Only 1 week left to submit your books to these prestigious CIBA Divisions and embark on an extraordinary journey to success. With over $30,000 in prizes awarded annually, now is the time to make your mark!
The Clue Awards, The Global Thriller Awards, and the Mystery and Mayhem Awards are still open!
Congratulations to the Winners of the 2024 Clue Award for Suspense/Thrillers!
Pamela Beason –If Only
Jeff Nania –Musky Run
Sean Hagerty –Jones Point
Kathryn Caraway –Unfollow Me
Carl Vonderau –Saving Myles
Shanessa Gluhm –A River of Crows
Michael Pronko –Shitamachi Scam
And a huge round of applause for the 2024 Clue Grand Prize Winner:
Enemies Domestic by John DeDakis
Congratulations to the Winners of the 2024 Global Thriller Awards!
T.O. Paine –The Delusion
Charlie Robinson –Heavy Hysteria: A Novel of Corporate Intrigue Involving the Minerals of this Sacred Earth
Tony Ollivier –The Tokyo Diversion
Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke –Change of Mission: A Jake Fortina Series Novel
Ron Singerton –Ruptured
Sheri T. Joseph –Edge of the Known World
Carla Seyler –A Place Unmade
Randall Krzak –Frozen Conquest
And a huge round of applause for the 2024 Global Thriller Awards Grand Prize Winner:
A Blanket of Steel by Timothy S. Johnston
Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Mystery & Mayhem Awards!
Patrick E. Craig –The Boy In Blue Denim
Lori Roberts Herbst –Graven Images
Gail Noble-Sanderson –A Cup of Revenge – A Drew Davies Railway Mystery – Book 2
M. K. Graff –Death in the Orchard: A Trudy Genova Mystery
Miriam Verbeek –The Forest
Kari Bovee –The Pryce of Conceit
And a huge round of applause for the 2024 M&M Grand Prize Winner:
If Two Are Dead by Jeanne Matthews
At Chanticleer, we see your success as our success. The CIBAs provide dedicated promotion at every advancement tier, from our highly anticipated Long Lists to our prestigious Grand Prize Winners. We work tirelessly to maximize your digital footprint through our high-traffic website, social media campaigns, and newsletter features that energize both authors and readers.
We are always eager to support the Best Books through the CIBAs. Join the ranks of celebrated authors who have already taken this critical step in their publishing.
Your book deserves to be discovered, celebrated, and shared with the world. Don’t miss the chance to showcase your talent and gain valuable exposure at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (April, 2026) where Winners from all 28 Book Award Divisions will be announced and honored.
Readers are always searching for their next great thriller, and your story deserves to be heard. Submit now and leave a lasting impression.
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 mysteryIf 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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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?
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…
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.
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.
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.
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?
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 Radiouses many elements of classic mystery, even down to the noir lighting of the early-morning streets. Yet it also diverges from mystery-novel tradition in interesting ways.
Unlike many older mystery books, it has not only a female sleuth, but a focus on the challenges and barriers faced by a woman in the 1960s. The book is studded with authentic period details, from Beatles mania and folk music to the Royal Tour and the World’s Fair. It also doesn’t shy away from the weightier topics of the era. As Lillian investigates Susan’s death, she finds herself grappling with looming issues like abortion and gender equality. Author Gail Hulnick gives these issues their due complexity, painting a realistic picture of the 1960s as an era of global change and growing pains.
A HAUNTING At LINLEY: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel By Michelle Cox
Dire darkness descends upon Castle Linley inA Haunting at Linleyby 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.
TOMMY ROCKET And The GOOBER PATROL By Thomas R. Kuhn
Tommy Rocket and the Goober Patrolby 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.
In the small Missouri town of Walkers Corner, it seems everyone has a dark secret. InParallel Secretsby ML Barrs, a TV journalist comes to town to do a magazine piece on a missing girl and begins uncovering many of those hidden stories.
