assistance in negotiating his son’s release. Hours later, the first sign of danger surfaces when João and his wife are accosted by a pair of thugs.

The attackers are apprehended, but the threat is clear. Further conversation with Theo convinces João that he should go to Angola only with Sear by his side.

João heads out first to meet with Theo, and Sear leaves a day later. Each experiences dangerous situations en route to their rendezvous point. Regrouped, the troupe encounters a heinous scene—a sign of more involvement from perilous political factions, including Russians and a diamond mine.

Sear has no choice but to devise an alternative strategy to locate Peter, one that comes with significant risks. He readies the group, outnumbered by their enemies, their chances of survival from the rescue mission slim at best.

Award-winning author Randall Krzak introduces a new thriller series featuring a spunky yet brusque ex-CIA operative.

Mission: Angola opens with sharp contrast as scenes morph from the horrific massacre of a poor village to the serenity of João and his wife discussing plans for their upcoming 20th anniversary in posh surroundings.

Sear’s entrance comes at the invitation of João, and the remaining cast follows. Krzak envelopes his characters by carefully accentuating nuances of culture, food, and political strife. Using appropriate terminology, Krzak captures the sights, sounds, and smells befitting both Portugal’s beauty and Angola’s rough and hot terrain.

Krzak’s writing style is nothing less than sure.

With a cast covering an array of personas—from well-developed to highly elusive characters, Krzak’s storytelling naturally flows to create short, concise, cliffhanging chapters. Chapters identify locations, such as Fortaleza de São Miguel, Luanda, Angola; Lisbon, Portugal; and the rebel camp in the DRC, to name only a few. Those sites provide readers with behind-the-scene segments between the various factions and Sear’s rescue plan, which build unrelenting tension up to the story’s apex and beyond.

Mission: Angola has enough twists, turns, and suspense to satisfy thriller fans and feed their expectations for the next in the Xavier Sear series.

Mission: Angola by Randall Kzark won First Place in the 2021 CIBA Global Thriller Awards for High Stakes Suspense.

September 14, 2022
The GLOBAL THRILLER 2021 CIBA WINNERS for High Stakes Suspense
The Global Thriller Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in High Stakes Thriller Fiction. The Global Thriller Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer Book Reviews is looking for the best books featuring suspense, thrilling stories that put the balance of world power or that will end the world as we know it. We include with Global Thrillers the Lab Lit genre. Lab Lit is when Fiction Meets Real Science and Research or stories that are based on real science and research up to a certain “what if” point.

For other Mystery Divisions see our Clue Awards for Suspense/Thriller Novels and our M&M Awards for Cozy-and-not-so-Cozy Novels.

The 2021 GLOBAL THRILLER Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the GLOBAL THRILLER Grand Prize Winner were announced by Peter Greene on Saturday, June 25, 2022 at the Hotel Bellwether and broadcast via ZOOM webinar.

This is the OFFICIAL 2021 LIST of the GLOBAL THRILLER BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the GLOBAL THRILLER Grand Prize Winner.

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2021 CIBAs.
- Timothy S. Johnston – Fatal Depth
- J Lawrence Matthews – One Must Tell The Bees
- Norman M. Jacobs, MD – A Divine Wind
- Randall Krzak – Mission: Angola (Xavier Sear Thriller Book 1)
- Ron McManus – The Chameleon
- Andrew Kaplan – Blue Madagascar
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 GLOBAL THRILLER Awards is:

The Chameleon

Ron McManus
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!

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The 2022 GLOBAL THRILLER Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC23 on April 29, 2023. Save the date for CAC23, scheduled April 27-30, 2023, our 10 year Conference Anniversary!

Submissions for the 2022 GLOBAL THRILLER Book Awards are open until the end of October. Enter here!

Don’t delay! Enter today!

A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in August. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. Thank you for participating in the 2021 Chanticleer International Book Awards!
June 30, 2022
COLOMBIAN BETRAYAL: A Bruce & Smith Thriller: Book 1 by Randall Krzak – Suspense Action, International Mystery & Crime Fiction, Terrorism Thrillers

Randall Krzak opens Pandora’s box on the world of Columbian cartels and Islamic terrorists in his latest thriller, Colombia Betrayal: A Bruce and Smith Thriller, Book 1.

On the first page of Krzak’s thriller, we are thrust into the dangerous world of a wealthy family, straddling the legitimate world of hotels and sugar cane fields and the illegitimate world of drugs and violence. Krzak places us in Medellin, Columbia, with the patriarch of the Zapata family, Jesus Pedro Zapata, on his way to a luncheon at his country club. With his eldest son by his side, he is ambushed and killed in a fiery explosion.

