Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Suspense

The CLUE Awards for Suspense/Thriller Fiction 2016 First Place Category Winners
The CLUE Awards Writing Competition recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Suspense/Thriller Fiction. The CLUE Awards is a division of Chanticleer International Novel Writing Competitions.

Congratulations to the 2016 CLUE Awards First In Category Award Winning Suspense/Thriller Fiction Novels:
- Detective: A Matter of Justice by Keith Tittle
- Private Eye/Noir: The Innocent Dead by Keith Dixon
- Legal Thriller: Almost Mortal by Christopher Leibig
- Suspense: The Sage Wind Blows Cold by Clint Hollingsworth
- International Espionage: Epstein’s Pancake by Bjarne Rostaing
- U.S. Political Thriller: Do Not Assume by Elaine Williams Crockett
- Undercover Work: Behind The Mask by Dana Ridenour
- Eco/Natural Resources Thriller: Seed of Control by Lawrence Verigin
- Investigative: Striking Blind by Lonna Enox
CLUE Award Winners: Dana Ridenour, Keith Tittle, Lawrence Verigin, Clint Hollingsworth, Elaine Williams Crockett, and Lonna Enox

CONGRATULATIONS to Keith Tittle author of the CLUE GRAND PRIZE winner — A Matter of Justice!

The 2016 CLUE Short Listers competed for these First Place Category Positions. The CLUE First Place Category Award Winners’ novels have competed for the CLUE Grand Prize Award for the 2016 Suspense/Thriller Fiction Novels. These winners were announced and recognized at the annual Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Gala, Bellingham, Wash., on April 1st, 2017.

The First In Category award winning titles will receive an award package including a complimentary Chanticleer Book Review of the winning title, digital award badges, shelf talkers, book stickers, and more.

Congratulations to those whose works made the CLUE Awards 2016 FINALISTS and SHORT-LISTERS lists.

More than $30,000 worth of cash and prizes will be awarded to the 2017 Chanticleer Novel Writing Competition winners! Fifteen different genres to enter your novels and compete on an international level.

We are now accepting entries into the 2017 CLUE Awards. The deadline is September 30, 2017. Click here for more information or to enter.

More than $30,000 worth of cash and prizes will be awarded to the 2017 Chanticleer Novel Writing Competition winners! Fifteen different genres to enter your novels and compete on an international level.

More than $30,000 dollars in cash and prizes are awarded to Chanticleer International Blue Ribbon Awards Winners annually.

Please note that Global Thrillers and Lab Lit fiction entries were moved to the newly offered Global Thrillers Awards 2017.
April 6, 2017
The CLUE Awards for Thriller/Suspense Novels 2016 – Official Finalist Listing
The CLUE Awards Writing Competition recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genres of Thriller and Suspense Novels. The CLUE Awards is a division of Chanticleer International Novel Writing Competitions.

More than $30,000.00 dollars worth of cash and prizes will be awarded to Chanticleer Book Reviews 2016 writing competition winners at the Chanticleer Authors Conference April 2, 2017!

The CLUE Awards FIRST IN CATEGORY sub-genres are:
- Suspense/Thriller
- Detective/Crime
- Private Eye/Noir
- Legal/Medical/Police Procedural
- Spy/Espionage
The following titles will compete for the Short List (Semi-Finalists) Positions.

