Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: CAC25

The 2024 SEA Short Stories First Place Round Up

Short Stories, Essays, and Novellas July 31, 2025 Enter Here

The SEA Short Story Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Short Stories, Collections and Novellas. The Grand Prize Winners, Robin Elizabeth Kobayashi’s book, Something About Lizzy and Dr. Yumiko Shimabukuro’s story Dream Rut: Navigating Your Path Forward will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Shorts 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 Shorts Winners were announced at the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here for Novellas and Collections! And here for Short Stories and Essays!

See our newest Award Division for Collections and Anthologies here!

Join us in celebrating the 2024 First Place SEA Shorts Winners!

Barry Robbins – Voices of the Civil War

Voices of the Civil War offers a revolutionary approach to experiencing America’s defining conflict. This groundbreaking work brings the Civil War to life through meticulously crafted first-person narratives, imagining the thoughts and words of those who lived through this tumultuous era.

From the highest halls of power to the bloodiest battlefields, readers witness the war unfold through the eyes of presidents and generals, soldiers and civilians. Each chapter presents a unique voice, offering intimate perspectives on key moments and decisions that shaped the course of history. Feel the agonizing weight of command, the terror of battle, the hope of emancipation, and the anguish of a nation torn apart. Voices of the Civil War goes beyond mere facts and dates, plunging readers into the raw emotions and moral complexities of America’s bloodiest conflict.

This isn’t just a retelling of history-it’s an immersive journey into a nation at war with itself. Prepare to experience the Civil War in a whole new way, through voices that bring the past vividly to life.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Paper Lantern Writers – Beneath a Midwinter Moon

What mystery, romance, and adventure lie Beneath the Midwinter Moon?

It may be cold outside, but inside this anthology, the Paper Lantern Writers bring you warm and engaging reflections of holiday celebrations across seven centuries. From the United States to India and Europe, eleven stories of courage, fortitude and love are illuminated by the midwinter moon.

Boiling Point: A young mother weighs her future with her pro-colonial husband and their children in 1930s India. Will her children’s bravery and their love help her reach the right decision?

Star Lantern: A downcast woman in 17th century Amsterdam gets a surprise at the Twelfth Night celebrations. Will she regain her faith in her family?

Hand-in-Hand Pies: A young girl learns a new skill and meets a lifelong friend when she visits the 1789 Frost Fair in London. Will her life take an unexpected turn?

Long Winter: Can two educated young misses find their purpose—and the romance of a lifetime—across the backdrop of the Western Expansion?

X Marks the Spot: In 1918 New York, a vaudeville knife thrower’s wife knows she must take the ultimate risk to protect her own life and that of her unborn baby. Has she got the nerve to see it through?

A Wicked Turn at Christmas: The return of an old enemy threatens to tear an Elizabethan family apart. Can the wife stop this attack before it’s too late?

Frontier Christmas: The rules of courtship are changing in the 1830s US West. An 18 year-old girl sets her sights on her ideal man, but a rival wants to steal him away. Can she reset the rules in her favour?

Dear Santa: An aspiring businesswoman gets a job in Santa’s Photo Shop in 1969 California. When Santa goes off sick, she has no-one to play the part. Can she really stand in as the great man herself?

The Greatest Love: Belgium 1944 – A mixed-race nurse meets an American soldier in WW2 Belgium and they develop feelings for each other. Can they ever find happiness together? Based on a true story.

Phillipe’s Epiphany: A young husband has doubts about his new wife’s fidelity in 15th century London. Will he let it destroy his marriage before it’s even begun, or will true love shine through?

Stitchwork: Christmas celebrations in 1860s Switzerland involve a parade of mythical characters. A woman is wronged by a powerful man. When she disguises herself as a dark counterpart to St. Nicholas, will she get justice?

Find it on Amazon!

Cynthia Geouge Davis – Catfish Corner

Welcome to the hilarious world of Catfish Corner where church secretaries spike their bottles of Diet Coke and fine Southern ladies gossip at the beauty shop and finger their pearls.

This light-hearted look at Southern living uses funerals, baptisms, romance and marriages to create a place where humor kisses sarcasm and likes it so much that it does it again and again.

So, head south, y’all and find out why Lily Mae had that funny hump on her back and learn how Althea finally got rid of Floyd.

And for goodness sake, steer clear of Reverend Handy’s tent revival. You’ll lose your beer and maybe your religion if you get too close to that particular Big Top!

Just sayin’.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Deborah L. Staunton – Untethered

Untethered tells the story of growing up with a mentally ill, alcoholic father and the experience of raising a mentally ill daughter. It follows the author’s journey through multiple miscarriages and the “untethering” of minds, relationships, and pregnancies. Untethered is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit through the author’s unravelling world.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Irena Smith – The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays

What do we, as parents, really mean when we say we want the best for our children?

Irena Smith tackles this question from a unique vantage point: as a former Stanford admissions officer, a private Palo Alto college counselor, and a mother of three children who struggle to find their place in the long shadow of Stanford University.

Written as a series of responses to actual college essay prompts, this witty, raw memoir takes the reader from the smoke-filled lobby of the Hebrew Aid Society in Rome, where Irena and her parents await asylum with other Soviet refugees in 1977, to the overpriced house she and her husband buy in Palo Alto in 1999, to the hushed inner sanctum of the Stanford admissions office. Irena grows a successful college counseling practice but struggles to reconcile the lofty aspirations of tightly wound, competitive high school seniors (and their anxious parents) with her own attempts to keep her family from unraveling as, one by one, her children are diagnosed with autism, learning differences, depression, and anxiety. And although she doesn’t initially understand her children—or how to help them—she will not stop stumbling and learning until she figures it out.

The Golden Ticket opens a much-needed conversation about extreme parenting, the weight of generational expectations, and what happens when Gen-X dreams meet unexpected realities. It’s a sharp-eyed depiction of hard-won triumphs and of the messy, challenging parts of parenting you won’t see on Facebook or Instagram. Above all, it’s an invitation to embrace a broader, more generous definition of success.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Gail Noble-Sanderson – The Soldier Jacob

This work is a manuscript. Gail also won First Place Ribbons this year in Chatelaine and Mystery & Mayhem for her book A Cup of Revenge, and a Cover Design Fiction First Place for The Book of Rules.

Gail and husband Terry love to travel the world including two trips to France during the research and writing of her first three books, The Lavender House in Meuse, The Passage Home to Meuse, and The Lavender Bees of Meuse. A trip to Wales is certainly on their agenda as she completes her first novel in the new cozy mystery series, The Book of Rules. The book’s protagonist, a young woman named Drew Davies, lives in the village of Mumbles, Wales, and works in the railway depot in Swansea, Wales. She, along with her Granda, her Nonna and a colorful cast of friends, become involved in Drew’s sleuthing as she attempts to solve the mysteries in this new series of novels.

Burl Harmon – Being 100 Years Old

This work is a Manuscript. Burl has previously won a Military and Front Line First Place Ribbon for his book Combat Missions, a memoir about his time as a pilot during WWII. You can see our review of Combat Missions here:

Sometimes, a close and personal story can reveal the true weight of major historical events. Combat Missions, a memoir from WWII veteran Burl D. Harmon, achieves this by detailing how Europe’s vicious aerial battles shape a young boy’s entry to manhood.

On December 7, 1941, Harmon is summoned to his high school’s auditorium to hear President Roosevelt proclaim it as, “a day which will live in infamy…” Soon after, his draft notice arrives. Harmon’s junior college studies and work at the local Rexall drug store are put on hold as he joins the vast flood of young American men and women conscripted into military service. Leaving his small Iowa town and a family mostly sheltered from the grim realities of the outside world, he travels to New York City with people from every imaginable background.

With no prior mechanical experience, he works diligently to become a flight engineer, training to master a lexicon of manual tasks and learn the intricacies of air-to-air combat amidst bombing runs. His training takes him even farther from home, to Detroit, Lorado, Texas, Puerto Rico, and even Cuba.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

KD Sherrinford – Christmas at the Saporis

What will the Saporis find under the tree this year—Christmas presents, or family skeletons?