With her father and older brother murdered, Olivia Perfecta Moreno’s life is turned upside down, as she becomes the heir to the family fortune and businesses. She is determined to take charge, but she has large shoes to fill and a target on her back. With her son, Alonzo, her useless husband, Pedro, and her bodyguard Ramon on her side, she begins the change of power. But Krzak shows us the cracks in her armor, and we soon realize that Olivia shouldn’t be trusting any of the people she trusts most.

In a CIA office in Langley, Virginia, Agent AJ Bruce receives her next assignment.

Robert Lintstone, head of the counter-terrorism division, introduces Colonel Javier Smith, the advisor for the mission. A loner, she finds Smith attractive, but she refuses to be impressed by his Silver Eagles.

Lintstone informs them:

“There are indications the Islamic State is attempting to gain a foothold in our territory. They’ve already infiltrated a number of countries around the world. We’re trying to ascertain the validity of the intel before we make a move.”

This intel takes AJ and Javier to Columbia, where their search for the terrorists becomes embroiled with the Zapata families’ drug operations.

AJ and Javier dodge bullets and try to stop the terrorists before crossing the Mexican border into the US.

In a surprising twist of fate, Olivia ends up in the hands of Lintstone. Alonzo tries to rescue his kidnapped sisters as AJ and Javier unravel the whereabouts of the terrorists, saving Olivia’s daughters in the process. Olivia tries to escape captivity in Gitmo, and Krzak keeps us enthralled as we turn page after page to find out what will happen next.

Fans of Jack Slater and Barry Eisler will love this first installment of the Bruce and Smith series.

Krzak’s deft world-building skills and masterful orchestration of terrorists, CIA operatives, and the Columbia drug cartel will have readers panting for more. Since 2017, Krzak has cranked out six award-winning military and political thrillers, and this latest contribution sparkles as well. Uniquely qualified to build the worlds we find in Columbia Betrayal, Krzak’s experience as an Army veteran and a civil servant living abroad inform his rich, detailed description of the terrain and the architecture – right down to the weaponry used in the covert operations he describes in detail. Readers can’t help but be sucked into his page-turning stories.

Readers can follow AJ and Javier as they embark on their next assignment and thrilling adventure in book two, Revenge.

Colombian Betrayal won 1st Place in the CIBA 2020 Global Thrillers Book Awards for High Stakes Thrillers.

October 20, 2021
An October Spotlight on the 2021 Global Thriller Awards

Time is running out! The 2021 Global Thriller Awards are due in October!

You’re working the puzzle, the patterns you see that no one else pays attention to. You’ve been at it for days, your eyes are burning, your throat dry, when a message notification beeps on your smartphone. You tap to open:

“We know who you are and your time is running out.”

The smartphone beeps again. This time, the message reads:

“You have until October 31, 2021, 11.59 p.m. to turn in your Global Thriller, or you will have no chance of winning…”

Don’t let this happen to you!

Turn in your High-Stakes Thriller, your Chillers, your multiple Killers for a chance at the prize! But one thing is certain, if you don’t enter, you won’t have a chance of winning!

The Global Thriller Awards Spotlight

The clock is ticking… you’re working on a deadline while your spouse is across town, picking up the kids. You’ve taken the day off and gone to the cabin. You have to write that last chapter… the one that will get your work noticed, like J.D. Barker or Stephen King kind of noticed.

The Chanticleer Global Thriller Awards recognizes High Stake Thrillers on an International Scale, including Lab Lit. While Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series might be the first thing that comes to mind, there is a wide variety of espionage and mystery that can fit into the Global Thriller genre. One thing is for sure, it will keep you up late, and, if you can sleep, it’ll be with one eye open.

The only certainty is that the competition for this CIBA Division Awards is steep. Let’s take a look at some of our favorites.

The Bucharest Dossier, a Novel by William Maz

Chanticleer Review is forth coming.

Doubt and Debt
By John Feist

Pipelines—large industrial pipelines through which pour oil, gas, and other natural elements—are not the usual stuff that writers tackle for intelligent, sophisticated international high-stakes spy novels. But then again, most writers aren’t John Feist, whose lawyering background in, yes, global pipelines and related industries such as steel, coal, and shipping companies make him the perfect choice to turn these typically pedestrian subjects into absorbing books. His work introduces us to complex issues involving international trade at the highest level, greed, murder, and above all, the intricacies and rewards of multinational, prominent, and sometimes multiracial families.

Read More here!