This is the OFFICIAL FINALIST POSTING of Authors and Titles that have made it to the Finalist List of the CLUE 2016 Novel Writing Contest. Good luck to all as the works compete for the 2016 CLUE SHORT LIST!
- Craig Anderson – Grabbed and Gone
- Ken Baysinger – El Camino
- Phillip Buchanon – Sexual Departure
- Timothy Burgess – The Never-Ending Swell
- Pamela Crane – A Secondhand Life
- Elaine Williams Crockett – Do Not Assume
- Don Daglow – The Fog Seller
- Dermot Davis – Fatal Eclipse
- Denise Dearth – Blind Redemption
- Joshua Andrew Dickson – Canon
- Donna Dillon – Dreamcatcher Chronicles: Little Girl Lost
- Keith Dixon – The Innocent Dead
- Jack and Sue Drafahl – D.N.A.
- Gregg Dunnett – The Wave at Hanging Rock
- A.S.A. Durphy – The Thing Speaks for Itself
- Lonna Enox – Striking Blind
- Danielle Esplin – Give It Back
- Alan J. Field – The Chemist
- Zach Fortier – Baroota: The Hunting Ground
- Patrick M. Garry – The Illusion
- John Herman – My Father’s Son
- Clint Hollingsworth – The Sage Wind Blows Cold
- Tina Meggs Keller – Baptism by Fire
- Matt Kilby – The Road Cain Walks
- Christopher Leibig – The Black Rabbit
- Christopher Leibig – Almost Mortal
- Christopher Leibig – Montanamo
- Michael Byars Lewis – Veil of Deception
- Kara Lumbley – Never Alone
- LS Cahn – The Trus Game
- Ken Malovos – Fatal Reunion
- James Marshall Smith – Silent Source
- Kaylin McFarren – Banished Threads
- A.B. Michaels – Death Runs on Time
- A.B. Michaels – Sinner’s Grove
- A.B. Michaels – The Lair
- M. Ruth Myers – Maximum Moxie
- Toby Neal – Wired In
- Dana Ridenour – Behind The Mask
- Bjarne Rostaing – Epstein’s Pancake
- Janet Shawgo – Archidamus
- Ben A. Sharpton – 2nd Sight
- James G. Skinner – The Goa File
- Lee Strauss – Gingerbread Man (A Marlow & Sage Mystery – A Nursery Rhyme Suspense)
- E.V. Stephens – Accountable
- Cary Allen Stone – After the Evil: A Jake Roberts Novel, Book 1
- Susan Strecker – Nowhere Girl
- Luke Swanson – The Ten
- Keith Tittle – A Matter of Justice
- Lawrence Verigin – Seed of Control
- Timothy Vincent – Prince of the Blue Castles
- Jim Weber – Jehovah: A Novel
- P. K. Williams – Buried Beneath
- Manning Wolfe – Dollar Signs: Texas Lady Lawyer vs Boots King
- DM Wolfenden – Carly
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, concerns, or suggestions at Info@ChantiReviews.com.

Congratulations to the Finalists in this fiercely competitive contest!

Good Luck to all of the CLUE Finalists as they compete for the coveted First Place Category positions.

First In Category announcements will be made in our social media postings as the results come in.

The CLUE Grand Prize Winner and the First Place Category winners will be announced and recognized at the April 2nd, 2017 Chanticleer Writing Contests Annual Awards Gala, which takes place on the last evening of the Chanticleer Authors Conference that will be held in Bellingham, Wash. To be present when your name is called, register for the Chanticleer Author Conference.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2017 CLUE Awards writing competitions for Thriller, Suspense & Mystery Fiction. Please click here for more information or to enter the contests.
December 22, 2016
AN OUTCAST STATE by Scott D. Smith, a YA dystopian novel

One of the most popular genres out there today is “the zombie apocalypse.” You can find it on TV, in books, in graphic novels, and just about any other media format you can think of. Author Scott D. Smith brings his voice to the genre in his award winning book An Outcast State. It is a fast paced, imaginative, riveting read.

Written in the first person, you’ll quickly find out that the world is a different place than it was a few short months prior to the story. The book’s main character, Corbin, is a loner who has honed his survival skills and survived long enough to “live to tell tale.”

He tells us in the beginning of the book, “In fact, as I write this, an entire herd of them is outside this building trying to claw its way in. The door to this place is reasonably solid, but it won’t hold forever. Doesn’t really matter I guess since I’m planning on opening it soon anyway.”

The herd he is referring to are the zombies or as they are called in this book “eaters.” Corbin continues:

“The only comforting thought I have is that I don’t imagine the eaters are going to have any interest in this book. That means there’ll be some kind of record of my having been here, something that could give my death a little meaning. Assuming it even gets found. It’s better not to think about it. I have enough problems for today.”

Early in the book the loner status was soon to change for Corbin as he obtains a traveling partner. One of the realities of life in this current state of the world is the fact that to survive, one must explore the now empty homes of others. This quest is to gather usable supplies including such treasures as non-perishable good, batteries, and weapons.