In the spirit of the holiday and a wish for familial harmony, Irene Adler persuades her detective husband to invite his brother Mycroft to Christmas luncheon. Holmes had cut ties with his brother when he discovered the machinations Mycroft employed that drove Sherlock and Adler apart for four years. He isn’t really sure this reunion is a great idea, but he can deny his wife nothing.

Of course, they can’t tell the children what Mycroft is to them, as that would entail learning that their father is the celebrated detective when they know him simply as Lucca Sapori. And just when they think things may be going better than expected, ghosts of the past crop up in unexpected ways and threaten to ruin the holidays for everyone.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Mike Murphey – Claunch Ness Monster

This work is a Manuscript. Mike has previously won the 2022 Shorts Grand Prize for his work, Old Man Baseball. This year he also won a First Place Ribbon for his series, Tales of Physics, Lust and Greed. You can see an interview we did with Mike Murphey here!

Find his books on Amazon!

Lisa G. Spicer – Letters From Tacoma

This work is a Manuscript.

Lisa Spicer has worked in television, film, and video production for over 30 years as producer, writer, and editor. Starting in the documentary unit at KCTS/PBS Seattle, she worked there later on the Bill Nye the
Science Guy show, earning 3 Emmys. As an independent documentary producer, she has worked in Kenya, Mexico’s Lacandon rainforest, Northern Cheyenne and Lummi Indian reservations, Boulder, Seattle, and Bellingham.

Lisa has a BA in Broadcast Journalism and certificates in Filmmaking and Screenwriting (UW). Mid-career she earned an MA in Anthropology (WWU). Integrating anthropology into documentary, she
co-produced Homeless in Bellingham, an award-winning web series and documentary, and served as Consulting Anthropologist for the feature documentary, Cheech and Chong’s Last Movie.

Recently finishing an historical novel, Radio Smokva, she’s now writing about her back-to-the-land childhood and publishing a weekly series on Substack, Collective Effervescence: Research About the Counterculture.

Glen Dahlgren – The Dice of Chaos

Glen also won a First Place in Series for The Chronicles of Chaos, the series this story ties into, and book 3, Realm of Gods, won a First Place in Ozma and is the 2024 Dante Rossetti Grand Prize Winner.

When destiny calls, will you answer—or roll the dice?

After resisting for years, a young mother finally succumbs to the Longing. The pull drags her away from her family, but chance lands her in a mysterious swamp. There, an ancient tree offers magic that could change her fate in ways she never dreamed—or desired.

This standalone story is the perfect entry point into the award-winning YA fantasy series, but for longtime fans it provides the backstory behind Lorre’s incredible and dangerous dice, this bite-sized adventure reveals all!

Readers new and old, prepare to unveil the secrets of the dice and witness the spark that ignites a legendary saga, where mortals and gods clash in an epic battle over a world unlike any other.

Find it through his newsletter or on Amazon!

PJ Devlin – Running

This work is a Manuscript.

PJ has previously won a First Place in Ozma for her book The Chamber, a First Place in Goethe for Wissahickon Souls, a First Place in Dante Rossetti for Becoming Jonika, and a First Place in Somerset for Wishes, Sins, and the Wissahickon Creek. You can see our review for Wishes, Sins and the Wissahickon Creek here:

Wishes, Sins, and the Wissahickon Creek by PJ Devlin emulates the lives of fictional characters brimming with hope and promise yet living a truthful life of existence in the gorgeous setting of Pennsylvania’s Wissahickon Creek.

The book encompasses ten short stories making it a complete work of fiction. Devlin creates characters which are rich in both experience and struggle. Not only do they live in a real world created by Devlin, but her characters, a mix of children and adults, both struggle with daily, real-world issues most Americans deal with. The stories are all relatable in this sense, which makes the text come alive, page after page.

Read More Here

Find it on Amazon!

Catherine Brown – Finding Namaste

This work is a Manuscript. Catherine has previously won the 2023 Shorts Grand Prize Winner for The Heart of Kublai Khan’s Menagerie Keeper and also won a First Place in Dante Rossetti this year for her book The Appearance of Power.

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 Shorts First Place Winners!

Your book can join the Tiers of Achievement, but only if you submit to the Shorts Awards!

Got a great Short Book? The 2025 Shorts Awards are open through the end of July!

Submit to the Shorts Awards Today!

July 16, 2025
The 2025 Collections & Anthologies Spotlight for multi-genre fiction, non-fiction, and poetry!
The Art of Curation Meets Literary Excellence!

Collections and Anthologies July 31, 2025 Enter Here

Introducing the Collection & Anthology Awards!

The submissions for our newest division are underway, and The Collection & Anthology Awards close on July 31, 2025!

There’s something magical that happens when individual pieces are thoughtfully assembled into a unified whole—whether it’s a poet’s lifetime of work, a themed anthology exploring social justice, or a collection of short stories that illuminate the human condition. The Collection & Anthology Awards celebrate this unique art form, recognizing the literary excellence that emerges when curation meets creativity.

Branching off from our established SEA Shorts Awards, this exciting new division honors the publishers, authors, and editors who understand that the whole can indeed be greater than the sum of its parts. From single-author poetry collections to multi-voice thematic anthologies, we celebrate works where exceptional writing combines with masterful organization and thematic coherence.

The Power of Thoughtful Assembly

What transforms a simple gathering of pieces into a truly compelling collection or anthology? It’s the invisible architecture that connects each work to the next, the thematic threads that weave individual voices into a larger conversation, and the careful curation that ensures every piece earns its place.

Whether you’re a poet who has spent years crafting a cohesive collection, an editor assembling diverse voices around a central theme, or a publisher investing in the literary community’s best collaborative works, the Collection & Anthology Awards recognize that quality writing is just the beginning. The real artistry lies in creating thematic coherence that resonates across every page.

Categories That Span the Literary Landscape

Our categories intentionally align with Chanticleer’s established award divisions, ensuring that collections and anthologies across every genre find their perfect home:
- Narrative Non-Fiction Collections/Anthologies – Memoir collections, essay compilations, and themed non-fiction that tells powerful true stories
- Essay Collections – Whether personal reflection, cultural criticism, or literary exploration, celebrating the essay as an art form
- Poetry Collections – From debut collections to lifetime retrospectives, honoring the unique voice of poetry in all its forms
- Speculative Fiction – Fantasy, science fiction, and paranormal collections that transport readers to other worlds
- Mystery/Suspense – Crime fiction anthologies, cozy mystery collections, and high-stakes thriller compilations
- Historical Fiction – Period collections spanning from ancient times to modern warfare and Americana
- Youth – Collections for every young reader, from early childhood through young adult
- Mainstream – Literary collections, contemporary voices, romance anthologies, and humor compilations
Celebrating Our Founding Excellence: Dr. Yumiko Shimabukuro

We’re honored to highlight Dr. Yumiko Shimabukuro, whose inspiring collection Dream Rut: Navigating Your Path Forward exemplifies the literary excellence we seek to recognize in this new division. This beautifully crafted work combines meditative prompts, poetic writing, and full-color illustrations to guide readers through transforming their relationship with their dreams—from dealing with estranged dreams to discovering unknown ones.

Shimabukuro’s achievement showcases how thoughtful curation creates something greater than individual pieces, offering readers both comfort and actionable insights for moving forward. In addition to ongoing promotional features, Dream Rut will be regularly promoted throughout the year and for the next five years in our upcoming Hall of Fame posts. Dr. Shimabukuro will also be invited to participate in a Chanticleer 10-Question Interview and receive continued recognition across our promotional platforms.

A Home for Every Voice, Every Vision

The Collection & Anthology Awards welcome submissions from diverse creators across the literary community:
- Publishers showcasing their finest anthologies and themed collections
- Individual Authors who have assembled their short fiction, essays, or poetry into cohesive collections
- Anthology Editors who curate multi-author works around compelling themes
- Literary Organizations producing collections that advance important conversations
Whether your collection features a single powerful voice or weaves together multiple perspectives, we celebrate the editorial vision that transforms individual works into something greater.

Check out some of these outstanding collections and anthologies we’ve celebrated recently!

Portrait of a Feminist: A Memoir in Essays
By Mariana Marlowe

Marianne Marlowe’s memoir, Portrait of a Feminist, reveals the evolution of her feminism through a collection of thought-provoking essays.