Motivated by feelings of guilt for not following up on a previous unsolved case, Vicky Robeson’s joins the search for the missing child. She’s tenacious in her investigation. As a TV station journalist currently between jobs, she has well-honed investigative skills, specifically in her ability to wheedle stories from even the most reluctant people. She’s familiar with Walkers Corner; and as a reporter for a St. Louis TV station, she covered the case of a never-identified mystery girl. She believes the two cases are connected. The similarities that link these cases to her own experiences as a child make her unable to let this new story go.
Safe to say, her investigating is not welcomed by most of the locals in this close-knit town.
These reviews represent just a glimpse of the clever plots and charming characters waiting to be discovered in today’s mystery fiction.
See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!
We’re excited about all the wonderful mysteries we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. Throughout this year’s M&M Book Awards, we had the pleasure of promoting over 70 books as they advanced through our competition tiers. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!
This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each advancement tier is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter! Your book deserves to be discovered.
Don’t Let Your Mystery Remain Unsolved!
The cozy mystery market is more vibrant than ever, with readers hungry for clever puzzles, charming characters, and satisfying resolutions. Whether your amateur sleuth is a retired teacher with a knack for observation, a small-town baker who stumbles upon murder, or a historical figure solving crimes in a bygone era, the M&M Awards provide the recognition and promotional platform your mystery deserves.
Mystery fiction has the unique power to engage readers’ minds while providing the comfort of justice served and puzzles solved. Don’t let your story remain a cold case—submit to the M&M Awards today and join the ranks of celebrated mystery writers who’ve found their audience through Chanticleer!
The M&M Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the Cozy and Not-So-Cozy Mystery & Mayhem fiction genre. The M&M Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring “mystery and mayhem,” amateur sleuthing, light suspense, travel mystery, classic mystery, British cozy, not-so-cozy, hobby sleuths, senior sleuths, or historical mystery, perhaps with a touch of romance or humor, we will put them to the test and choose the best among them. (For suspense, thriller, detective, crime fiction see our Clue Awards, and for international intrigue see our Global Thriller Awards)
1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners were announced at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony by Christine Fairchild on Saturday, April 5th, 2025 at the Bellingham Yacht Club in beautiful Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
This is the OFFICIAL 2024 LIST of the M&M BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the M&M Grand Prize Winner.
Join us in celebrating the following authors and their works!
Patrick E. Craig – The Boy In Blue Denim
Lori Roberts Herbst – Graven Images
Gail Noble-Sanderson – A Cup of Revenge – A Drew Davies Railway Mystery – Book 2
M. K. Graff – Death in the Orchard: A Trudy Genova Mystery
Miriam Verbeek – The Forest
Kari Bovee – The Pryce of Conceit
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2024 Mystery & Mayhem Awards is:
Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, for Facebook to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.
A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting inMay. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.
NOTE: We will post at least two 2024 CIBA Divisions’ OFFICIAL Winners per business day starting April 14, 2025. We do a final sweep and reconciliation prior to making the Official CIBA Posts for the 2024 First Place and Grand Prize Winners. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. There are many moving parts involved with the Chanticleer International Book Awards Program.
Thank you for participating in the 2024 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.
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, Michelle Cox’s book, A Haunting at Linley 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!
A long-buried past. A stolen portrait. The artist’s murder. Can Sherlock discover the connection between the three before he’s stopped permanently?
Sherlock can’t shake his apprehension about a family trip to Paris. His mother’s unflappable confidence vanished months ago, and her anxiety has set the whole family on edge. His greatest fears are realized when they witness the death of one of Mrs. Holmes’ former suitors.
As Sherlock seeks to unravel the reason behind the artist’s murder, he unearths a long-buried secret about his mother and survives several attempts to keep him from getting to the truth.
Can he bring a murderer to justice before he’s buried with these hidden secrets forever?
The Adventure of the Purloined Portrait is the gripping fourth case in The Early Case Files of Sherlock Holmes. If you enjoy traditional historical mysteries, you’ll love this origin series about the world’s greatest consulting detective.
