Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Suspense

The 2023 SOMERSET Book Award FINALISTS for Literary and Contemporary Fiction
The SOMERSET Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The Somerset Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2023 Somerset Literary and Contemporary Fiction Semi-Finalists to the 2023 Somerset Book Awards 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 the FINALISTS of the 2023 Somerset Book Awards novel competition for Literary and Contemporary Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
- Judy Keeslar Santamaria – You Can’t Fool a Mermaid
- Leslie Tall Manning – Feral Maril and Her Little Brother Carol
- Deborah Hufford – Blood to Rubies
- Charlotte Beck – A Good Day To Die
- Nova Garcia – Not That Kind of Call Girl
- Linda Moore – Five Days in Bogota
- David Fitz-Gerald – If It’s the Last Thing I Do
- Jo Deniau – Hologram
- J.A. Wright – Eat and Get Gas
- B. Lynn Carter – Jus Breathe
- Jennifer Gold – Halfway to You
- Jacqueline Boulden – Her Past Can’t Wait
- Anne Moose – When You Read This I’ll Be Gone
- Leslie Liautaud – Black Bear Lake
- Chera Thompson – Dawned on the Danube
- Kevin Lavey – The Return of Jason Foxx
- Dennis Must – MacLeish Sq.
- Margaret Klaw – Every Other Weekend
- Julia Brewer Daily – No Names to Be Given
- Ann Curtin – Muldoon’s Walking
- Kamille Roach – A Matchbox Full of Pearls
- Linn Aspen – The Dreamtidings of a Disgruntled Starbeing: Life with a psychopathic brother
- James Gish, Jr. – When Blackbirds Dream
- Donna Norman-Carbone – All That is Sacred
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 the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 SOMERSET Awards was:

Everything That Was

By Conon Parks

Click here to see the 2022 Somerset Book Award Winners for Literary and Contemporary Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2024 Somerset Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The 2024 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2025.

Please click here for more information.

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, Kim Hornsby, 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!
March 13, 2024
The 2023 SOMERSET Book Award Semi-Finalists for Literary and Contemporary Fiction
The SOMERSET Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The Somerset Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2023 Somerset Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction Short List to the 2023 Somerset Book Awards Semi-finalists. 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 to be the FINALISTS of the 2023 Somerset Book Awards novel competition for Literary and Contemporary Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
- Judy Keeslar Santamaria – You Can’t Fool a Mermaid
- Leslie Tall Manning – Feral Maril and Her Little Brother Carol
- Deborah Hufford – Blood to Rubies
- Charlotte Beck – A Good Day To Die
- Nova Garcia – Not That Kind of Call Girl
- Ruth F. Stevens – My Year of Casual Acquaintances
- Linda Moore – Five Days in Bogota
- David Fitz-Gerald – If It’s the Last Thing I Do
- Dian Greenwood – About the Carleton Sisters
- Lou Dischler – Oracle to the Underworld
- A.J. Kohler and Susan Lynn Solomon – The Magician
- Jo Deniau – Hologram
- J.A. Wright – Eat and Get Gas
- B. Lynn Carter – Jus Breathe
- Terry Tierney – The Bridge on Beer River
- Jennifer Gold – Halfway to You
- Jacqueline Boulden – Her Past Can’t Wait
- Anne Moose – When You Read This I’ll Be Gone
- Leslie Liautaud – Black Bear Lake
- Victoria Costello – Orchid Child
- Barbara Francesca Murphy – Ever After
- Chera Thompson – Dawned on the Danube
- Kevin Lavey – The Return of Jason Foxx
- Dennis Must – MacLeish Sq.
- Margaret Klaw – Every Other Weekend
- D.R. Ransdell – Carillon Chase
- L.S Case – A Hundred Days Till Tomorrow
- Elayne Klasson – The Earthquake Child: A Novel
- Leslie A. Rasmussen – The Stories We Cannot Tell
- Debra Thomas – Josie and Vic, a novel
- Julia Brewer Daily – No Names to Be Given
- Ann Curtin – Muldoon’s Walking
- Kamille Roach – A Matchbox Full of Pearls
- Linn Aspen – The Dreamtidings of a Disgruntled Starbeing: Life with a psychopathic brother
- James Gish, Jr. – When Blackbirds Dream
- Donna Norman-Carbone – All That is Sacred
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 the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 SOMERSET Awards was:

Everything That Was

By Conon Parks

Click here to see the 2022 Somerset Book Award Winners for Literary and Contemporary Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2024 Somerset Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The 2024 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2025.

Please click here for more information.