“I would say, if it were possible, I was born a feminist” is at the heart of Marlowe’s story. She relates to this defining identity throughout years spent in Peru, California, and Ecuador, where she navigates childhood, marriage, motherhood, and a professional career.

The section titles reflect periods in Marlowe’s life that correspond to nature’s rhythms— “Seeds Planted”, “The Growing Years”, “Maturation”, and “Harvesting”—and maintain strong connections between her thematically-linked experiences.

As a Peruvian American woman, Marlowe navigates the concepts of gender, race, and culture from a personal and critical point of view.

Read More Here

A Good Day and Other Mostly Humorous Stories and Lists
By Radu Guiasu

Through the thirty-six diverse writing efforts of A Good Day and Other Mostly Humorous Stories and Lists, Radu Guiasu masterfully combines wit, whimsy, satire, and personal contemplation.

These vignettes cover a wide range of topics, styles, and techniques. While they often seem to be typical “slice-of-life” moments, Guiasu clearly has a knack for finding humor in even the most absurd situations.

As a native Romanian now residing and teaching in Canada, Guiasu writes from his own knowledge and experience. He often broaches serious and meaningful topics, such as the world of academia, growing up under a dictatorship, and a love of nature.

Read More Here

A Wild Region: Tales and Stories from the Heartland
By Robin Lee Lovelace

Includes a Chanticleer Short Stories Awards Grand Prize Winner!

A Wild Region: Tales and Stories from the Heartland by Robin Lee Lovelace is a wonderful collection of Weird fiction (emphasis on Weird), showcasing the oddities and fantastic adventures which hide among the everyday people of the midwestern United States.

Lovelace opens with ‘Virgie’s Headless Chicken’, setting the tone for the full collection as Virgie attempts to reproduce a circus sideshow act. Lovelace shares her familial inspiration for this story in a fascinating preface.

From there she gifts readers with the award-winning novella, Savonne, Not Vonny, a coming-of-age story of a little girl involving brothels, voodoo, and displaced gods. Savonne faces trial after trial as she grows up in different environments, all while she tries to understand her place in the world. This setting is particularly well-developed, leaving readers wanting more from even the secondary characters. Readers who loved American Gods will enjoy every page of Savonne’s adventures.

Varying in emotion and impact, all of these tales will grab a reader’s attention. In every story of A Wild Region, fully-realized characters deal with important problems, approaching them with their own strange solutions.

Read More Here

Tax MythBusters
By Lily Tran

Tax MythBusters: Don’t Fall Prey to the Tax Misconceptions, compiled by tax professional Lily Tran with essays by other financial, tax, and accounting professionals, gives valuable insight into the myths of what can and cannot be claimed as a deduction for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

This work provides tips and strategies to optimize tax planning and make the most of available deductions. As the foreword reminds the reader, “Knowledge is power when it comes to taxes,” adding that gaining a better understanding of the tax rules and regulations will allow you to “make smart financial decisions and protect yourself from unnecessary risks.”

The essays that make up this work are short, succinct, and to the point about the pitfalls and challenges that face small business owners, framing these dangers as “myths.”

Read More Here

These works demonstrate the range and power of well-curated collections across every genre and format.

See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!

We’re excited about all the exceptional collections and anthologies we’ll receive in this inaugural year. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!

This new division represents an unprecedented opportunity to gain recognition for the often-overlooked art of literary curation. From debut poetry collections to landmark anthologies, we’re committed to celebrating the publishers, authors, and editors who understand that bringing the right pieces together creates literary magic.

Be Among the First to Claim this Honor!

As our newest division, the Collection & Anthology Awards offer a unique opportunity to be among the first winners in this exciting category. Whether you’ve spent years perfecting a poetry collection, assembled a groundbreaking anthology, or published a thematic collection that deserves wider recognition, this is your moment.

You know you want it…

The art of curation deserves recognition—the deadline is July 31, 2025!

Submit to the Collection & Anthology Awards today and help us celebrate the power of thoughtful assembly!
July 14, 2025
The 2025 SEA Shorts Awards Spotlight for Short Stories, Novellas, and Essays
Where Every Word Counts!

Short Stories, Essays, and Novellas

The SEA Shorts Awards Honor Excellence in Shorter Works

The submissions for the 2025 Awards are underway, and SEA Shorts closes on July 31, 2025!

In a world of sprawling epics and multi-volume series, there’s something uniquely powerful about a story that delivers maximum impact in minimal space. The SEA Shorts Awards celebrate this concentrated artistry. Recognizing novellas, short stories, and essays that prove great literature doesn’t require great length, just great skill.

Whether it’s a novella that captures a lifetime of emotion in 100 pages or a short story that delivers a profound revelation in just a few thousand words, the SEA Shorts Awards honor authors who understand that when space is limited, every sentence must earn its place.

Honoring Sharon E. Anderson: From Winner to Champion

The SEA Shorts Awards carry special meaning as they honor Sharon E. Anderson, whose own literary journey exemplified the transformative power of the Chanticleer community. Sharon first came to our attention as a contest winner herself for her dark fantasy short story “Stone God’s Wife” which won the Grand Prize in an earlier iteration of this award.

As our judges noted: “This short story is an exceptional example of the dark fantasy genre. Desperate to save her sister, Cilla does the unthinkable…and the unforgivable. ‘The Stone God’s Wife’ is compellingly written, well characterized, fast-paced, and engaging.”

But Sharon’s story with Chanticleer was just beginning. She joined our team as Chief Reviews Editor, where for years she created and edited content, wrote reviews, and championed authors with unwavering dedication. An SPU graduate in Clothing Textiles & Design, Sharon brought design principles to every aspect of her work, understanding that presentation and content must work in harmony.

Sharon served on the board of the Skagit Valley Writers League and delighted when authors achieved success. Her core belief that authors deserve support and good books deserve recognition became the foundation of everything she did at Chanticleer. She believed in authors, worked tirelessly to promote their work, and championed literary excellence in all its forms.

When Sharon passed away, we lost not just a dear friend but a true advocate for the writing community. The SEA Shorts Awards, named in her honor, continue her legacy of discovering and celebrating exceptional writing. Every submission, every advancement through our tiers, every celebration of literary achievement carries forward Sharon’s unwavering commitment to supporting authors and promoting the books that deserve to be discovered.

Celebrating Our 2024 Grand Prize Winner!

We’re thrilled to honor Robin Elizabeth Kobayashi, whose novella Something About Lizzy claimed the 2024 SEA Shorts Grand Prize with a masterful adaptation that brings fresh life to beloved classic literature. This Pride and Prejudice spin-off demonstrates the exceptional skill required to honor original characters while creating an entirely new and compelling story.

Set in 1826 Derbyshire, Kobayashi’s work follows sixteen-year-old Sofia-Elisabete as she discovers the complexities of adult relationships and family secrets through her friendship with Elizabeth Darcy. Our judges praised the work’s “lively and meaningful” character dynamics, noting how “the blend of drama and love feels appropriate for a spin-off of Pride and Prejudice” while maintaining “well-done writing” and “consistent tone.”

The novella showcases what makes the short form so powerful—concentrated storytelling that captures the essence of complex relationships and family secrets within a focused narrative. In addition to ongoing promotional features, Something About Lizzy will be regularly promoted throughout the year and for the next five years in our upcoming Hall of Fame posts. Robin Elizabeth Kobayashi will also be invited to participate in a Chanticleer 10-Question Interview and receive continued recognition across our promotional platforms.

Categories That Embrace Every Genre

The SEA Shorts Awards welcome shorter works across the entire literary spectrum:
- Cygnus – SciFi, Speculative, Fantasy
- Ozma – Fantasy Fiction
- Paranormal – All types of Paranormal Fiction
- Global Thriller – High Stakes
- Clue – Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
- Mystery & Mayhem – Cozy and Not So Cozy Mystery
- Rossetti – Young Adult & New Adult
- Laramie – Americana, Western, Pioneer, & Civil War
- Chaucer – Early Historical Fiction
- Goethe – Post-1750s Historical Fiction
- Chatelaine – Romantic Fiction
- Somerset – Mainstream, Contemporary, & Blended Genres
- Satire & Allegory
- Narrative Non-Fiction
- Essay
From science fiction novellas to historical short stories, from personal essays to satirical pieces, every genre finds its home in the SEA Shorts Awards. With the recent creation of our Collection & Anthology Awards, SEA Shorts now provides focused attention on individual shorter works that stand powerfully on their own.