The Kurdish Connection (Book 1 in the Bedlam Series)
By Randall Krzak
Semi-Finalist in Global Thrillers

International writer Randall Krzak addresses one of the world’s saddest ongoing tragedies in The Kurdish Connection, a thriller about the plight of the Kurdish people and a desperate plan to free them from their fate.

In a world awash with refugees, perhaps no greater tragedy exists than the ongoing fate of the Kurds of the Middle East, roughly 30 million sect members spread between Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Connected by language, religion, and history, this group has no country to call their own. The Kurds have been the subject of several attempts by international agreements to help them create a haven, the most recent in northern Iraq’s no-fly zone. Meanwhile, all four host countries have ruthlessly suppressed Kurdish hopes and dreams politically and especially militarily.

Read More here!

Execute Order
By Jett Ward
First Place Winner in Global Thrillers

On a military base outside Las Vegas, Lieutenant Brent Parker sits in a bunker in a darkened room looking to an outsider to be playing a sophisticated aerial combat video game. But this is no game. People live and die with Parker in control of a lethal drone nicknamed the Reaper flying over forbidden Syrian air space in 2011, striking American enemies on the ground with killer missiles from several miles in the air.

Enemies are one issue, but collateral damage—men, women, children, whole families who die in a missile attack as a side effect of bringing down a terrorist—weighs heavily on Parker’s conscience. It doesn’t help when his ultra-sensitive cameras see the face of a woman who his missile will obliterate as a side effect of bringing down a military-mandated target, a face that haunts him as he leaves the bunker for the clean, and safe, American desert air of Nevada.

Read More here!

The Kafir Project
By Lee Burvine
First Place Winner in Global Thriller Awards

From page one, things are not going as planned on The Kafir Project, and author Lee Burvine has many more surprises in store before this undertaking ends. The action leaps off the page from beginning to the grand finale in this thought-provoking thriller. The villains are well-organized and highly motivated to stop the Project dead, as well as anyone who gets in their way.

Gevin Rees is a television science communicator, a celebrity who explains complex scientific discoveries and theories to television audiences. He interviews guests on specific topics and is surprised the world’s most celebrated and reclusive physicist, Edward Fischer, wants to meet with him. It’s even more curious because Fischer’s death in an explosion had been broadly reported. However, he stands before Gevin Rees and begins to tell a story of intrigue about a secret project on a pier along San Francisco Bay. The story is interrupted with gunfire. This time there is no doubt that Fischer is dead. Now on the run, Gevin Rees is a new target.

Read More here!

Hong Kong Central (Book 3)
By Marilyn Larew

Former CIA agent and all around badass, Lee Carruthers, returns for the thrilling third book in the series, Hong Kong Central by Marilynn Larew.

Lee is looking forward to some well-earned downtime, so when her ex-boss and mentor, Sidney Worthington calls with another job, Lee is not amused. During her previous mission, people tried to kill her—multiple times. All she really wants right now is some serious R&R. However, she is the gal who will never say “no” to a job. And besides, Worthington swears it’s an easy gig.

Read More here!

Bishop’s Law
By Rafael Amadeus Hines
First Place Winner in Global Thriller Awards

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. This is the code that John Bishop, one of America’s most decorated military heroes, teaches his men to follow whether they’re on a mission in the heat of the Middle East or in the jungle that is New York’s Lower East Side in Rafael Amadeus Hines’ novel, Bishop’s Law.

To say his life is complicated is putting it mildly. In this second volume of the John Bishop series, several high-level assassins are hell-bent on killing him for his actions as a soldier. At the same time, he’s deep in his crime family’s military-style battles against various opponents’ groups. All these forces are closing in on him simultaneously, even as the United States government had hired him and his family to protect the country from bad guys using whatever means necessary.

Read More here!

Have a great Global Thriller? Submit before the end of October for the 2021 CIBAs!

When you’re ready, did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services? We do and have been doing so since 2011.

Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).

If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.

We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top-editors on an on-going basis. Contact us today!

Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.

A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information available here.

And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn more here.

If you’re confident in your book, consider submitting it for a Editorial Book Review here or to one of our Chanticleer International Awards here.

Also remember! Our 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22) will be April 7-10, 2022, where our 2021 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up, so sign up today! CAC22 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. Sign up and see the latest updates here!

October 14, 2021
The KURDISH CONNECTION, Bedlam Series #1 by Randall Krzak – Military Thriller, Terrorism Thriller, Political Thriller

International writer Randall Krzak addresses one of the world’s saddest ongoing tragedies in The Kurdish Connection, a thriller about the plight of the Kurdish people and a desperate plan to free them from their fate.