Moira Gallagher has been conversing with ghosts since she was five. Now as an adult, she’s finally putting that ability to good use.
Moira’s ability to talk with the dead gives her detective agency, Gallagher Investigations, an edge in uncovering secrets the past has buried. With the help of her sisters, Nuala and Deirdre, she assists those unsettled spirits in finding peace by righting the wrongs done to them before they found themselves on the Other Side. The past collides with the present as these Irish sisters solve cold-case murders and mayhem through their dreams, paranormal visitations, and spunk.
If you enjoy a cozy mystery, ghosts of the friendly and not-so-friendly variety, or anything Irish, you’ll love We Are Shadows.
Suffering a crisis of faith, will one woman’s cryptic visions lead to the path of healing and save her sister from death row?
Gabrielle Dorian believes God has turned against her. Despite prophetic dreams, the grieving boutique owner resents that her alleged gift didn’t prevent her parents’ accidental deaths or protect her husband from a fatal worksite accident. So after receiving a panicked call from the last of her family, the distraught woman shelves her own sorrow and rushes to Seattle to rescue her estranged sister.
Discovering her sibling has been charged with murder, Gabrielle begins to fear the worst when her brother-in-law is missing and his best friend mysteriously comes up with bail money. Battling a hated former classmate in charge of the case, she fights through the murk of suspicious clues that all point to a guilty verdict.
With her last loved one’s life on the line, can she uncover the truth before it’s too late?
Dreams and Illusions is the riveting first book in the Gabrielle Dorian Mysteries Series. If you like headstrong heroines, fast-paced drama, and dark twists, you’ll love Rebecca Olmstead’s tale of doubt and redemption.
Asta, the dog from the popular Thin Man series, has vanished, and production for his next film is pending. MGM Studios offers a huge reward, and that’s exactly what young private detectives Babs Norman and Guy Brandt need for their struggling business to survive. Celebrity dognapping now a growing trend, when the police and city pound ridicule Basil Rathbone and ask, “Sherlock Holmes has lost his dog?” Basil also hires the B. Norman Agency to find his missing Cocker Spaniel.
The three concoct a plan for Basil to assume his on-screen persona and round up possible suspects, including Myrna Loy and William Powell; Dashiell Hammett, creator of The Thin Man; Nigel Bruce, Basil’s on-screen Doctor Watson; Hollywood-newcomer, German philanthropist and film financier Countess Velma von Rache, and the top animal trainers in Tinseltown. Yet everyone will be in for a shock when the real reason behind the canine disappearances is even more sinister than imagined.
Jenny Hershberger returns to Apple Creek, Ohio, the village where she grew up. But this is not a happy homecoming. She’s been called upon to solve a horrible crime. But will the killer find her first…
Death strikes England’s foremost novelist, his latest tale only half told. Was he murdered because someone feared a ruinous revelation? Or was it revenge for some past misdeed? Set in the Kent countryside and London slums of 1870, Immortalised to Death embeds an ingenious solution to Charles Dickens’s unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood within the evolving and ultimately tragic consequences of a broader mystery surrounding the author himself. Debut author Lyn Squire kicks off his fascinating Dunston Burnett Trilogy with legendary Victorian novelist Charles Dickens dead at his desk, pen still in hand. Convinced that the identity of Dickens’s murderer lies in the book’s missing denouement, Dickens’s nephew and unlikely detective, Dunston Burnett, sets out to complete his uncle’s half-finished novel. A stunning revelation crowns this tale about the mysterious death of England’s greatest novelist, and exposes the author’s long-held secret.
The baffling death of a beloved Elder. A convocation of eagles, sacred messengers of Kji-Niskam, poisoned. Mi’kmaw First Nation Chief Peter Joe must learn who’s behind the killings before more die. A determined wildlife activist, a self-important Minister of Parliament, a virulent poison, and a plan to eradicate Newfoundland’s newest and smartest predators tangle his trail to the cause and perpetrator, and put his life in danger.