See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!

We’re excited about all the exceptional shorter works we receive every year. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!

The SEA Shorts Awards carry forward Sharon Anderson’s legacy of believing in authors and championing exceptional writing. Whether you’ve crafted a novella that captures a lifetime of experience, a short story that delivers a perfect moment of revelation, or an essay that illuminates truth through personal narrative, these awards provide the recognition that Sharon believed every excellent work deserves.

It is our honor to promote short works!

We continue to believe that great writing deserves great recognition, regardless of length. The SEA Shorts Awards honor her commitment to supporting authors and celebrating the books that deserve to be discovered.

Share your best brief but spectacular prose with us! The deadline is July 31, 2025!

You know you want it…

Submit to the SEA Shorts Awards today and help us continue championing exceptional writing in all its forms!
July 14, 2025
The Chanticleer Cover Design CCDAs Non-Fiction First Place and Grand Prize Winners for 2024!

The Cover Design Awards recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in every genre. The Grand Prize Winner, Genét Simone’s book, Teaching in The Dark will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Cover Design 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 CCDA 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 very first group of First Place CCDA Winners for Non-Fiction!

Anne Gately – Sunburnt: A Memoir of sun, surf and skin cancer

Also a 2024 Journey First Place Winner!

Australians love the sun – our outdoor lifestyle is part our trademark appeal. It’s also the reason that every thirty minutes someone is diagnosed with melanoma. Why skin cancer is called Australia’s National Cancer, and two out of three Australians are likely to be diagnosed with it before turning 70.

After living an average Aussie life playing sport, spending languid days on the beach, and falling in love with ocean swimming, Anne Gately received unwelcome news. She had Stage IV melanoma.

Yet Anne is one of the lucky ones. After a dire prognosis, she dug deep to face the clear and present prospect of death, head-on. In Sunburnt, her revealing memoir, Anne recounts the emotions and challenges of her life-saving immunotherapy treatment under the care of Professor Georgina Long to come through the other side.

Not only has Anne survived, she is issuing a clarion call for a change to the bronzed Aussie culture. In Sunburnt Anne combines a nostalgic view of a charmed Aussie childhood, a jolting review of Australia’s sun-worshipping norms, and enough scientific research to encourage us all to redefine our relationship with the sun.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Marianna Marlowe – Portrait of a Feminist

Through braided memories that flash against the present day, Portrait of a Feminist depicts the evolution of Marianna Marlowe’s identity as a biracial and multicultural woman—from her childhood in California, Peru, and Ecuador to her adulthood as an academic, a wife, and a mother.

How does the inner life of a feminist develop? How does a writer observe the world around her and kindle, from her earliest memories, a flame attuned to the unjust?

With writing that is simultaneously wise and shimmering, nuanced and direct, Marlowe confronts her own experiences with the hallmarks of patriarchy. Interweaving stories of life as the child of a Catholic Peruvian mother and an atheist American father in a family that lived many years abroad, she examines realities familiar to so many of us—unequal marriages, class structures, misogynist literature, and patriarchal religion. Portrait of a Feminist explores the essential questions of feminism in our time: What does it look like to live in defense of feminism? How should feminism be evolving today?

From Chanticleer:

Marianne Marlowe’s memoir, Portrait of a Feminist, reveals the evolution of her feminism through a collection of thought-provoking essays.

“I would say, if it were possible, I was born a feminist” is at the heart of Marlowe’s story. She relates to this defining identity throughout years spent in Peru, California, and Ecuador, where she navigates childhood, marriage, motherhood, and a professional career.

The section titles reflect periods in Marlowe’s life that correspond to nature’s rhythms— “Seeds Planted”, “The Growing Years”, “Maturation”, and “Harvesting”—and maintain strong connections between her thematically-linked experiences.

As a Peruvian American woman, Marlowe navigates the concepts of gender, race, and culture from a personal and critical point of view.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Linda M. Lockwood – Sky Ranch: Reared in The High Country

At the age of eight, Linda Lockwood moves with her family to an isolated ranch in eastern Washington State. Within two years, she’s patrolling the ranch on horseback alongside her border collie—herding sheep, killing rattlesnakes, and defending the ranch’s livestock from coyotes, bears, and even trespassing hunters—and working tirelessly to realize her dream of training horses. But her most daunting challenge is one hard work can’t overcome: her mother is descending into madness. And Linda’s deepest fear is that she might inherit the schizophrenia that threatens to dismantle her family.

At age twenty-five, Linda marries, but the joy of her first pregnancy is darkened by her mother’s suicide. Then she endures a painful miscarriage and the death of her beloved grandmother, traumatic events that send her back in time to the births and deaths of animals—domesticated and wild—that she loved in childhood. Eventually, her own family grows, but her happiness is haunted by questions people have tiptoed around all her life. How did her mother become schizophrenic? What did she endure as a patient in 1960s mental hospitals? Might Linda and even her children be next to battle that catastrophic mental disorder? Driven by the courage and will she sharpened as a rancher, Linda vows to find out.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Kathryn Caraway – Unfollow Me

Also the 2024 Journey Grand Prize and a Clue First Place Winner!

This book about the author’s harrowing experience with a stalker is not yet released, but we are excited to see it come out and see her story get told. To find more information see the authors website kathryncaraway.com or her advocacy project at unfollowme.com

This book also releases on Kickstarter soon, along with a fictional thriller sequel where the victim gets her revenge! Follow it here: The Unfollow Me Duet by Kathryn Caraway — Kickstarter

Kasey Claytor – Finding the Light: Navigating Dementia with My Son

What happens when a younger person gets dementia and becomes filled with peace?

Finding the Light is a poignant memoir about a mother’s journey caring for her son with a terminal form of early-onset dementia, Frontotemporal Degeneration, or FTD. From the overwhelming tasks that must be done to ultimately sharing the meaningful insights that can be gained in this experience, you can’t come away without being deeply moved.

Claytor shares ways to lessen the toll of caregiving with stress-reducing methods and options for self-care, financial tips, and suggestions for good estate planning.

But most importantly, her message is about developing a way to instill a sense of well-being in dementia sufferers and their caregivers.
When Kasey Claytor found out that her 49-year-old son had Frontotemporal Degeneration, her world came crashing down…

Finally grappling with this situation head-on, she set out to learn everything she could about this devastating condition and create an environment around her son that would hopefully give him a sense of well-being despite the odds.

From Chanticleer:

Some stories are impossible to look away from, and from its very first sentence, Finding the Light, Navigating Dementia with My Son by Kasey J. Claytor proves itself one of them. “…when my 49-year-old son, Justin, was first diagnosed with a form of early-onset dementia, I was stunned.” Without hesitation, the book draws readers into a saga of family, illness, and resilience.

Although a memoir, Finding the Light is in many ways an instructional text, too. Readers don’t need similar medical situations to draw from Claytor’s lessons of improvement. The conversational, approachable writing style serves this purpose well.

Although it’s in chronological order, this is an unconventional, modern text.

Traditional scene-based paragraphs are offset by poetry, informative sidebars, and even the full text of letters sent throughout Justin’s illness. Claytor deftly shifts between these sections, building a cohesive narrative from which readers can easily learn.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

And now, the first ever GRAND PRIZE WINNERS in Non-Fiction for the Chanticleer Cover Design Awards!

Genét Simone- Teaching in the Dark

Also a 2024 Hearten First Place Winner!

A young teacher buys a one-way ticket to Shishmaref, Alaska. Within minutes of landing, she finds herself dealing with unexpected, rustic accommodations, and the culture shock of living in a remote Iñuit community. She relies on her courage, resilience, and wit while enduring freezing temperatures, power outages, loneliness, and first-year teacher anxieties and missteps, but eventually realizes that those challenges pale in comparison to the life lessons she learns about the heart of teaching—lessons from her students, their culture, and their community, on the vast, windy landscape at the edge of the Chukchi Sea.