In a world awash with refugees, perhaps no greater tragedy exists than the ongoing fate of the Kurds of the Middle East, roughly 30 million sect members spread between Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Connected by language, religion, and history, this group has no country to call their own. The Kurds have been the subject of several attempts by international agreements to help them create a haven, the most recent in northern Iraq’s no-fly zone. Meanwhile, all four host countries have ruthlessly suppressed Kurdish hopes and dreams politically and especially militarily.

Among the most vicious suppression efforts were those of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who used deadly sarin nerve gas against them, most notably in the village of Halabja, in which up to 5,000 Kurds perished and another 10,000 were wounded.

The Kurdish Connection takes us deep inside that struggle.

Two young Iraqi Kurds, Dersim and Ismet, scavengers by trade and refugees from Halabja with searing memories from their youth of Saddam’s gas attack, accidentally stumble on a large cache of sarin gas canisters leftover by Saddam’s army. The pair are stunned by the possibilities of what can be done with it. They, in turn, make their finding known to a group of Kurdish mullahs who find themselves torn by the possibilities of how the weapons can be used.

Eventually, they agree that the sarin gas might help them free a powerful mullah named Muhammed Baziyan, imprisoned for many years under tight security by the Turks. The Kurds believe that this one man could be the leader to pull them together and unite them as a single voice.

Meanwhile, half a world away, a new international counterterrorism group called Bedlam assembles in Washington D.C. to explore a rumor from on-the-ground intelligence that an Iraqi sarin gas cache exists. Its goal becomes a frantic effort to locate the canisters, disable or destroy them, and stop them from falling into the wrong hands.

With few intelligence assets on the ground, Bedlam assigns their operatives to travel to Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. Using various identities such as amateur archeologists, members of MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders), and cultural tourists, they use their limited information plus sophisticated chemical detectors to try and locate the deadly cache.

At the same time, the mullahs make plans to use the gas to disrupt Turkish military forces and other pressure tactics, including kidnapping foreigners to show the world some of the brutal tactics used by military forces against Kurds. In the most recently reported event, they want to show the world how Syrian troops viciously put down a peaceful Kurdish demonstration over bakery prices, which the Syrian government claimed was an attack instigated by the Kurds.

The mullahs’ overall plan is to instigate several near-simultaneous attacks in Turkey to draw out Turkish military forces and disguise their main effort, to free the mullah Baziyan from his well-guarded Turkish prison. Using sarin gas to kill Turkish troops seems like a good plan, but no one wishes to harm civilians. Not everyone agrees with the deployment of sarin gas.

The action is set against the exotic, fairytale-like landscape of Capadoccia, Turkey, with its soaring natural towers, and Gobekli Tepi, an archeological dig of an ancient temple built 6,000 years before Stonehenge. Equipped with sophisticated chemical detectors, built James Bond-like into their gear, the Bedlam teams ready themselves for their mission. A further refinement of Bedlam’s plans is to substitute phony sarin containers for their more dangerous counterparts.

Randall Krzak delivers an exciting cat-and-mouse game between the Bedlam team, suspicious Kurds, and equally suspicious Turkish government spies.

The Kurdish Connection soars in the detailed accounts of towns and villages, the people there, and even the weaponry and vehicles used. Readers will find themselves in the middle of the action as the Kurds successfully bomb a Turkish oil field, terrorize a soccer stadium, and stage a murderous assault on the prison where the mullah is kept. Krzak takes us into the dank caves and sewers where the Bedlam teams go to locate and sabotage the horrific sarin canisters from being used by anyone.

Above all, The Kurdish Connection offers readers a compassionate look at one of the world’s most intractable social conflicts, wrapped in the pages of a thriller that will keep readers glued to its pages until the final sentence. The Kurdish Connection is the first book in Krzak’s Bedlam series. Please read our reviews of the following books by clicking on their titles: Dangerous Alliance and Carnage in Singapore.

September 23, 2021
CARNAGE in SINGAPORE (The Bedlam Series Book 3) by Randall Krzak – Global Thriller, Political Thriller, Political Suspense

Carnage in Singapore, the third volume in Randall Krzak’s Bedlam counterterrorism thriller series, takes the team to the Far East for action against Muslim terrorists with a ripped-from-the-headlines plot to destroy Western influence by any means.

The terrorists’ idea unfolds as simple, even ingenious. Terrify residents and non-Muslims in major cities such as Jakarta and Singapore with a series of spectacular bombings designed to kill as many people as possible. Follow up with kidnapping ambassadors from Great Britain, Australia, and the United States – with such ruthlessness that Western-leaning nations will cease repression of Muslims, curtail training police and soldiers who hunt Muslim terrorists, and end support for anti-terrorism activities around the world.

