The Clue Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Suspense and Thriller Mysteries. The Clue Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is seeking the best books featuring suspense, thrilling adventure, detective work, private eye, police procedural, and crime-solving, we will put them to the test to discover the best! (For lighter-hearted Mystery and Classic Cozy Mysteries please check out our Mystery & Mayhem Awards, and for High Stakes Suspense Novels please check out our Global Thriller Awards).

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2023 Clue Suspense/Thriller Fiction Long List to the 2023 Clue Book Awards SHORT LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2023 Clue Semi-Finalist positions. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24).

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 20th, 2024 at the Four Points by Sheraton in beautiful Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference. 

These titles are in the running for the SEMI-FINALISTS of the 2023 Clue Book Awards novel competition for Thriller/Suspense Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following Short List authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs. 

• Roxana Arama – Extreme Vetting: A Thriller
• Nancy Adair – The Appearance of Guilt
• Margaret Mizushima – Standing Dead: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery
• Joanne Jaytanie – Retrieving Remy, The Winters Sisters Book 5
• Jeremy Gluck – Face Value
• Ana Manwaring – Backlash Venom and Vendetta from ‘Nam
• Chuck Morgan – Crime Scene, A Buck Taylor Novel
• Linda Moore – Five Days in Bogotá
• Jonny Thompson – Atlantis
• Kevin G. Chapman – The Other Murder
• T.O. Paine – The Excursion
• Corey Lynn Fayman – Gillespie Field Groove
• Paty Jager – Damning Firefly
• Mary Desch – Tangled Darkness
• Jonny Thompson – Ash and Sun
• Charlotte Stuart – Forget or Forgive? NEVER
• Jim Nesbitt – The Dead Certain Doubt: An Ed Earl Burch Novel
• Frederick Douglass Reynolds – Saint Bloodbath
• Joshua Cohen – Past Imperfect
• Jacqueline Boulden – Her Past Can’t Wait
• E. Alan Fleischauer – Sherlock and the Tiger
• J. Luke Bennecke – Echo from a Bayou
• Mark James – Friendship Games
• Steven Mayfield – The Penny Mansions
• Dave Lager – Sniper’s Day
• Daniel V. Meier Jr. – Guidance to Death
• Michelle Cox – A Haunting at Linley
• Anne Moose – When You Read This I’ll Be Gone
• Jode Millman – The Empty Kayak
• Alexandrea Weis & Lucas Astor – River of Ashes
  Kamille Roach – Pine Creek
• Justin M. Kiska – Fact & Fiction
• Melissa L. Berger – What Mae Brings: A Novel
• Mike Van Horn – Controlled Flight
• Decima Blake – Hingston: Smoke and Mispers
• Cathi Stoler – With A Twist: A Murder On The Rocks Mystery
• Richard C. Brusca – The Time Travelers
• Bill Mesce, Jr – Median Gray
• Kathryn Lane – Missing in Miami
• Leslie Kain – Secrets In The Mirror
• D. R. Berlin – The Third Estate: Secrets of the Manor
• Lisa Towles – The Ridders
• Rita M Boehm – The Price of Revenge
• Philip Derrick – Saigon Spring
• Tejas Desai – The Dance Towards Death
• Martha Crites – Danger to Others
• Raymond Paul Johnson – The Raven Society: Conspiracy Ignited
  Chris Chan – Ghosting My Friend
• Nina Romano – Dark Eyes
• Mary Keliikoa – Deceived
• McKinley Aspen – Praesidium
• Robert W. Smith – Long Way From Clare
• Jason Kapcala – Hungry Town
• V. S. Anderson – Three Strides Out: A Horse Show Novel of Suspense
• Howard Berk and Peter Berk – TimeLock
• T.E. Lane – The Cornbread Letters
• Mary Keliikoa – Hidden Pieces

Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS! 

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 CLUE Awards is:

Have You Seen Me?