From Chanticleer:

How does place shape who we are—and who we’ll become? In this memoir, Teaching in the Dark, Genét Simone puts that question to the test by recounting her first year as a teacher.

The initial year of teaching is never an easy feat, but for Simone it was especially challenging, and transformative. She spent it with Native students in the remote island village of Shishmaref, on the Arctic edge of Alaska—no small wonder the school year became an unforgettable one.

Today, Simone has decades of teaching experience to draw upon. Yet, in this memoir she rarely employs her present voice to reflect on the past. Instead, the narrator remains in the moment: a young and inexperienced Simone, who only knows that she feels destined to be a teacher. When she signs up for the Shishmaref teaching job, she doesn’t even realize that it’s on an island.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 Cover Design First Place and Grand Prize Winners!

Your book can join the Tiers of Achievement, but only if you submit to the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!

Got a great Fiction Book? The 2025 Cover Design Awards are open through the end of July!

Note: Late submissions are accepted until the dates change on the website!

Submit to the Cover Design Awards Today!

July 9, 2025
The 2025 Global Thriller Hall of Fame for High Stakes Suspense!

When Everything is at Stake, These Authors Deliver

***You have until July 31st to enter the Global Thriller Awards!***

The Global Thriller Awards celebrate stories where individual actions determine the fate of nations—or species. Our Hall of Fame showcases authors who’ve mastered the art of maximum-stakes storytelling, proving that the best thrillers don’t just entertain; they remind us that heroes can emerge when humanity needs them most.

From underwater civilizations fighting for survival to international conspiracies threatening global stability, these Grand Prize Winners understand that when the world hangs in the balance, readers demand heroes worthy of the challenge. Each of these celebrated works demonstrates what happens when exceptional writing meets planetary-scale peril.

We’re here to celebrate the past Grand Prize Winners that showed us just how high stakes the suspense can be!

A Blanket of Steel: The Rise of Oceania Book 6
By Timothy S Johnston

The review for this year’s Grand Prize Winner is forthcoming. In the meantime, here is our review for the previous book in the series and 2023 Cygnus Grand Prize Winner, The Shadow of War:

In Timothy S. Johnston’s The Shadow of War, gripping personal, ecological, and political battles rage undersea for autonomy and power against the powerful surface nations. But even the ocean depths churn with betrayal, conflicting loyalties, and the ruthless ambitions of humanity.

This thriller opens on the dystopia of the year 2131, when rising sea levels have forced humanity to establish and inhabit underwater colonies. The fear of environmental collapse is heightened by the prospect of war as the colonies struggle to maintain their independence.

A simple scientific exploration of the Chagos trench by two geologist brothers takes a horrific turn, snapping the science fiction tension with the impact of gore horror. A slight touch by one brother on the hull of their Seacar causes his hand to suddenly dissolve into a strange mass, melting flesh away from bone. This opening foreshadows the enigmas and anomalies to be unravelled in a vast undersea mystery.

Read More Here

Jake Fortina and the Roman Conspiracy
By Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke

Talk about a ripped-from-the headlines thriller in Jake Fortina and the Roman Conspiracy!

In this multinational geopolitical thriller by Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke, a power-crazed Russian oligarch wants to usurp the current Russian dictator to take his place as the head of the government. He forms his own paramilitary force to steal priceless paintings from a Vatican church with plans to resell them for billions to fund his campaign. But why stop there? He also explodes illicit small-scale atomic weapons to further destabilize the Russian leader and cast himself as the country’s new czar.

Meanwhile, a crazed U.S. right wing military adjutant buys loads of AK-47s from the Italian mafia to arm U.S. paramilitary groups intent on enforcing their own far-right views in America.

Read More Here

Hybrid Hysteria
By Charlie Robinson

Two professors uncover a conspiracy to sterilize liberal Americans with specially-manufactured electric cars, in Charlie Robinson’s thriller, Hybrid Hysteria.

Dr. Theresa Lauzon, endowed assistant professor at SUNY-Canton’s Department of Automotive Engineering, comes to Charlie “CC” Cavanaugh, university Chaplain and physics PhD, with two troubling revelations.

First, while testing an electric car donated by the Gauss Hybrid Electric Automobile Company (GHEA), she’d discovered troubling spikes in its battery’s electromagnetic field. She connects these spikes to a rash of infertility and miscarriages along the Pacific coast, where GHEA cars have boomed in popularity.

Second, Theresa is pregnant, and the father is GHEA’s technician-on-loan to SUNY-Canton, Jay Fish. And though Fish recently disappeared from campus, Theresa has much more complicated problems.

Read More Here

The Chameleon
By Ron McManus

The Chameleon: A Jake Palmer Novel by Ron McManus takes on one of the most terrifying issues in the modern world: nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists.

Amidst the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan, the world’s superpowers recognize that both nations possess large nuclear arsenals, which intelligent, well-armed fanatics threaten to steal for their own nefarious purposes. If these weapons went off, they could easily lead to World War III. To prevent this, the U.S. eagerly takes on the role of supervising the security of these weapons in both countries.

In this terrorism thriller, India and Pakistan clash over the disputed Kashmir region. Pakistan’s leaders decide to secretly deploy a variety of nuclear weapons to the front, sending them along backroads in unmarked trucks. But in a carefully planned attack, terrorists kidnap one of these vehicles containing three nuclear weapons, before substituting a precise duplicate truck to take its place. The theft is not discovered until the decoy truck reaches its destination.

Read More Here

The Bucharest Dossier
By William Maz

Bill Hefflin is a man apart—apart from life, apart from his homeland, apart from love

At the start of the 1989 uprising in Romania, CIA analyst Bill Hefflin—a disillusioned Romanian expat—arrives in Bucharest at the insistence of his KGB asset, code-named Boris. As Hefflin becomes embroiled in an uprising that turns into a brutal revolution, nothing is as it seems, including the search for his childhood love, which has taken on mythical proportions.

With the bloody events unfolding at blinding speed, Hefflin realizes the revolution is manipulated by outside forces, including his own CIA and Boris—the puppeteer who seems to be pulling all the strings of Hefflin’s life.

The Bourne Identity Meets John le Carre’s The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

Buy it here!

Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Global Thriller Winners is to submit today!

Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!

Submit to the CIBAs Today!

Now is your chance to touch the hearts of readers everywhere. Your Thriller story deserves to be discovered, and you can submit to the 2025 Global Thrillers Awards by the end of the month. Don’t miss this chance to give your book the recognition it deserves.

The Global Thriller Awards is your chance to shine!

July 4, 2025
The 2024 Series First Place Round Up

The Series Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Genre Fiction (and now Non-Fiction). The Grand Prize Winner, Tim Facciola’s Series, A Vengeful Realm will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Series 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!

While these Award Winning Series are all Multi-book sagas, we are going to showcase the most important part of a Series. The beginning. Having a good start makes it memorable. The first book is the foundation, laying the first stitches into what later becomes a whole tapestry, telling their story.

Join us in celebrating the 2024 first in the series of the First Place Series Winners!

Karen Inglis – The Secret Lake

When Stella and her younger brother, Tom, move to their new London home, they become mystified by the disappearances of Harry, their elderly neighbor’s small dog. Where does he go? And why does he keep reappearing wet-through?

Their quest to solve the riddle over the summer holidays leads to a boat buried under a grassy mound, and a tunnel that takes them to a secret lake.

Who is the boy rowing towards them who looks so terrified? And whose are those children’s voices carried on the wind from beyond the woods?

Stella and Tom soon discover that they have travelled back in time to their home and its gardens almost 100 years earlier. Here they make both friends and enemies, and uncover startling connections between the past and present.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Glen Dahlgren – The Child of Chaos

Nothing can stop the gods of Order… except a roll of the dice.

The Longing gnaws at young Galen, an irresistible force dragging him toward an ancient vault where Chaos slumbers. He doesn’t crave power, just an escape from Order’s suffocating grip and the twisted nightmares that haunt his sleep. But visions flicker in his mind, painting a world devoured by the very chaos he’s compelled to unleash.

He’s not alone in this desperate pilgrimage. Another soul thrums with the same Longing, fueled by ambition and vengeance. The race to the vault is a collision course, a clash of desperation and darkness.