The plot grows into actionable items among different Indonesian terrorist groups working together – if somewhat uneasily – with a common goal.

Their scheme calls for launching near-simultaneous multiple attacks against unsuspecting citizens, destroying the illusion of safety in daily life. By making the attacks in this way, they cripple the police and other civic services. The first strike uses rockets launched from a small obscure offshore island. The rockets explode in a crowded grandstand watching a Formula One Grand Prix auto race in Singapore. Other sites bombed or strafed include an amusement park, a traffic-laden bridge, and a Chinese cathedral.

All schemes execute without a hitch. All hit their targets with devastating accuracy. Hundreds are either lost or become hostages. Next comes the kidnapping of the ambassadors.

Some Indonesian groups come under suspicion. The ruthless Detachment 88 interrogates the suspects, but their brutality yields dead suspects instead of interrogated suspects.

Into the melee comes Bedlam Charlie, an international team of anti-terrorist experts trained in all phases of investigation and apprehension. Their mission? Simple – to stop the bombings and free various prisoners in the attacks. They must deal with a mélange of bad investigations and spies within the police ranks who thwart their moves and even place team members in mortal danger.

The political motives behind the governments involved in deploying Bedlam Charlie don’t lack complexity. Will the Indonesian police accept their help? Will the governments behind Bedlam Charlie allow the team to get involved and risk the political outfall if they fail?

The terrorists come well-armed and tactically highly skilled, able to break through even the most sophisticated protection schemes to kidnap their high-profile targets.

Naming real sites as the intended targets of the terrorist attacks helps to separate this book from several others of this genre.

If a novel about terrorism in New York City named the Marriott Hotel on Times Square, Nathan’s Hot Dogs, and Yankee Stadium as successful targets, the gut-level effect here would be similar. The fictional terrorists’ logic matches actual attacks on cities and nations around the world including our own.

The novel also explores the aspirations and the politics within the terrorists’ ranks. Various factions and individuals find themselves looking for their own moment of glory as they both complete their missions and compete for attention.

Thriller fans will devour Krzak’s modern us-against-them take on storytelling. Of course, what makes Carnage in Singapore such a strong novel is its plausibility. It’s terrifying and terrific at the same time – and definitely holds its own among modern thriller authors of today. Randall Krzak took home 1st Place for Carnage in Singapore in the 2019 CIBAs Global Thrillers Book Awards.

Read our review for Dangerous Alliance, here.

August 14, 2021
DANGEROUS ALLIANCE Randall Krzak – Political Thriller, Action/Adventure, Thriller/Suspense

Dangerous Alliance, the second volume in Randall Krzak’s Bedlam counterterrorism thriller series, takes the team to the Middle East to disrupt an unholy alliance between North Korea and Somali pirates to hijack oil tankers in exchange for weapons.

Talk about a thriller ripped from the headlines!

Once again, in severe straits because of the maniacal rule of its dictatorship, North Korea finds itself running out of oil. It turns to its “friends” throughout the world—Russia, China, and Iran—but it finds that those friendships have limitations. Shipping oil to North Korea is one. Desperate for answers, the country’s Dear Leader turns to one of its own, an ambassador, and threatens him with the decimation of his family unless he comes up with an answer. Pushed to the limit, the ambassador comes up with a wild but plausible scheme: hire Somali pirates to snatch oil tankers sailing from the Red Sea through the treacherous Gulf of Aden. The ships get repainted, their transponders turned off, and countries friendly to North Korea allow the purloined oil to reach its final destination.

As world events demonstrate, stopping the Somalians is no easy task. But an international intelligence group headquartered in London, calling itself Bedlam, plans to dispatch members of its elite, multinational strike force to the Middle East to fight the pirates and restore order to that part of the world. Neither Bedlam nor the North Koreans know each other’s plans add to the certain knowledge that the two forces will clash in a major confrontation.

That’s one of the threads in this multilayered fully engaging novel, the second in the Bedlam series of thriller novels.

Two other stories run parallel to the North Korean oil hijacking. One involves Soo, the North Korean ambassador, his aide Kim, and their attempts to stay alive by fulfilling the Dear Leader’s wishes knowing that they face certain death if they fail to do his bidding. And the North Korean leader doesn’t help things, changing the nature of the offer to the Somalian pirates at the last moment and ultimately cheating the pirates when and if they actually receive the promised weapons.