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!
March 8, 2024
HYBRID HYSTERIA: A Novel of Corporate Intrigue Both Holy and Diabolical by Charlie Robinson – Crime Thriller, Conspiracy, Suspense

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.

Theresa reveals to CC that she is likely the daughter of GHEA’s founder, Girard LaCroux, with Theresa’s Akwesasne mother having gone into hiding after she and Girard divorced. She has no idea what Girard’s son and current GHEA president, Claude LaCroux, might do if he discovers her true identity. But she does know that CC has underworld connections, and asks his help in hiding long enough to give her child safely up for adoption.

CC calls upon his uncle Tony, the godfather of the Fiocchi mafia. Tony’s sinister means might concern CC as a priest, but he’ll need secrecy and resources for all the trouble to come.

Sending GHEA’s goons chasing after a decoy, Theresa escapes with help from her Native community. But CC’s work isn’t nearly done– he has to discover whether Theresa’s fears about the GHEA cars are true. Girard LaCroux was an arch-conservative, and Claude follows in his footsteps, but could they really enact such a horrific plan? And what threat might they pose to anyone snooping around?

CC connects with an old mentor, Dr. Toshio Kikuchi, and the two uncover GHEA’s clever system; their battery control modules differ between the Midwest and the Pacific coast, allowing GHEA to specifically target the latter. If not for Theresa’s curiosity, their sterilizing effects would have gone completely under the radar.

Amidst careful investigation and deadly family ties, criminal factions and covert organizations wage war through knowledge and spy-craft.

Gayle Smith, Claude LaCroux’s executive assistant, uses her newfound position as Jay Fish’s bodyguard to do some investigating of her own. As a double agent for a world-spanning secret society, she tricks her way into high-security parts of GHEA’s black-site testing grounds. She delves ever deeper into their work, revealing the depths of LaCroux’s evil scheme.

Meanwhile, CC, Theresa, and Toshio publish a paper on the danger of GHEA batteries, drawing LaCroux’s attention right to them and putting their lives in sudden peril. Even if they save others from GHEA’s plot, who can save them?

Hybrid Hysteria pores over intricate details with every plan, discovery, and question.

The story is full of scientific and mechanical information, ranging from the fundamental measurements of magnetism to the construction of GHEA’s batteries, the methodology of faking a natural mud slide, and even the careful steps a sniper must take to derail half of a train. While this often causes the pacing to drag, many of these details show clear expertise and research on the part of author Robinson. Readers interested in a thriller that goes over its subjects with a fine-toothed comb will certainly be satisfied.

Multiple perspectives reveal new sides of each conspiracy as it begins to unravel.

CC might have moral reservations as he enters this world of secrecy and danger, but he’s far from the only character with difficult tasks before them. Every person he brings into his confidence quickly finds a target painted on their back.

Hybrid Hysteria takes readers on a journey through the corporate offices of Claude LaCroux, the manor of an Italian mob boss, and even an alcove of Vatican-adjacent spies.

Some of these perspectives reveal the conspiracies rather plainly early on, reducing the tension of future investigations. However, when the multiple plotlines converge towards the climax, readers will excitedly follow characters like Gayle and CC as they take a stand in this hidden global battle.

Hybrid Hysteria by Charlie Robinson won Grand Prize in the 2022 CIBA Global Thriller Awards for High Stakes Suspense.

February 28, 2024
The 2023 CLUE Book Awards Finalists for Suspense/Thrillers
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 Semi-Finalists to the 2023 Clue Book Awards 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 the FINALISTS 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
- Margaret Mizushima – Standing Dead: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery
- Joanne Jaytanie – Retrieving Remy, The Winters Sisters Book 5
- Chuck Morgan – Crime Scene, A Buck Taylor Novel
- Kevin G. Chapman – The Other Murder
- Corey Lynn Fayman – Gillespie Field Groove
- Paty Jager – Damning Firefly
- Frederick Douglass Reynolds – Saint Bloodbath
- Joshua Cohen – Past Imperfect
- E. Alan Fleischauer – Sherlock and the Tiger
- J. Luke Bennecke – Echo from a Bayou
- Anne Moose – When You Read This I’ll Be Gone
- 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
- Jode Millman – The Empty Kayak
- Alexandrea Weis & Lucas Astor – River of Ashes
- Kamille Roach – Pine Creek
- Justin M. Kiska – Fact & Fiction
- Mike Van Horn – Controlled Flight
- Cathi Stoler – With A Twist: A Murder On The Rocks Mystery
- D. R. Berlin – The Third Estate: Secrets of the Manor
- Rita M Boehm – The Price of Revenge
- Philip Derrick – Saigon Spring
- Martha Crites – Danger to Others
- Raymond Paul Johnson – The Raven Society: Conspiracy Ignited
- Mary Keliikoa – Deceived
- Robert W. Smith – Long Way From Clare
- V. S. Anderson – Three Strides Out: A Horse Show Novel of Suspense
- Howard Berk and Peter Berk – TimeLock
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.