By Alexandrea Weis

 See the Full List of 2022 Clue Award Winners here!

The 2023 CLUE Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC24 on April 21, 2024. Save the date for CAC24, scheduled April 18-21, 2024, our 12-year Conference Anniversary!

Submissions for the 2023 CLUE Book Awards are open until the end of September. Enter here!

Don’t delay! Enter today! 

Winners will be announced at the 2023 CIBA Awards Ceremony, sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference April 18-21, 2024! Register Today!

The Chanticleer Authors Conference

Featuring authors like D.D. Black, book doctor Christine Fairchild, and Mark Berridge, our twelfth annual conference is shaping up to be excellent! You won’t want to miss out on the best tips around the business of being an author!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 12th annual conference and discover why!

The Clue Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Suspense and Thriller Mysteries. The Clue Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is seeking the best books featuring suspense, thrilling adventure, detective work, private eye, police procedural, and crime-solving, we will put them to the test to discover the best! (For lighter-hearted Mystery and Classic Cozy Mysteries please check out our Mystery & Mayhem Awards, and for High Stakes Suspense Novels please check out our Global Thriller Awards).

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2023 Clue Suspense/Thriller Fiction entries to the 2023 Clue Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for the 2023 Clue Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalist positions. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists.  All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24).

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 21st, 2024 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference. 

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2023 Clue Book Awards novel competition for Thriller/Suspense Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs. 

• Roxana Arama – Extreme Vetting: A Thriller
• Craig H. Bowlsby – Requiem for a Lotus
• Nancy Adair – The Appearance of Guilt
• Margaret Mizushima – Standing Dead: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery
• Joanne Jaytanie – Retrieving Remy, The Winters Sisters Book 5
• Jeremy Gluck – Face Value
• Ana Manwaring – Backlash Venom and Vendetta from ‘Nam
• Mikky Eagle – Burden of Proof – the Freya Files – A Most Despicable Deed of Arson
• B. C. Howard – SEL
• Chuck Morgan – Crime Scene, A Buck Taylor Novel
• Linda Moore – Five Days in Bogotá
• Kevin G. Chapman – The Other Murder
• T.O. Paine – The Excursion
• Corey Lynn Fayman – Gillespie Field Groove
• Paty Jager – Damning Firefly
• Mary Desch – Tangled Darkness
• Jonny Thompson – Ash and Sun
• Jonny Thompson – Atlantis
• Charlotte Stuart – The Sham Shamus
• Charlotte Stuart – Forget or Forgive? NEVER
• Jim Nesbitt – The Dead Certain Doubt: An Ed Earl Burch Novel
• Caroline Taylor – The Pit Road War
• Frederick Douglass Reynolds – Saint Bloodbath
• Gar Mallinson – Night Moves: The Stroll Murders
• Mark Shaiken – Cram Down
• Joshua Cohen – Past Imperfect
• Jacqueline Boulden – Her Past Can’t Wait
• Ron Roman – Of Ashes and Dust
• E. Alan Fleischauer – Sherlock and the Tiger
• J. Luke Bennecke – Echo from a Bayou
• Mark James – Friendship Games
• George Brown – Who Killed Jerusalem?
• Steven Mayfield – The Penny Mansions
• Dave Lager – Sniper’s Day
• Daniel V. Meier Jr. – Guidance to Death
• Michelle Cox – A Haunting at Linley
• Anne Moose – When You Read This I’ll Be Gone
• Jode Millman – The Empty Kayak
• Alexandrea Weis & Lucas Astor – River of Ashes
  Kamille Roach – Pine Creek
• Justin M. Kiska – Fact & Fiction
• Melissa L. Berger – What Mae Brings: A Novel
• Mike Van Horn – Controlled Flight
• Decima Blake – Hingston: Smoke and Mispers
• Cathi Stoler – With A Twist: A Murder On The Rocks Mystery
• Richard C. Brusca – The Time Travelers
• Bill Mesce, Jr – Median Gray
• Kathryn Lane – Missing in Miami
• Leslie Kain – Secrets In The Mirror
• D. R. Berlin – The Third Estate: Secrets of the Manor
• Lisa Towles – The Ridders
• Rita M Boehm – The Price of Revenge
• Philip Derrick – Saigon Spring
• Tejas Desai – The Dance Towards Death
• Martha Crites – Danger to Others
• Raymond Paul Johnson – The Raven Society: Conspiracy Ignited
  Chris Chan – Ghosting My Friend
• Nina Romano – Dark Eyes
• McKinley Aspen – Praesidium
• Robert W. Smith – Long Way From Clare
• Jason Kapcala – Hungry Town
• V. S. Anderson – Three Strides Out: A Horse Show Novel of Suspense
• Howard Berk and Peter Berk – TimeLock
• T.E. Lane – The Cornbread Letters
• Brigitte Goldstein – Death of a Diva-From Berlin to Broadway
• Mary Keliikoa – Deceived
• Mary Keliikoa – Hidden Pieces