The other story follows the Somali pirates as they plan and execute their schemes to secure the tankers. Part of their plan involves creating bloody diversions to keep police forces engaged in fighting acts of local terrorism and focusing less on the pirates’ activities in the waters off East Africa. Their diversionary attack on the Somalian capital of Mogadishu is fierce, well-executed, and gripping reading as the pirates race from site to site, blowing up key structures in the city to keep police attention on terrorism, not on piracy on the high seas. Things, however, do not go smoothly. Diversions go tragically wrong, leading a few to suspect a traitor among them.

The theme of “Who can you trust?” hangs heavily over the actions of the North Koreans, the Somalis, and the forces of Bedlam itself. A few significant characters turn out not to be who readers think they are—don’t even try to guess who they are—and the twists add an extra layer to the tension of this well-crafted novel.

Krzak’s unique knowledge of this world shines throughout this book. The missions undertaken by both good and bad guys feel authentic; the locations feel real, the political and social conditions reflect the author’s obvious understanding of these worlds. The story doesn’t rely on distractions such as one single character to follow; i.e., no James Bond, no George Smiley, or a love affair, a hot-blooded night between the sheets to offset the action. Dangerous Alliance relies on solid storytelling with events so plausibly terrifying that readers may not be able to sleep – for weeks.

If you like your action hot, if you enjoy thrillers with some relationship to the real world, if you enjoy well-written complex stories with some good twists and turns, Dangerous Alliance deserves a place on your reading list. This title won 1st Place in the 2018 CIBAs, Global Thrillers Awards.

August 6, 2021
The 2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards (#CIBAs) Overall Grand Prize and Division Grand Prize and First Place Category Winners | Part One
We are deeply honored and excited to announce the 2020 Winners of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs). The Finalists were recognized at the Virtual Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Ceremonies, and the First Place Category and Grand Prize Winners were announced June 5th, 2021 by ZOOM webinars based at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether, Bellingham, Wash.

The 2021 Chanticleer Authors Conference and the 2020 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards Banquet and Ceremony was originally scheduled for April 21 – 25, 2021. Each year, Chanticleerians from around the globe come together to celebrate and cheer each other on at the annual CIBA banquet and awards evening at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether that is situated on beautiful Bellingham Bay, Washington State.

However, in order to celebrate being able to meet in person in even a limited capacity (due to the fact that we all able to be vacinated in time), we postponed the First Place Winner and Grand Prize Ceremonies to June 5th, 2021 at the Hotel Bellwether with local Chanticleerians attending cheering each other on along with cheering on the virtual attendees. Champagne was poured and shared as the 2020 CIBA Grand Prize Division Award Winners were announced. After the event the small gathering of Chanticleerians were able to dine together immediately after in the Admiral Room of the Hotel Bellwether.

CIBA Grand Prize Winners in Before Covid Times

We’ve now hosted two virtual events and are pivoting to yet another new normal where events will now be expected to be in person and virtual! We were glad to still host VCAC21 on schedule with inimitable presenters like Cathy Ace, J.D. Barker, Bradley Metrock, Dr. Janice Ellis, Jessica Morrell, Paul Hanson, and more! Many of our presenters have already contacted us about the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference currently scheduled for April 7-10, 2022, and we are optimistic that we will be able to host that one in person as vaccinations continue to sweep the US.

At the June 5th, 2021 Ceremonies, we are excited to recognize the 18 Fiction and 6 Non-Fiction CIBA Divisions for the First Place Category and Grand Prize Winners!

First of all, we want to thank all of the CIBA judges who read each and every entry and then comment, rate, and rank within each of the 23 CIBA Divisions. Without your labors of love for books, the Chanticleer International Book Awards would not exist. THANK YOU!

We want to thank all of the authors and publishers who participated in the 2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs). Each year, we find the quality of the entries and the competitiveness of the division competitions increases exponentially. We added a new level to the judging rounds in 2019—the premier Level of FINALIST per each CIBA Division.

The CIBA judges wanted to add the Finalist Level of Achievement as a way to recognize and validate the entries that had outstanding merit but were not selected for the very few First Place Award positions within each genre division. You can order promotional stickers and such here.

A Recap of the CIBA Selection Process
- The 2020 CIBAs have 18 Fiction Divisions and 6 Non-fiction Divisions.
- First Place Category award winners were selected for each one of the 24 divisions from an overall field of titles that progressed to the Premier FINALIST Division Level from the Division Semi-Finalists positions from the Shortlists, the Long List, and the infamous beginning slush pile rounds.
- One Grand Prize award winner was selected from the First Place Category Award Winners for the 23 CIBA divisions.
- One Overall Grand Prize award winner was selected from the 24 divisions of Grand Prize Award Winners
All 2020 CIBA FINALISTS were recognized with their respective division at the CIBA awards ceremony that was held each evening of VCAC21.