On one such exploration, our main character meets Molly. Inside the home when Corbin arrives, we quickly learn that Molly is searching for her parents and this particular home Corbin chose to explore was hers. This sets off a quest to help Molly find her family, one that leads the duo via bicycle from Texas to Louisiana. This journey is filled with harrowing complications that build suspense. It is engrossing to see how our main character handles the new partner as this greatly impacts his ability to travel, seek food and defend himself.

Soon the pair encounters yet another challenging, but unexpected twist in their young lives. The following excerpt is a fine example of an important aspect about this book, the very real human concerns that play out in each of the scenes. Zombies are only the tip of the iceberg in this book. The real depth of the story lies in the interactions of the main characters to each other and those whom they encounter. It is through these interactions and encounters that Scott’s writing skills shine.

“Some combination of intelligence, intuition, and luck has kept me alive on my own all these years. I’ve learned to trust in each of them, but I usually count on all three working together. Unfortunately, intelligence and intuition had apparently called in sick that day.”

Luck was going to have to get some overtime, so one spot out in the middle of nowhere being as good as any other for chance to intervene on our behalf, I signaled Molly to follow me, turned my bike off the pavement, and headed for the woods that grew thick and dark just a few feet from the old highway……I have never believed in karma. I have never thought the universe was in favor of my success or my failure.

Things simply unfolded as they did, and that was that; however, as the events of the next few seconds played out, I was certain that I must have been paying for the accumulated sins of my lifetime.”

An Outcast State is one of those books that once you finish it, you are left with a desire to return to the world you just left and will want to hang out a little longer with the main characters. Filled with suspense and backed by a solid storyline, this novel is one that is hard to put down. Scott D. Smith has taken a popular modern genre, made it his own, and gives readers a thrilling tale to behold. An Outcast State received the Dante Rossetti Award for YA Dystopian Novel.

May 21, 2016
TREASURE: A Trilogy by Vanessa Hoffman

In the 1930s, a homeless, pregnant teenager dies in a New York shelter after giving birth to twin, golden-haired boys, identical in every respect except for a disfiguring birthmark. One child is adopted into a wealthy family; the other one ends up in an orphanage. Kenneth grows into a handsome, privileged, and self-absorbed man; Francis lives a hardscrabble life, raging against his fate and determined to one day balance the scales.

Years later, Camille, a forty-something woman who has grown up in a loving family but has received more than her share of hard knocks in life, decides to spend the afternoon drinking in a tavern. There she meets a distinguished gentleman in his 60s, who introduces himself as Kenneth. They chat, and something clicks.

Kenneth, a retired general from the military, owns a huge ranch and has made a vast fortune off cattle and citrus groves. For seven months, Camille dates the man of her dreams, believing that her luck has finally changed. Or has it? Is Kenneth who he says he is? For that matter, is Camille the woman Kenneth believes her to be?

Thus begins a trilogy of absorbing stories, interconnected by fascinating characters and united by theme. Long after readers finish the book, they may find themselves reflecting on the questions Vanessa Hoffman asks about how we lead our lives.

Are our important life decisions the product of how we were raised by our parents? Or are they more heavily influenced by the instinct to survive? And once we make unethical choices, do we rationalize them and ignore any feelings of guilt? Ultimately, will we pay for our bad decisions, or will we skate through life, able to ignore the damage done to others?

The people who populate Hoffman’s novel are neither wholly good nor wholly bad; but are merely victims of life’s vagaries. They are ordinary people, innocent, vulnerable victims, the self-absorbed and privileged, Irish Mafia bosses, and criminals in league with Jihadists. They have—in some cases—lucked out by an accident of birth, but in other cases, had to struggle to overcome daunting obstacles. All have made questionable, life-altering choices.

Time and again, Ms. Hoffman draws a picture of a person who, had circumstances been different, might’ve made different decisions. In each case, Ms. Hoffman asks the question; will they suffer the consequences of their actions? Some readers may find Hoffman’s tone occasionally a tad preachy. However, the intriguing characters and the interwoven stories of suspense and political intrigue will remain with readers long after they finish the book. Treasure: A Trilogy raises important questions about the ways in which we live our lives. An engrossing and fascinating novel!