Are things as they seem? The Old Ones’ stories hold the answers.
You have until September 30th to share your Novel with us and enter the 2024 CIBAs!
This Division is dedicated to one of the most Well-known Mystery authors, Dame Agatha Christie. 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.
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!
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…
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.
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.
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.
A complex murder mystery always requires a little spice. In Dharma, A Rekha Rao Mystery, that extra seasoning is provided by the casting of an Indian American woman as the amateur sleuth, despite her realistic fears for her personal safety.
Professor Rekha Rao is no Bollywood Mighty Girl. She’s a whip-smart American-born 32-year-old college instructor who must deal with her own PTSD after the murder of her father and her unstoppable passion for releasing the man wrongly convicted of her father’s slaying. That obsession is the reason Rekha was dismissed from her old teaching position. The scene is set for deep, personal involvement in the murder of a colleague, a fellow professor who is killed. And a rare, centuries-old statue excavated from an archeological dig in India is the murder weapon.
With a much-anticipated wedding is in the works, but family complications and entanglements threaten the celebration, when is love A Promise Given, and when is it a compromise taken?
Amidst tribulations of friends and family, the smart and beautiful Henrietta, and the intense Inspector Clive Howard say, “I do.” Now the loving couple will learn how to be Mr. and Mrs. Howard on their honeymoon in England with his relatives at Castle Linley, where intrigue and mystery await their arrival.
Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Hearten Winners is to Enter Today!
Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!
You know you want it…
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
Only 6 days left to submit your books to these prestigious CIBA Divisions and embark on an extraordinary journey to success. With over $30,000 in prizes awarded annually, now is the time to make your mark!
Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 M&M Awards for Cozy and Not-so-cozy Mystery!
Liese Sherwood-Fabre – The Adventure of the Purloined Portrait
Gail Grant Park – We Are Shadows: An Irish Ghost Story
Rebecca Olmstead – Dreams and Illusions
Elizabeth Crowens – Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles
Patrick E. Craig – The Quilt That Knew
E. W. Finke – Coyote’s Wail
Lyn Squire – Immortalised to Death
And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Mystery & Mayhem Awards Grand Prize Winner:
A Haunting at Linley
A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel
by Michelle Cox
Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Clue Awards for Thriller and Suspense!
Daniel V. Meier Jr. – Guidance to Death
Frederick Douglass Reynolds – Saint Bloodbath
Michelle Cox – A Haunting at Linley
Jode Millman – The Empty Kayak
Raymond Paul Johnson – The Raven Society: Conspiracy Ignited
Margaret Mizushima – Standing Dead: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery
And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Clue Awards Grand Prize Winner:
The Other Murder
By Kevin G. Chapman
The CIBAs offer more than just recognition — they provide a ladder to success with a range of achievement tiers and expert long tail marketing strategies. From the highly anticipated Long List to the prestigious Overall Grand Prize Winner, the CIBA lists energize both authors and readers, maximizing your digital footprint and expanding your fan base.
We are always eager to support the Best Books through the CIBAs. Join the ranks of celebrated authors who have already taken this critical step in their publishing.
Your book deserves to be discovered, celebrated, and shared with the world. Don’t miss the chance to showcase your talent and gain valuable exposure at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (April 3-6, 2025) where Winners from all 25 Book Award Divisions will be announced and honored.
In a world hungry for good books, your story deserves to be heard. Submit now and leave a lasting impression.
The Mystery and Mayhem Awards is inspired by the works of Agatha Christie, one of the most influential crime writers in history, and along with Arthur Conan Doyle, led to the prevalence of the British Crime genre, in both TV and Books. M&M focuses on Cozy Mysteries, where the violence is often pushed aside, and the Amateur Sleuth reigns supreme. Why have Police and Detectives solve a mystery when meddling old ladies like Miss Marple can do it better.
In contrast to this we have the Clue Awards. Clue is the more violent, gritty, thriller and suspense type mysteries.