This post will recognize the First Place and Grand Prize Winners for Cygnus, Ozma, Paranormal, Global Thrillers, M&M, Clue, Little Peeps, Gertrude Warner, and Dante Rossetti Book Awards.

THANK YOU to VCAC21 SPONSORS and FRIENDS

CIBA Grand Prize Ribbons!

We are honored to present the

2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards

Grand Prize Winners

The 2020 CIBA Winners!

The CYGNUS Book Awards

for Science Fiction Novels

Grand Prize Winner is

THE LUNA MISSILE CRISIS by Rhett C. Bruno & Jaime Castle
- Mark T. Sneed – Bully Nation
- JL Morin – Loveoid
- Timothy S. Johnston – The Savage Deeps
- PA Vasey – Trinity’s Fall
- Russ Colson – The Arasmith Certainty Principle
- Zach Fortier – Volk: Book one of The Overseer series
The OZMA Book Awards

for Fantasy Fiction

Grand Prize Winner is

DIVINITY’S TWILIGHT: REBIRTH BY Christopher Russell
- T. Cook – Shin
- Michelle Rene – The Canyon Cathedral: The Witches of Tanglewood, Book Two ( YA)
- Gordon Preston – Zendragon
- H.J. Ramsay – Ever Alice
- Alison Levy – Gatekeeper: Book One in the Daemon Collecting Series
- Jeny Heckman –The Warrior’s Progeny
- Glenn Searfoss – Cycles of Norse Mythology: Tales of the AEsir Gods
- KC Cowan & Sara Cole – Everfire
The Paranormal Book Awards

for Supernatural Fiction

Grand Prize Winner is

SOUL SEEKER by Kaylin McFarren
- T. K. Thorne – House of Rose
- R.B. Woodstone – Chains of Time
- Ryan Young – The Shepherd’s Burden
- Lydia Staggs – Azrael
- Franklin Posner – Boston Betty
- Meg Evans – Enthrallment
- Neil Chase – Iron Dogs
- E. Alan Fleischauer – Just Die
The GLOBAL THRILLER Book Awards

for High Stakes Thrillers, Lab Lit, and Suspense Novels

Grand Prize Winner is

THE BUCHAREST DOSSIER by William Maz

Pub Date: March 15, 2022
- Randall Krzak –Colombian Betrayal
- Matt Andrus – UFO
- Lynn Yvonne Moon – The Agency – Tablet of Destinies
- Avanti Centrae – Kiss of the Cobra – An M2 Action Thriller
- Rafael Amadeus Hines –Bishop’s Law
- Erik Foge – One Way Roads
The CLUE Book Awards

for Thrillers, Suspense, Legal, Detective, and Procedural Crime Novels

Grand Prize Winner is

A VENOMOUS LOVE by Chris Karlsen
- Toni Bird Jones –The Measure of Ella
- Kari Bovee – Folly at the Fair
- Ken Farmer – Three Creeks
- Shanessa Gluhm – Enemies of Doves
- Martin Roy Hill –The Fourth Rising
- J.J. Clarke – Dared to Run
- Corey Lynn Fayman – Ballast Point Breakdown
- Chuck Morgan – Crime Denied, A Buck Taylor Novel
- Theo Czuk – The Black Bottom
The M & M Book Awards for Mystery & Mayhem

for Cozy and Not-So-Cozy Mysteries

Grand Prize Winner is

THE DISCOVERY by Patrick M. Garry
- Lori Roberts Herbst – Suitable for Framing
- Michelle Cox – A Child Lost
- Ana T. Drew – The Murderous Macaron
- Lina Hansen –In My Attic – A Magical Misfits Mystery
- Perry Miller – Lethal Injection
- Tina Sloan – Chasing Cleopatra
LITTLE PEEPS Book Awards for

Early Readers and Picture Books

Grand Prize Winner is

GREAT AS A BUTTON by Masoud Malekyari and Illustrated by Sebastião Peixoto
- Ellie Smith – Tex the Explorer Journey Through the Alphabet
- D.K. Brantley – Every Mummy Has a Mommy
- Dr. Justine Green – Completely Me
- Courtney Shannon Strand – Ella’s Umbrella
- Lindy Ryan – Trick or Treat, Alistair Gray
- Johnny Ray Moore –ANTHILL FOR SALE
- Raven Howell – So You Want a Puppy?
- PJ McIlvaine – Little Lena and The Big Table
GERTRUDE WARNER Book Awards