May 18, 2015
An Editorial Review of “Cornered” by Alan Brenham

Detective Matt Brady of the Temple City police is up to his eyeballs with work. He has too many kidnapped women, no leads, and the chief of police is breathing down his neck with reminders of how the last time he worked a case like this, a woman died. As the kidnappers are always ten steps ahead, it’s looking like the time has come to hand the case off to the FBI, which would end Brady’s chance at redemption. So begins Alan Brenham’s detective novel, Cornered.

Burt Smith and his henchmen, Weaver and Chiles, appear to be more than a match for Detective Brady at the start of the novel. The villains are loose-cannons, capable of anything, but they still have their own personal lives to deal with. Smith is attempting to escape an unhappy marriage, hounded left and right by his ex-wife, while Weaver and Chiles are cons trying to put their lives back together. It would be easy for the reader to feel sympathetic for them, if they didn’t spend their spare time committing heinous criminal acts. The focus on all the characters, not just the protagonists, is what sets Brenham’s story apart.

The development of characters who would usually go unnoticed in other stories adds dimension to the novel. Brenham gives the reader an opportunity to connect with a little old woman yelling at Chiles and Weaver as they speed by her house, and to join Brady in reviling his least favorite detective who never shuts up. In giving the story that extra bit of depth though, Detective Brady and his romantic interest, a veterinarian named Tracy Rogers, lose a bit of the development they could have received in exchange for a fast and furious read.

Since the reader knows from the get go who the villains are, the overriding theme is how far is too far for the detective to use his position to thwart the villains’ next attempt and what the reasons are for the kidnappings. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking; Brady’s ex-girlfriend has gone all “Fatal Attraction” on him; and anyone involved in any way with the kidnappings—innocents, hit men, criminals, good guys, or opportunists are all in the crosshairs.

The switch between so many characters, whom the reader knows decently, keeps the excitement burning in the ever present question of what happens next. Moments where the reader expects to loathe the antagonists can elicit sympathy, where other scenes show their irredeemable qualities in vicious detail. The question of who will be saved and who will die, who will cut a deal and who will stick it out to the end, drives the story keeping the pages rapidly turning.

Cornered is definitely a story that moves against the grain. The reader spends equal time with villains and heroes, making the story focus more on the people than the criminal acts being committed. The tension Brenham builds through the switching of viewpoints creates a novel that commands the reader’s interest, along with giving unique perspectives of the individuals involved.

Cornered, Alan Brenham’s thriller novel is a winner and we look forward to reading more from this criminal law attorney and former law enforcement officer turned author.

October 3, 2014
POE: Nevermore by Rachel M. Martens – Horror, Paranormal, Thriller, Mystery

Poe: Nevermore, by Rachel M. Martens, is a contemporary suspense thriller with a nod to paranormal elements of the Romanticism Movement. This dark and dense novel that borders on horror is told in the first person by a young woman, Elenora Allison Poe, known simply as ‘Poe.’

The story begins innocently enough; it seems that the characters and the plot are driven by mental illness (even Poe) until the impetus is revealed. That is the hook of Martens’ writing—just when you think you’ve got it figured out, the game changes. The plot twists and turns as it sinks its hook deeper into you. At first, as I read, I thought that this novel might be another variation of Fight Club or the Dragon Tattoo series. It is not.

For some, it may be too haunting a tale. The author skillfully builds tension and anticipation with complex characters that are not easily dismissed. The antagonists are evil incarnate. The scary part is that they could be someone you speak with every day, the next date that you are on, the person you work with….

The beginning of the story manifests Poe’s awkwardness of Poe in trying to make her way in the world alone, as many young adults do. The ordeals Poe has survived so far in her young life have reduced her to perilously low levels of self-worth and confidence. You think to yourself that Poe needs to get a grip on herself, to stop feeling sorry for herself. But soon enough the reasons for her self-defeatist attitude are divulged and you will wonder how she functions at all and why, … indeed, why she is still alive.

Poe learns that her family has been accursed since Edgar Allan Poe’s foster father had a witch invoke it. The curse destroys the victim psychologically and emotionally. It will destroy everything and everyone to torture its victim, to make the victim’s life a living hell.