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, Kim Hornsby, 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!
February 27, 2024
The 2023 SOMERSET CIBAs Short List for Literary and Contemporary Fiction
The SOMERSET Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The Somerset Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2023 Somerset Literary and Contemporary Fiction entries to the 2023 Somerset Book Awards SHORT LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2023 Somerset 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 Somerset Book Awards novel competition for Literary and Contemporary Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
- Judy Keeslar Santamaria – You Can’t Fool a Mermaid
- Leslie Tall Manning – Feral Maril and Her Little Brother Carol
- Marcia Peck – Water Music: A Cape Cod Story
- Deborah Hufford – Blood to Rubies
- Charlotte Beck – A Good Day To Die
- Kimberly Sullivan – Rome’s Last Noble Palace
- Ruth F. Stevens – My Year of Casual Acquaintances
- Ann Marie Jackson – The Broken Hummingbird
- George R. Wolfe – Into the River of Angels
- Nova Garcia – Not That Kind of Call Girl
- McKinley Aspen – Cogitatio: Shadows in the Wind
- Linda Moore – Five Days in Bogota
- David Fitz-Gerald – If It’s the Last Thing I Do
- Pam Landen – If You Find Me Worthy
- Dian Greenwood – About the Carleton Sisters
- Lou Dischler – Oracle to the Underworld
- A.J. Kohler and Susan Lynn Solomon – The Magician
- Bob Holt – Firebird
- Jo Deniau – Hologram
- J.A. Wright – Eat and Get Gas
- B. Lynn Carter – Jus Breathe
- Terry Tierney – The Bridge on Beer River
- Jennifer Gold – Halfway to You
- Jacqueline Boulden – Her Past Can’t Wait
- Giselle Mehta – Vectors in the Void
- Mary Avery Kabrich – The Journal of Hidden Truths
- Ron Roman – Of Ashes and Dust
- Anne Moose – When You Read This I’ll Be Gone
- Leslie Liautaud – Black Bear Lake
- Victoria Costello – Orchid Child
- Nancy Joie Wilkie – Faraway and Forever: More Stories
- Barbara Francesca Murphy – Ever After
- Chera Thompson – Dawned on the Danube
- Kevin Lavey – The Return of Jason Foxx
- Dennis Must – MacLeish Sq.
- Margaret Klaw – Every Other Weekend
- D.R. Ransdell – Carillon Chase
- L.S Case – A Hundred Days Till Tomorrow
- Patricia Sands – The Secrets We Hide
- Elayne Klasson – The Earthquake Child: A Novel
- Judy Lannon – Nine Days
- Michele Chynoweth – The Wise Man
- Leslie A. Rasmussen – The Stories We Cannot Tell
- Debra Thomas – Josie and Vic, a novel
- Julia Brewer Daily – No Names to Be Given
- Joe Pace – Moss
- Ann Curtin – Muldoon’s Walking
- Kathy Sechrist – Success Is The Best Revenge
- Kamille Roach – A Matchbox Full of Pearls
- Michele Kwasniewski – Falling Star Book Three of The Rise and Fall of Dani Truehart Series
- Linn Aspen – The Dreamtidings of a Disgruntled Starbeing: Life with a psychopathic brother
- James Gish, Jr. – When Blackbirds Dream
- Donna Norman-Carbone – All That is Sacred
- Laura Albu – The Undines
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 the next rounds of judging.

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

Everything That Was

By Conon Parks

Click here to see the 2022 Somerset Book Award Winners for Literary and Contemporary Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2023 Somerset Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The 2023 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2024.

Please click here for more information.

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, Screenwriter Kim Hornsby, book doctor Christine Fairchild, and coach and inspiring Mark Berridge, with more to be announced. CAC is shaping up to be excellent! You won’t want to miss out on the best tips around the business of being an author and achieving your publishing goals.

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!
February 25, 2024
The 2023 CLUE Book Awards Semi-Finalists for Suspense/Thrillers
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 Short List to the 2023 Clue Book Awards SEMI-FINALISTS. 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 FINALISTS 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Martha Crites – Danger to Others
- Raymond Paul Johnson – The Raven Society: Conspiracy Ignited
- Nina Romano – Dark Eyes
- Mary Keliikoa – Deceived
- Robert W. Smith – Long Way From Clare
- 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 pageto 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.