 

Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS! 

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 CLUE Awards is:

Have You Seen Me?

By Alexandrea Weis

The 2023 CLUE Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC24 on April 20, 2024. Save the date for CAC24, scheduled April 18-21, 2024, our 12-year Conference Anniversary!

Submissions for the 2024 CLUE Book Awards are open now. Enter here!

Don’t delay! Enter today! 

April 18-21, 2024! Register Today!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887)  has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 12th annual conference and discover why!

Ready to dive into a thrilling adventure?

Find your next page-turning read here!

***Make your Case Known***

You have until September 30th to share your novel with us and enter the 2023 CIBAs!

Suspenseful stories filled with mystery have long held readers captive with their intricate plotting, enigmatic clues, and the tantalizing challenge of solving a puzzle or unraveling a crime. In these tales, protagonists are not just characters; they are the enigmatic detectives, the astute investigators, and the relentless truth-seekers who navigate a labyrinth of secrets, lies, and suspense. It’s a world where protagonists, inspired by the likes of Sherlock Holmes, navigate a web of mysteries, facing danger and moral quandaries with each step. From classic mysteries to contemporary thrillers, this genre captivates readers of all ages, drawing them into a labyrinth of secrets, where the ultimate reward is the satisfaction of solving the puzzle and the exhilaration of the chase.

If you are ready to unveil your next adventure, submit to the Clue Awards!

Lets take a moment to celebrate the Hall of Fame for the Grand Prize Winners of the Clue Awards!

 

The Vines
By Shelley Nolden

Shelley Nolden’s debut novel, The Vines, embraces multiple genres as it chills, fascinates, and horrifies, from historical and magical realism to fantasy and horror.

Nolden has melded fanaticism, medical anomalies, and the frailties of human behavior together with a historic setting, creating a narrative Kudzu vine that grows rapidly and spares nothing in its path. This particular vine consists of two main branches that intertwine, bridging time and linking parallel realities, one past, one present.

The Gettler men of Long Island, New York have shepherded a secret medical research project for generations, with the exception of Finn, the youngest man in the family.

Read More Here

 

A Venomous Love
By Chris Karlsen

Detective Rudyard Bloodstone is facing the most bizarre crime spree of his career as a copper on the Victorian streets of London. Someone is using a poisonous Cape cobra as a weapon.

What begins as a simple robbery scheme turns deadly when a wealthy businessman is killed via cobra attack, the crimes go from strange to deadly. Rudyard (Ruddy) and his partner, Archie Holcomb, have few clues and no idea what would cause such a change in the criminal’s behavior.

When the criminal returns to the estate and attacks the victim’s daughter, Ruddy’s suspicions are confirmed.