Now, Galen stands at the precipice: trust his wild imagination, a double-edged sword that’s always landed him in trouble, or unleash the torrent that threatens to drown the world… unless, somehow, he can bend the very fabric of chance with a throw of his ancient, wood-carved dice.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Sandra Wagner-Wright – Ambition, Arrogance and Pride

In 18th Century Salem, Massachusetts, the ambitious Derby and Crowninshield families vie for power amid a shifting social and political landscape.

After the heartbreaking loss of their first child, Mary Hodges Derby and her husband Captain Richard Derby are blessed with a healthy son named Richard who is soon followed by four brothers and three sisters. All but one of the Derby boys follow their father to sea to secure their fortunes from America’s lucrative but treacherous trade routes to the West Indies and beyond.

When Captain Derby’s oldest son comes of age, he decides to retire from the sea and establish a merchant house. Two of Richard’s brothers follow him as captains of their own ships, but Captain Derby keeps his son Hasket ashore to manage the family’s growing trade network.

George Crowninshield, the youngest of four brothers, sails for the Derby family enterprise and ultimately marries Hasket’s sister Mary. Meanwhile, George’s sister Eliza makes a match with Hasket Derby.

Though the two families are united by wedlock, rivalries, political turmoil, and questionable choices reveal the complex consequences of unchecked ambition, arrogance, and pride.

Set during a pivotal time in Salem’s history when Americans broke their colonial ties with Great Britain, this gripping work of historical fiction explores the depth of human relationships through nuanced characters and vivid historical details. Recipes from the era bring the sights and flavors of 18th century Salem to life, while a glossary illuminates the context of the times.

From Chanticleer:

Sandra Wagner-Wright’s historical novel, Ambition, Arrogance and Pride, chronicles the rise of some of Salem, Massachusetts’s founding families, through the revolutionary war and beyond as they make their fortunes in far-off ports.

Wagner-Wright tells this story through several points of view, but it is her strong female characters who carry this story, women like Mary Derby, whose courtship and marriage to George Crowninshield begins this saga.

We follow Mary as she brings new life into the world while her husband is out at sea as captain of a merchant vessel. Wagner-Wright has done her research, making real the perils of pregnancy and childbirth in the 1700s. In keeping with the time and the rate of infant mortality, we suffer with Mary each time she loses a precious child.

Men such as Captain Richard Derby and George Crowninshield travel the sea in search of foreign ports, while women like Mary, Lydia, and Eliza hold their families together in this intricate and expertly crafted story.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Taryn R. Hutchison – One Degree of Freedom

Fifteen-year-old Adriana Nicu lives in the sheltered world of Bucharest, Romania, in the year 1987. Under the rule of Communist president Nicolae Ceaușescu, citizens of Bucharest live with the eyes and ears of the government ever present. Adriana’s future, which will involve becoming an engineer, is locked in against her will.

During a visit to her aunt’s apartment, Adriana walks through a wardrobe into a hidden room filled with stacks of forbidden novels. Stories bring light into the darkest of circumstances as her family begins to unravel and her life strangely parallels those of her novels’ heroines. Adriana’s childhood loyalties and her belief that God doesn’t exist are called into question as her circumstances force her to rethink things she once believed were certain.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Kari Bovee – The Pryce of Conceit

Also a Chanticleer 2024 Mystery & Mayhem First Place Winner!

Murder takes center stage!

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?

DiscoverThe Pryce of Conceit, the riveting first installment in The Pryce of Murder historical cozy mystery series, and witness a performance where murder is the main act!

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

J.L. Oakley – The Jøssing Affair

Chanticleers 2016 Goethe Grand Prize Winner!

British-trained Norwegian intelligence agent, Tore Haugland, is a jøssing—a patriot—sent to a fishing village on Norway’s west coast to set up a line to receive weapons and agents from England via the “Shetland Bus.” Posing as a deaf fisherman, his mission is complicated when he falls in love with Anna Fromme, a German widow. Accused of betraying her husband, she has a young daughter and secrets of her own. Although the Allies have liberated France, the most zealous Nazis hang on in Norway, sending out agents to disembowel resistance groups. If Haugland fails, it could cost him his life and the lives of the fishermen who have joined him. When Haugland is betrayed and left for dead, he will have to find the one who betrayed him and destroyed his network. He will also have to prove that the one he loves was not the informer. In wartime love and trust are not always compatible.

From Chanticleer:

At a time when true identities are carefully protected and information can get you killed, heroes emerge to fight the evils of Nazi-occupied Norway in J.L. Oakley’s highly suspenseful and beautifully penned historical fiction novel,The Jøssing Affair.

In a quiet Norwegian fishing village during the Nazi occupation, risk lurks everywhere. Most residents are patriotic members of the resistance, “jøssings,” but there are “quislings,” too. Those who collaborate with the Germans and tout the Nazi propaganda of Nordic brotherhood between the nations. Mistaking the two is a matter of life and death.

At the heart of the narrative is Jens Hansen who is an exceedingly mild-mannered handyman and a deaf-mute. Jens helps his friend Kjell on this fishing boat but mostly keeps to himself, communicating with paper and pencil when asked a question.

But Jens has a secret. His real identity is that of Tore Haugland, a man who will risk his life repeatedly as a British-trained member of the resistance. He and Kjell coordinate the transport of weapons and agents via the “Shetland bus,” a fleet of small fishing boats and a few American submarine chasers, that make excursions from the coast of Norway to the Scottish Shetland Islands.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke – Major Jake Fortina and the Tier One Threat

At the behest of rogue Iranian government officials, two terrorists break into the grave of an American veterans cemetery in the Suresnes suburb of Paris. What they take from that grave could lead to the deaths of millions of Israeli and US citizens, as well as Jews around the world. US Army Major Jake Fortina, a military attaché stationed at the US Embassy in Paris, is called upon by the FBI and French and Italian law enforcement and intelligence officials to help defeat Iran’s nefarious plan. Beginning in Paris, this international drama leads readers from Afghanistan to England, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey, and the United States in the scramble to save the world from a terror unknown since the deadly Spanish flu outbreak of 1918.

From Chanticleer:

Why would Iranian terrorists break into a Paris cemetery and steal the bones of an American Jewish WWI veteran? The answer lies in the deadly parallel history of WWI and the Spanish flu, but it’s a mystery that Jake Fortina will have to uncover in Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke’s thriller, Major Jake Fortina and the Tier One Threat.

During WWI, the Spanish Flu killed millions of people—some estimates as high as 100 million—but a Jewish nurse tossed off the flu like a cold and continued to serve her country. Iran’s leaders believe the DNA in her bones will let them develop a virus that could kill Americans and Israelis by the millions while simultaneously developing immunity for Iran’s own population.

This threat drives the story as it reaches deep into multiple countries and their governments, who collectively try to figure out the importance of the bones theft and, ultimately, what to do about it.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Mike Murphey – Tales of Physics, Lust and Greed

In the mid-21st century, time travel becomes a reality through a top-secret government-corporate initiative. Enter Marshall Grissom: socially awkward, perpetually overlooked, and unexpectedly thrust into the heart of this groundbreaking project.
Joined by the alluring and mischievous Sheila Schuler and the dangerous industrial spy Marta Hamilton, Marshall embarks on a journey that challenges everything they thought they knew about time and causality. As evidence mounts that the past may be irreversible, corporate investors demand proof the past can be manipulated—or threaten to pull the plug.

The unlikely trio is sent back to Marshall’s high school days with a seemingly simple mission: save the life of his unrequited love. But in a world where powerful corporations will stop at nothing to protect their interests, the travelers find themselves in a deadly game of cat and mouse. With time running out and lives on the line, Marshall and his companions must navigate the treacherous waters of temporal manipulation, corporate greed, and their own conflicting motivations. Can they change the past without destroying their future?

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Rose Prendeville – Mistress Mackintosh and the Shaw Wretch

Also a Chanticleer 2023 Chatelaine First Place Winner!

In 1725, a secret convent has been established on the Aberdeenshire coast.