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, Kim Hornsby, 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!
January 29, 2024
REVENGE: A Bruce and Smith Thriller Book 2 by Randall Krzak – Global Thrillers, Suspense, International Crime

Randall Krzak raises the bar of the thriller genre with Revenge, the action-packed second book in the Bruce and Smith series.

Javier retires from the Army and his despised desk job at the Pentagon. He lived for the action of working in the field, so as a civilian, he tries to build an international investigative agency called The Brusch Agency. Thanks to his connections from the military, he can do exactly the work he wants, with the people he chooses.

Krzak sets up this book meticulously, building conflicts in the first several chapters. Javier needs to apply for his concealed-carry permit and private investigator’s license while finding office space for his agency, but his plans are staggered as his condo is broken into and trashed. Despite his investigation and that of law enforcement, the culprit remains a mystery.

Despite a rough night on his slashed mattress, he focuses on business, getting his permit and license. When he starts receiving a series of threatening emails, he realizes the B and E job on his condo wasn’t random, and he enlists his friends and fellow Brusch Agency investigators to uncover this threat.

Krzak masterfully uses AJ, Javier’s romantic interest, to ramp up the heat as their relationship grows, but also the tension when her life is put on the line.

AJ helps Javier as a partner, and Krzak’s smart and sexy female lead can more than hold her own. She helps Javier find the new office building, and within a day, it’s his. He begins to build his team, with AJ first on the list, but she hasn’t yet committed to giving up her gig at the CIA.

The target on Javier’s back only gets bigger as his agency grows.

The Brusch Agency gets its first overseas client and job from the DEA, while juggling the threat to Javier.

Javier’s team, including Snakes from book one in the series, The Columbia Betrayal, works to uncover the details of Islamic State terrorist trainers who worked out of Mexico. They discover that the person seeking revenge on Javier was a survivor of the Mexico attack.

As they begin work on their mission in Bermuda for the DEA, Krzak shifts his plot into high gear.

The team starts to unravel the case, putting together names in the local drug mafia and discovering where the drugs are delivered.

Krzak deftly weaves between Javier and his team’s work on two investigations. All the while, Javier is growing closer to AJ, but as much as he wants to take their relationship to the next level, he can’t until he finishes these missions and resolves the danger to his life.

This thriller draws on the precision of a retired military author to build a world of international intrigue, one well-versed in international diplomacy and foreign military aid.

Krzak uses these details to create a fascinating novel. His characters will draw readers in with their development, and commitment to keeping one another alive. Lovers of Lee Child and Tom Clancy will appreciate Krzak’s world-building, the detailed scenarios, and the daring rescues put forth by his heroic characters.

Revenge by Randall Krzak won First Place in the 2022 CIBA Global Thriller Awards for High Stakes Suspension.