Read More Here

 

Salvaging Truth
By Joanne Jaytanie

Famed marine biologist and researcher Claudia Rawlings is presumed dead. When Claudia’s research vessel goes down, her daughter Riley goes on a desperate search to discover what happened, eventually turning to Dagger Eastin, co-owner of Hunters and Seekers a marine salvage business. Dagger soon realize this isn’t a simple search and reclaim mission when someone takes a shot at him during an exploratory dive with Riley.

Former Navy SEALs, Dagger, and his partners Kaleb LaSalle and Stone Garrison are the definitions of relentless, and they quickly become embroiled in the investigation that has caught the attention of some very influential people, all seeking Claudia’s important research. And while Riley learns that her mother has left behind clues to her missing research, the Hunters and Seekers pull out all the stops to help and protect her. The wild scavenger hunt sends Dagger and Riley on a trip to discover the truth, but Russian spies, big oil cronies, and psychopathic hitmen lurk around every corner.

Read More Here

 

California Son
By Timothy Burgess

California Son, the second installment in the Liam Sol Mystery series by Timothy Burgess, presents another action-packed mystery for protagonist Liam Sol to solve. Honorably discharged after his tour of duty in Vietnam, Liam returns to his primarily Hispanic neighborhood of Baja La Bolsa, a coastal town near LA, California, where trouble finds him.

In his role as a journalist, Liam takes interest in the daily pleas of a Hispanic mother to find her son’s murderer, pleas that the mostly white La Bolsa Police seem to ignore. After an article he writes in hopes of renewing interest in the case appears in La Bolsa Tribune, the mother is found dead in her apartment. No stranger to death or violence, Liam soon finds himself on the personal side of a hunt for the killer of not only the son but also the mother.

Read More Here

 

The Review of the most recent winner is forthcoming.

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Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Clue 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!

Are you a Chanticleer Author who has some good news to share? Let us know! We’re always looking for a reason to crow about Chanticleerians! Reach out with your news to info@ChantiReviews.com

A New Mystery has joined the Clue Awards

The Clue Awards for Suspense/Thriller novels has a new category!

Chanticleer International Book Awards is seeking the best books featuring suspense, thrilling adventure, detective work, private eye, police procedural, and crime-solving, we will put them to the test to discover the best! (For lighter-hearted Mystery and Classic Cozy Mysteries please check out our Mystery & Mayhem Awards, and for High Stakes Suspense Novels please check out our Global Thriller Awards).

Introducing the True Crime Category

The Clue Awards is delighted to welcome in a Non-Fiction black sheep into its fold with the True Crime / Investigations Category. While it would be tricky to fit this into our general Non-Fiction Awards, we took inspiration from bookstores everywhere that frequently put the True Crime section next to the rest of the excellent mysteries.

Book Riot did a great article on the differences between True Crime and Thrillers, saying

True crime aficionados liked the deep dive into the psychology of it all. Jack El-Hai, a true crime writer who recently published The Lost Brothers, wrote, “I’m only an occasional reader of murder mysteries. Many fictional works about murder are about finding out who did it, and the narrative concludes with that discovery or with catching the perpetrator. I’m more interested in why they did it and the aftermath for everyone affected by the crime.”

The readers they interviewed ranged from only wanting to read one or the other to loving both for different reasons. Do you have any of your own preferences?

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Chanticleer article if we didn’t have some excellent books for you to read!

First and foremost, we are delighted to celebrate the 2022 winners of the Clue Awards!

• Marie Sutro- Dark Obsessions
• Michelle Cox- A Spying Eye
• Jodé Millman- Hooker Avenue
• Kevin G. Chapman- Dead Winner
• Arthur Herbert- The Bones of Amoret
• Brenda Stanley- The Still Small Voice

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 Clue Award is:

Have You Seen Me?

By Alexandrea Weis

It’s time to take your work to the next level.

Take the next step in promoting your books and submit to the Clue Awards today!

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Be Part of the Legacy: Join the Illustrious Roster of Winners

With over $30,000 in rewards and prizes given away every year, what are you waiting for? Submit today!