for Middle-Grade Books

Grand Prize is

KASSY O’ROARKE, CUB REPORTER by Kelly Oliver
- Robert C. Feol – A Journey to Mouseling Hollow
- Catherine Grangaard –A Fairy’s Tails
- Poem Schway – The Infinity Pendant
- Ruthy Ballard – Frankie and the Gift of Fantasy
- Ben Gartner – The Eye of Ra
- Jay Spenser – The Barn Owl Mystery
- Carmela Dutra – Little Katie Goes to the Moon
The DANTE ROSSETTI Book Awards

for Young Adult Fiction

Grand Prize Winner is

THE BEST WEEK THAT NEVER HAPPENED by Dallas Woodburn
- Michelle Rene – The Canyon Cathedral: The Witches of Tanglewood,Book Two
- Sara Hosey –Iphigenia Murphy
- Felicia Farber – Ice Queen
- Susanne Dunlap – The Paris Affair
- Chynna Laird – Just Shut Up and Drive
- L.L. Eadie – Yearning for the Unattainable
- Jodi Lea Stewart – Blackberry Road
- Strider S. R. Klusman – Within Reach
- Ivy Cayden – Everything All At Once (Book 1, Chorduroys and Too Many Boys™)
Congratulations to ALL!

We will email each winner with more information about their prize packages and more information.

Be sure to FOLLOW and LIKE us Facebook and on Twitter @ChantiReviews

Please standby for our next posts that will honor:

Click here to visit the Second Posting out of Three Official Announcements of the 2020 CIBA Winners.

Click here to visit the Third Posting out of Three Official Announcements of the 2020 CIBA Winners.
- Laramie Book Award Winners
- Chaucer Book Award Winners
- Goethe Book Award Winners
- Hemingway Book Award Winners
- Chatelaine Book Award Winners
- Mark Twain Book Award Winners
- Somerset Book Award Winners
- Journey Book Award Winners
- Hearten Book Award Winners
- Harvey Chute Book Award Winners
- Mind and Spirit Book Award Winners
- Nellie Bly Book Award Winners
- Instructional and Insight Book Award Winners
- Short Story Book Award Winners
- Book Series Book Award Winners
And the OVERALL GRAND PRIZE for the 2020 CIBAs!

We are now accepting entries into the 2021Chanticleer International Book Awards.

Click here for more information and submission deadlines: https://www.chantireviews.com/contests/

As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please email us at Chanticleer@ChantiReviews.com We will try to respond within 3 business days.

Thank you for joining us in celebrating the 2020 CIBA Winners! – The Chanticleer Team
June 26, 2021
Global Thriller Book Awards for High Stake Thrillers and Lab Lit Fiction – 2020 CIBA Award Winners
The GLOBAL THRILLERS Book Awards recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Lab Lit and Global Thrillers. The GLOBAL THRILLERS Book Awards is a division of Chanticleer International Novel Book Awards and Writing Competitions. (The CIBAs)

Chanticleer Book Reviews is looking for the best books featuring suspense, thrilling stories that put the balance of world power or that will end the world as we know it. We include with Global Thrillers the Lab Lit genre. Lab Lit is when Fiction Meets Real Science and Research or stories that are based on real science and research up to a certain “what if” point. These books have advanced to the Premier Level of Achievement in the 2020 CIBAs.

The 2020 GLOBAL THRILLER Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the GLOBAL THRILLER Grand Prize Winner were announced by Jessica Stone on Saturday, June 5, 2021 at the Hotel Bellwether and broadcast via ZOOM webinar and Facebook Live.

It is our privilege and profound honor to announce the 1st in Category winners of the 2020 GLOBAL THRILLER Awards, a division of the 2020 CIBAs.

This is the OFFICIAL 2020 LIST of the GLOBAL THRILLER BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the GLOBAL THRILLER Grand Prize Winner.

Congratulations to all!
- Matt Andrus – UFO
- Lynn Yvonne Moon – The Agency – Tablet of Destinies
- Avanti Centrae – Kiss of the Cobra – An M2 Action Thriller
- Rafael Amadeus Hines – Bishop’s Law
- William Maz – The Bucharest Dossier
- Erik Foge – One Way Roads
- Randall Krzak – Colombian Betrayal
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2020 GLOBAL THRILLER Awards is:

William Maz for his manuscript

The Bucharest Dossier

Pub Date: March 15, 2022
The 2021 GLOBAL THRILLER Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC22 on April 10, 2022.

Save the date for CAC22, scheduled April 7-10, 2022, our 10 year Conference Anniversary!

Submissions for the 2021 GLOBAL THRILLER Book Awards are open until the end of October. Enter here!

Don’t delay! Enter today!

A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in July. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. We thank you for your patience and understanding.
June 10, 2021