Jory Mackintosh is more excited by healing herbs than husbands or holy prayers. She craves freedom—and a chance to sneak into medical school. Instead, on the eve of her escape, she becomes an unwilling pawn in her family’s schemes with a rival clan.

Finlay Shaw, the disgraced younger brother of the laird, has spent ten long years atoning for his past failures, but nothing can wash away the stain of fratricide. When the clans order him to escort Jory to her new life as a nun, thus securing an alliance with the freshly formed Black Watch, it’s his last chance for redemption. Too bad for Finn, Jory has no intention of following orders.

Trapped on the road together, often with only one bed between them, the two butt heads and match wits, forced to acknowledge the dark shadows that have haunted them both for years. Can they learn to trust each other, and themselves, to fly in the face of their families’ wishes, or will they choose the solitary futures they always believed they deserve in this unorthodox runaway bride story?

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 Series 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 great Fiction Book? The 2025 Series Book Awards are open through the end of July!

Submit to the Series Awards Today!

July 2, 2025
The 2024 Global Thriller First Place Round Up for High Stakes Suspense

The Global Thriller Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of High Stakes Thrillers. The Grand Prize Winner, Timothy S. Johnston’s book, A Blanket of Steel, will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Global Thriller contest page year ’round!

The best part about being a Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Winner is the continued love and promotion for your book!

The 2024 Global Thriller 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 Global Thriller Winners!

T.O. Paine – The Delusion

Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. It’ll drive you crazy. Literally.

Emma has sacrificed everything for her research in psychology at the University of Baltimore, dedicating her twenties to studying the persuasive effects of social media on the masses.

And, just when it’s about to pay off, her relentless graduate professor mysteriously disappears. They never got along, and the detective on the case blames her.

Now, desperate to clear her name, Emma sets out on a dangerous adventure only to discover a web of shocking lies and twisted motivations. Dark forces set in motion during the ‘90s converge, intertwining the dot com era, social media, and toxic manipulation.

A sinister, narcissistic madman has stolen her research, and with it, he can persuade the world to do as he wishes.

Emma is the only one who can stop him.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Charlie Robinson- Heavy Hysteria

From Chanticleer:

Scientific and moral questions swirl in Charlie Robinson’s latest thriller, Heavy Hysteria: A Novel of Corporate Intrigue Involving the Minerals of this Sacred Earth.

Readers are thrust into a suspenseful journey with worldwide implications alongside Dr. Charlie Cavanaugh, a 68-year-old priest and scientist.

Arriving home after a spiritual retreat, he is surprised by an FBI agent sitting with Cavanaugh’s gun on his lap. The agent has subverted a freshly enhanced security system to retrieve Cavanaugh’s encrypted, unpublishedHybrid Hysteriareport from a concealed USB stick.

The FBI needs Cavanaugh’s assistance with a delicate national security issue.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Tony Ollivier – The Tokyo Diversion

David Knight is still having a rough time…

Having survived the implanting of another man’s memories, ballet dancer David Knight is struggling to adjust. He has been hunted, attacked, and almost killed because a TV minister wanted the acquired memories destroyed; injuring his best friend. Now a year later, the memories are gone, but his life will never be the same.

While trying to find his new normal in Canada’s premier dance company and living a pauper’s life, he’s fired because of anger issues. But when friend and aging spymaster Asher Fitzsimmons offers him a three-day contract for some light surveillance of one of the world’s largest security software companies, he jumps at it. However, David is soon embroiled in a corporate conspiracy that drags him to Japan to save the life of a billionaire’s daughter and uncover the greatest sleight of hand in history.

Will David Knight survive The Tokyo Diversion?

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke – Change of Mission

IN THIS COMPELLING third installment of the Jake Fortina global thriller series—set predominantly in Italy—US Army Lieutenant Colonel Jake Fortina and his Italian Carabinieri bride, Sara Simonetti-Fortina, must each face deadly threats from different enemies. Meanwhile, Jake’s decision to seek a change in his life’s mission turns out to be far more momentous than expected. Jake’s new mission will require him and Sara to face criminal and dark international enemies head-on, and to seek the assistance of his closest allies while employing his vintage resourcefulness and agility. Will the assistance provided by a highly trusted US Army sergeant and a Ukrainian Air Force colonel be sufficient for Jake Fortina to accomplish his mission? Find out in this fast-paced and heart-pounding thriller!

From Chanticleer:

This Series also won a First Place in the 2024 Series Award, book 1, Major Jake Fortina and the Tier One Threat, will be showcased in the first-place post for Series. You can also check out our review for book 2, Jake Fortina and the Roman Conspiracy, Our 2023 Global Thriller Grand Prize Winner here:

Talk about a ripped-from-the headlines thriller in Jake Fortina and the Roman Conspiracy!

In this multinational geopolitical thriller by Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke, a power-crazed Russian oligarch wants to usurp the current Russian dictator to take his place as the head of the government. He forms his own paramilitary force to steal priceless paintings from a Vatican church with plans to resell them for billions to fund his campaign. But why stop there? He also explodes illicit small-scale atomic weapons to further destabilize the Russian leader and cast himself as the country’s new czar.

Meanwhile, a crazed U.S. right wing military adjutant buys loads of AK-47s from the Italian mafia to arm U.S. paramilitary groups intent on enforcing their own far-right views in America.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Ron Singerton – Ruptured

RUPTURED: The story of a family torn apart, unsuspected betrayal, terrorism, secession, and potential civil war as the nation is sundered.

Following the loss of a hotly contested election, Jefferson Calhoun Lee, a former U.S. senator with a questionable past establishes the Nationalist Christian Republic of America, a conglomeration of states with ties to the old Confederacy.

Janice, wife of FBI Director Steven Whitinghill, accompanies her debonaire lover James Goodwin, a close friend of Lee, to the NCRA’s capitol in Montgomery, Alabama where Lee is sworn in as the all-powerful leader of the new nation. Amid mounting chaos U.S. President Edith Barnes is encouraged to declare war as powerful members of the NCRA engage in draconian measures that spin out of control. Janice, having severed her relationship with husband and daughter, learns of Goodwin’s checkered past and attempts to survive as her world turns upside down.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Sheri T. Joseph – Edge of The Known World

In a near future where DNA tests are used at ID checkpoints, brilliant Alexandra Tashen is hiding in the open. After a blissful childhood on a Texas ranch, she learned of the secret in her genes—a harmless inherited marker and ancestry that would get her deported to a brutal regime and likely death. Her adoptive father’s experimental gene therapy masks her marker, but not completely. Every security check is a one-in-ten chance of getting caught.

When her father vanishes, Alex risks everything in a headlong and often comic search across nations. A volatile love triangle develops with two brothers—one a disgraced intelligence officer, the other a damaged, charismatic diplomat—each guarding secrets of their own. As betrayals mount and the secrets unravel, Alex must confront the confounding choices between love, family loyalty, and moral obligation.

Edge of the Known World blends the tension of a global thriller with the heart of a love story.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Carla Seyler – A Place Unmade

Valentina Sorelli is a part-time graduate student and full-time marketing director of a community park in New Orleans. Jack Stillman is a corporate executive who hijacks his company’s research for personal gain, and he doesn’t care about the consequences. Their separate paths intersect when Valentina meets Jack’s son Sam, who becomes the link between the worlds of scientific discovery and corporate espionage.

As the story unfolds, Valentina and her classmates unite to try to stop Jack. They get a little help from a corporate whistleblower as well as the FBI. Valentina’s friendship with one of her classmates evolves into something more as they fight for their lives. A Place Unmade takes the reader on a provocative journey into the dangers lurking in our decreasing lack of biodiversity and patentable genetics.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Randall Krzak – Frozen Conquest

An international criminal gang, known as Diablo Corps, plans a series of devastating attacks to take over the G7 countries unless their demands are met. Secure in their hidden headquarters in Antarctica, they possess the means to disrupt the leading world economies. The CEO wants what other power-hungry people want—more power.

Will the G7 bend to the will of these rogues or will evil triumph? Diablo Corps believes their previous infiltration of the international banking system and world stock exchanges will allow them to risk all on a single gamble.

The Scandinavian Protection Agency joins forces with Bedlam to thwart the efforts of the group and restore faith. Will Antarctica become a smoking ruin or will the world suffer an economic meltdown?