January 12, 2024
The 2023 CLUE Book Awards Short List for Suspense/Thrillers
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!
December 15, 2023
The 2023 SOMERSET CIBAs Long List for Literary and Contemporary Fiction
The SOMERSET Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The Somerset Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2023 Somerset Literary and Contemporary Fiction entries to the 2023 Somerset Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for the 2023 Somerset 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 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 SHORT LIST of the 2023 Somerset Book Awards novel competition for Literary and Contemporary Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
- Mhani Alaoui – The House on Butterfly Street
- Khristin Wierman – This Time Could Be Different
- Judy Keeslar Santamaria – You Can’t Fool a Mermaid
- KP McCarthy – Mortal Weather
- Leslie Tall Manning – Feral Maril and Her Little Brother Carol
- Marcia Peck – Water Music: A Cape Cod Story
- Deborah Hufford – Blood to Rubies
- David Joseph – I Didn’t Know What to Say, so I Just Said Thanks
- Charlotte Beck – A Good Day To Die
- Kimberly Sullivan – Rome’s Last Noble Palace
- Scott Swanson – Sweet Tooth
- Ruth F. Stevens – My Year of Casual Acquaintances
- Ann Marie Jackson – The Broken Hummingbird
- George R. Wolfe – Into the River of Angels
- Arthur Byrd – Crossing Lake Pontchartrain
- Nova Garcia – Not That Kind of Call Girl
- McKinley Aspen – Cogitatio: Shadows in the Wind
- Carrie Simmons – Lovers’ Jewelry
- Linda Moore – Five Days in Bogota
- David Fitz-Gerald – If It’s the Last Thing I Do
- Pam Landen – If You Find Me Worthy
- Dian Greenwood – About the Carleton Sisters
- Lou Dischler – Oracle to the Underworld
- A.J. Kohler and Susan Lynn Solomon – The Magician
- Bob Holt – Firebird
- Jo Deniau – Hologram
- J.A. Wright – Eat and Get Gas
- B. Lynn Carter – Jus Breathe
- George Brown – Who Killed Jerusalem?
- Krishma Tuli Arora – From Ash to Ashes
- Terry Tierney – The Bridge on Beer River
- Jennifer Gold – Halfway to You
- Jacqueline Boulden – Her Past Can’t Wait
- Giselle Mehta – Vectors in the Void
- Mary Avery Kabrich – The Journal of Hidden Truths
- Ron Roman – Of Ashes and Dust
- Anne Moose – When You Read This I’ll Be Gone
- Leslie Liautaud – Black Bear Lake
- Victoria Costello – Orchid Child
- Nancy Joie Wilkie – Faraway and Forever: More Stories
- Barbara Francesca Murphy – Ever After
- Chera Thompson – Dawned on the Danube
- Kevin Lavey – The Return of Jason Foxx
- Dennis Must – MacLeish Sq.
- Margaret Klaw – Every Other Weekend
- D.R. Ransdell – Carillon Chase
- L.S Case – A Hundred Days Till Tomorrow
- Patricia Sands – The Secrets We Hide
- Elayne Klasson – The Earthquake Child: A Novel
- Judy Lannon – Nine Days
- Michele Chynoweth – The Wise Man
- Karla Huebner – Too Early to Know Who’s Winning
- Leslie A. Rasmussen – The Stories We Cannot Tell
- Debra Thomas – Josie and Vic, a novel
- Julia Brewer Daily – No Names to Be Given
- Rick Shands – Frame 39
- Joe Pace – Moss
- Ann Curtin – Muldoon’s Walking
- Kathy Sechrist – Success Is The Best Revenge
- Kamille Roach – A Matchbox Full of Pearls
- Michele Kwasniewski – Falling Star Book Three of The Rise and Fall of Dani Truehart Series
- Linn Aspen – The Dreamtidings of a Disgruntled Starbeing: Life with a psychopathic brother
- James Gish, Jr. – When Blackbirds Dream
- Victoria Costello – Orchid Child
- Donna Norman-Carbone – All That is Sacred
- Laura Albu – The Undines
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 the next rounds of judging.

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

Everything That Was

by Conon Parks

Click here to see the 2022 Somerset Book Award Winners for Literary and Contemporary Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2023 Somerset Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The 2023 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2024.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2023 Chanticleer In’tl Book Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

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 11th annual conference and discover why!
November 29, 2023
AIR BOAT: Love is an Adventure (Book 1 of the Special Forces Connection) by Jacek Waliszewski – Romance, Action & Adventure, Suspense

For readers interested in a unique romance, Air Boat: Love is an Adventure by Jacek Waliszewski offers a distinctive cast of characters and tense excitement in the sky.

Air Boat brings together a former Special Forces soldier, Luke, who prefers to keep to himself, an independent and sarcastic female pilot, Stella, and a three-legged Husky named Saint who marches to the beat of his own drum. These captivating characters embark on a fast-paced, page-turning tale.

Author Jacek Waliszewski starts this romantic adventure with a suspenseful scene of a vintage plane barreling towards the Twin Cities, accompanied by two F-16 fighter jets, before setting the stage for the two main characters to meet. The mystery of this scene will stick in the reader’s mind, drawing them forward with stark curiosity that only grows in excitement.

Saint, the wandering Husky mix, brings these two together, with sparks quickly flying between their strong personalities. Luke is not one to share much about his personal life or history, but the wounds Stella sees on his shoulder indicate trauma from his time deployed with the Green Berets. Unlike some common counterparts in a romance, Stella is a strong, competitive woman who is not likely to fall for anyone – nor give them the last word.

After the two spend some time together (axe throwing at a local bar), Luke takes Stella up on an offer to learn to fly the small commuter planes that Stella and her father, Pierre, use for their airboat business of ferrying people across the west (Montana, Alaska, and Minnesota are some of the locales). As the attraction between Luke and Stella grows, an opportunity to fly together turns into a terrifying situation which brings the story full circle.

This adventure romance has fine detail and intrigue, as the author draws from his own time as a Green Beret.

Air Boat is an exhilarating and fast-paced adventure that romance and adventure fans will love.

The story will continue, as Air Boat is the first in a five-part Special Forces Connection series, two of which will be coming out in 2024. Readers will eagerly await more by Jacek Waliszewski.

November 6, 2023