Liese Sherwood-Fabre – The Adventure of the Purloined Portrait
Gail Grant Park – We Are Shadows: An Irish Ghost Story
Rebecca Olmstead – Dreams and Illusions
Elizabeth Crowens – Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles
Patrick E. Craig – The Quilt That Knew
E. W. Finke – Coyote’s Wail
Lyn Squire – Immortalised to Death
The Grand Prize Winner for the 2023 Mystery & Mayhem Awards is:
A Haunting at Linley
A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel
By Michelle Cox
And now it is our pleasure to highlight some of the best Cozy and Not-so-Cozy Mystery Books we’ve had the pleasure of reading this summer!
IF TWO ARE DEAD: A Garnick & 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.
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.
In Alisse Goldberg’s engaging young adult mystery, The Ghost in the Garden, a curious 11-year-old must face the challenges of moving to a new city, losing old friends, making new ones, and encountering historic specters in her new home.
Sophie Madison seems none too happy about her recent move from the bustling city of Calgary, Ablerta to the smaller, quieter landscape of Stratford, Ontario. But upon arrival with her parents, she begins noticing the charm of the place, appearing like a step back in time. Their new house in particular catches her interest, with its tall turret topped by stained glass window panes where Sophie’s bedroom will be. In addition, the wild beauty of the backyard garden draws her in.
Soon, a mysterious blonde-headed girl named Tabitha appears in the garden.
After the murder of his sister, Dr. Walker Claybourne journeys to the Yucca Valley to wrap up Claire’s affairs– including the investigation, in David T. Isaak’s mystery novel, Things Unseen.
As a geology professor at the University of California in San Diego, a leading authority on volcanic landforms of the Southwest, Walker lives a life as solid and routine as the very rocks he studies. He has his tenure, his condo, and his quiet existence. On sabbatical to write a textbook, Walker plans on staying in Claire’s rented house just long enough to pack her things. However, he isn’t there long before guilt sets in as he realizes how little he knew his only sister.
With his parents both dead and his only other sibling teaching at Cambridge, Walker realizes how very alone he is, and he decides to investigate Claire’s murder.
This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs Levels of Achievement is so worthwhile! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each list is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter!
The M&M Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the Cozy and Not-So-Cozy Mystery & Mayhem fiction genre. The M&M Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring “mystery and mayhem,” amateur sleuthing, light suspense, travel mystery, classic mystery, British cozy, not-so-cozy, hobby sleuths, senior sleuths, or historical mystery, perhaps with a touch of romance or humor, we will put them to the test and choose the best among them. (For suspense, thriller, detective, crime fiction see our Clue Awards, and for international intrigue see our Global Thriller Awards)
1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners were announced at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony by Gail Halverson on Saturday, April 20th, 2024 at the Four Points By Sheraton in beautiful Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
This is the OFFICIAL 2023 LIST of the M&M BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the M&M Grand Prize Winner.
Join us in celebrating the following authors and their works!
Liese Sherwood-Fabre – The Adventure of the Purloined Portrait
Gail Grant Park – We Are Shadows: An Irish Ghost Story
Rebecca Olmstead – Dreams and Illusions
Elizabeth Crowens – Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles
Patrick E. Craig – The Quilt That Knew
E. W. Finke – Coyote’s Wail
Michelle Cox – A Haunting at Linley
Lyn Squire – Immortalised to Death
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 Mystery & Mayhem Awards is:
Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, for Facebook to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.
Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Facebook and Twitter handle is @ChantiReviews
Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.
A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting inJune. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.
NOTE: We will post at least two 2023 CIBA Divisions’ OFFICIAL Winners per business day starting April 24, 2024. We do a final sweep and reconciliation prior to making the Official CIBA Posts for the 2023 First Place and Grand Prize Winners. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. There are many moving parts involved with the Chanticleer International Book Awards Program.
Thank you for participating in the 2023 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.
Congratulations to the Winners of the 2024 Clue Award for Suspense/Thrillers!