From Chanticleer:

Frozen Conquest by Randall Krzak is a thrilling and intense conflict between the cold of Antarctica and the blazing ambition of those seeking global control, fusing the issues of power, greed, and survival into a high-stakes adventure.

The icy edge of Antarctica serves as the center of a sinister organization, Diablo Corps. The ruthless leader, Walter Brown, threatens global mayhem if his aspirations for power are not met. With technological efficiency and the ability to disrupt critical infrastructure, Diablo Corps is poised to leverage its capabilities against the G7. Soon, an anonymous climate-related warning is sent out, with events such as the hacking of the London metal exchange proving to authorities the true weight of that threat.

Such dire actions demand an immediate answer. A classified team of specialists is called upon to gather at Ramstein Air Base. With naturally skilled leader Craig, sharp and observant Evelyn, and the humor and humility of Rufus and August, the promising recruits form the Bedlam Quick Reaction Force (QRF) and venture out into the peril of a frozen land.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 Global Thrillers 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 great High Stakes Suspense Thriller? The 2025 Global Thriller Book Awards are open through the end of July!

Submit to the Global Thriller Awards Today!

July 2, 2025
The 2025 M&M Hall of Fame for Cozy Mystery Books!

Curl up with a Cozy Mystery Today!

Agatha Christie in front of the TARDIS, as played by Fenella Woolgar in the Dr Who episode The Unicorn and The Wasp.

Summer is the best time to enter the M&M Book Awards

You have until July 31st to share your Novel with us and enter the 2025 CIBAs!

This Division is dedicated to one of the most Well-known Mystery authors, Dame Agatha Christie. Writer of Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, and so much more.

WWI Nurse, Writer, Playwright (and record holder of longest running Stage Play, The Mousetrap which opened in 1952), and Archaeologist, the latter of which contributed greatly to her novels.

When she wasn’t busy writing, She spent quite a good amount of her life working on excavations in Egypt and Iraq with her 2nd Husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan.

Agatha Christie (center) with Max Mallowan and Sir Leonard Woolley at the ruins of the Mesopotamian city of Ur in 1931

But enough about Christie. The Hall of Fame features the Grand Prize Winners of the Mystery and Mayhem Award who we are proud to have in the Chanticleer Family!

If Two Are Dead: A Garnick and Paschal Mystery
By Jeanne Matthews

An enigmatic raven-haired beauty mysteriously murdered and cast into a stranger’s grave, left for scurrilous resurrection men to uncover in the dark of night! In Jeanne Matthews’s historical mystery If Two Are Dead, Detectives Quinn Paschal and Gabriel Garnick take up this case of vicious murder and ignite a mire of secrets and resentment at the pinnacle of 1867 Chicago society.

After catching the body-snatchers in the act of stealing a freshly buried corpse to sell for medical research, Quinn and Garnick realize the body found in Emmett Buck’s grave is by no means that of a young man, but that of a woman, whose bloody head and clean clothes point to a complex mystery. With only her appearance and some identifying jewelry, Quinn insists they can and will catch the killer of ‘Marietta A.V.’ Enlisting the help of an unscrupulous journalist, they locate her husband, a wealthy and influential doctor.

The woman’s husband, Dr. Horace E. Vinings, offers them an incredible reward if they can find Marietta’s killer. But Quinn and Garnick suspect he might not like the answer he receives.

Read More Here

A Haunting at Linley: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel
By Michelle Cox

In this seventh book of the series, Clive and Henrietta return to England to find Castle Linley in financial ruin. When Clive’s cousin, Wallace, invites an estate agent in to assess the home’s value, the agent is later found poisoned, throwing all of the Castle’s guests into suspicion. Clive and Henrietta are soon drawn into an investigation, which is slowed by an incompetent local inspector and several unexplained phenomena—the cause of which many, especially the frail Lady Linley, believe to be the workings of the ghost of a hanged maid.

Meanwhile, Gunther and Elsie have begun life on a farm in Omaha. Circumstances are difficult, but they are content—until Oldrich Exely appears, proposing an option Elsie finds difficult to ignore. Melody Merriweather, still masquerading as a nun to aid Elsie’s escape, likewise finds it difficult to ignore a letter with tragic news from home, while Julia, on the other hand, receives a very different sort of letter from Glenn Forbes.

Back in England, Clive is called away to London on suspicious business, leaving Henrietta to carry on with the investigation alone. When she is mysteriously locked in the study one night, however, things take on a more deadly, supernatural feel, leaving her to fear that Lady Linley’s “ghost” might just be real after all…

Order it today!

A Spying Eye: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel
By Michelle Cox

Brooding Château du Freudeneck, just outside Strasbourg, France has villains in the drawing rooms, stolen art hidden in the cellars, and bats in the belfry – all the best elements for a 19th-century Gothic mystery.

However, in Michelle Cox’s novel, A Spying Eye it’s the 20th century. The Great War is passed, but the next war already looms on the horizon. The people of Strasbourg feel the growing conflict sharply, at the heart of Alsace-Lorraine, a fertile region that has been contested between France and Germany since time immemorial.

Which means those bats are in the unfortunate head of the elderly Baron Von Harmon, the current lord and master (as much as he’s still able to be, at least) of the Chateau, while the stolen art is pursued by both the villainous Nazis and the only slightly-less villainous agents of Britain’s MI5.

Read More Here

Ophelia’s Room
By Michael Scott Garvin

Ophelia’s Room by Michael Scott Garvin begins with a bang – and a child’s whimper.

A frantic, distraught father pounds on a bolted chapel door in a small country hospital…. A tiny, two-day-old infant cries in peril…. A deranged grandfather sees demons in every shadowy corner.

The opening scene read like something out of a young parent’s nightmare. Will their child be healthy? Will they grow up to be successful? Will the child be safe in their grandparents’ arms? Questions that any new mother and father ask themselves. In Garvin’s Ophelia’s Room, the answers are terrifying.

Read More Here

The Discovery
By Patrick M. Garry

Patrick M. Garry’s The Discovery encompasses a narrative that traverses a family legal case jigsaw puzzle toward a discovery of self by exploring the ghost of ancient regrets, basic human desires, and questions of faith.

Frank Horgan, a former lawyer at one of Minneapolis’ largest firms, now practices small-case litigation in the little community of Basswood Hills. Frank, a victim of his own follies, has one more chance to restore his career to its former glory. But not before a huge legal matter comes knocking on his door at his father’s diner. This case kicks off the legal drama, bringing in several main and secondary characters to play their parts in the ultimate discovery of buried contentedness and eventually a scandal that breaks into the national newspaper.

Meanwhile, Frank comes upon the case of the most prominent McCorkle family in Basswood Hills.

Read More Here

These Authors Solved the Mystery of Success

From Victorian Chicago to wartime France, these Hall of Fame winners prove that the best mysteries don’t just puzzle readers—they transport them to other worlds entirely. Each of these celebrated authors cracked the code that so many mystery writers struggle with: how to stand out in a crowded genre.

What’s their secret?

They didn’t let their stories remain unsolved cases buried in obscurity.

Your cozy mystery deserves the same recognition. In Dame Agatha Christie’s tradition, the M&M Awards celebrate authors who understand that the most satisfying mysteries combine clever plotting with unforgettable characters.

You know you want it…

The Case for Your Mystery

Will your amateur sleuth be next to join this prestigious lineup? Whether your story unfolds in a quaint English village or a bustling American town, the M&M Awards provide the recognition and promotional platform that transforms hidden gems into must-read mysteries.

You know you want it…

Time is running out—submit by July 31, 2025!

Don’t let your mystery remain a cold case. Enter the M&M Awards today!

June 27, 2025
The M&M Book Awards for Cozy Mysteries First Place Round Up from 2024

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?

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

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…

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

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.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

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.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

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.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

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?

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

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!

Submit to the M&M Awards Today!

June 25, 2025
The 2025 Spotlight on the M&M Awards for Cozy and Not-so-Cozy Mystery Books!
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.

Read more here!

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.

Read more here!

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.

Read more here!

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.

Read more here!

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!

You know you want it…

Submit to the M&M Awards today!
June 23, 2025