Poe must unravel the details of the family curse in order to save the few loved ones she has left in this world. She pursues this with the help of a budding relationship with Frost, a homicide detective who sees something worth saving in her, and shares her interest in the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Poe himself aids her pursuit, explaining the curse, and presenting himself as her spirit guide.

The 19th century Romantic Movement, a revolt against societal norms in art, was represented by deep emotional response to experience, including emphasis on terror, horror, and the supernatural. Edgar Allan Poe’s writings, known for their mystery, their macabre methods of death, and his delving into the human psyche, were part of this movement. The parallels between our heroine’s life and that of Edgar Allan Poe are brilliantly developed by the genre and style in which Poe: Nevermore has been written.

Be warned; Poe: Nevermore is not a cozy mystery. Ms. Martens succeeds at painting dark, suspenseful, sometimes horrific pictures. It is the type of psychological horror that locking the doors and windows and reading with the lights on will not keep out.

I highly recommend this book for my fellow edge-of-our-seat junkies—those of us who are constantly seeking the book we ever so briefly fear picking up, then can’t put down in the relentless pursuit of discovering whatever comes next! Martens’ Poe: Nevermore deliciously feeds these cravings along with satisfying those with classical literary interests. I anxiously look forward to reading Marten’s next installment of Poe.

August 28, 2013
Saving Hope by Liese Sherwood-Fabre

It is a frigid night in Siberia in the year 2000. In their small apartment, Alexandra Pavlova is jerked awake by the sound of her small daughter’s struggled breathing. The mother’s tender caress of her forehead reveals a raging fever. Quickly Alexandra wakes her husband Yuri, and the parents bundle up Nadezhda for the drive from their city, bearing the Soviet-style name of Stop-100, to the regional hospital, 100 kilometers away.

With expensive medicines that her parents must buy, Nadezhda (Hope, in Russian) recovers from this bout, but the doctor tells them that the girl desperately needs surgery in one of Moscow’s major hospitals. The loving mother is a lioness in her fierce determination to do whatever it takes to help her child, born with a heart condition that leaves her vulnerable to life-threatening infections. She guiltily fears that her earlier employment as a microbiologist in a Soviet biological warfare institute may have led to Nadezhda’s condition. Now she vows to save her life.

Vladimir, a friend of both Yuri and Alexandra since childhood, willingly provides money for the trip to Moscow, and Yuri begins selling car parts to earn extra money. Alexandra gratefully accepts the secretarial job offered by Vladimir, who eventually confesses his lifelong love for her and his pain and even jealousy when she married Yuri.

It is hard to see how this story is to evolve into the exciting spy novel that Saving Hope has promised to be, but author Sherwood-Fabre isn’t about to disappoint her readers. She comes through with flying colors, creating her cliffhanging thriller not only with literary skill and authenticity regarding life, crime, and medicine in Russia (Sherwood-Fabre lived and worked there), but also with great emotion and story-telling ability.

We learn that the hard-working father and the generous friend have hidden their true characters—not only from us, but also from Alexandra, and even from each other. Even Alexandra, an unemployed microbiologist, is drawn into the nefarious Russian underworld that entices her with offers of a high salary and good medical care for Nadezhda.

These activities do not go unnoticed by the Russian Federation’s intelligence arm, the FSB (successor to the former Soviet KGB). Agent Sergei Borisov tries to recruit Alexandra to help in his investigation by telling her how she has been betrayed. She is devastated as well as desperate, feeling there is no one she can trust. She is soon to discover that her fears—not just for herself and Nadezhda, but for the safety of the world—are well grounded. The deadly race is on.

This reviewer’s heart was pounding as the final pages of this book flew under her fingers at 2:30 in the morning. Surely the evil that is encompassing her life and threatening the world must not reach fruition unchallenged, but what or who is going to stop it? Saving Hope is a great read, and not just to find out how it ends. There are sub-stories and sub-sub stories, built around characters I didn’t even mention in this review, that add depth and texture to this spy novel.

Saving Hope by Liese Sherwood-Fabre is the Chanticleer Book Reviews 1st Place Blue Ribbon Award winner for the Suspense/Thriller category, Published Novels division.

January 8, 2013