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Fall into a good book with us this September as we walk down the Chanticleer Clue Book Awards Hall of Fame.
It doesn’t take a sleuth to realize the best way to have your work to be discovered is by submitting it to the Clue Book Awards Program!
Just take a look at some of these incredible authors who have won the past Clue Awards!
The 2021 Grand Prize Winner of the Clue Awards was Shelley Nolden for The Vines
Born and raised in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area, Shelley Nolden headed east after matriculating from the University of Minnesota. After living in New York City for five years while working in finance, she and her husband decided they weren’t meant for city life and moved to Ridgewood, New Jersey.
Shelley’s debut novel, The Vines, was released on March 23, 2021. Her obsession with forbidden North Brother Island in New York City’s East River, as well as her personal health history and passion for equality, heavily influenced the creation of this historical fiction thriller.
You can read more about North Brother Island here.
See the full list of 2021 Clue Winners here.
The 2020 Grand Prize Winner of the Clue Awards was Chris Karlsen for A Venomous Love.
Detective Rudyard Bloodstone is facing the most bizarre crime spree of his career as a copper on the Victorian streets of London. Someone is using a poisonous Cape cobra as a weapon.
What begins as a simple robbery scheme turns deadly when a wealthy businessman is killed via cobra attack, the crimes go from strange to deadly. Rudyard (Ruddy) and his partner, Archie Holcomb, have few clues and no idea what would cause such a change in the criminal’s behavior.
Chris Karlsen was born and raised in Chicago. A retired police detective, Karlsen spent twenty-five years in law enforcement with two different agencies. Her desire to write came in my early teens. After retiring, she pursued that dream. She writes three different series: Knights in Time (Paranormal Romance), (Romantic Thriller), and the newest is The Bloodstone Series. Each series has a different setting and some cross time periods.
She currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and five wild and crazy rescue dogs.
See the full list of 2020 Clue Winners here.
The 2019 Grand Prize Winner of the Clue Awards was Joanne Jaytanie for Salvaging Truth.
Famed marine biologist and researcher Claudia Rawlings is presumed dead. When Claudia’s research vessel goes down, her daughter Riley goes on a desperate search to discover what happened, eventually turning to Dagger Eastin, co-owner of Hunters and Seekers a marine salvage business. Dagger soon realize this isn’t a simple search and reclaim mission when someone takes a shot at him during an exploratory dive with Riley.
Former Navy SEALs, Dagger, and his partners Kaleb LaSalle and Stone Garrison are the definitions of relentless, and they quickly become embroiled in the investigation that has caught the attention of some very influential people, all seeking Claudia’s important research. And while Riley learns that her mother has left behind clues to her missing research, the Hunters and Seekers pull out all the stops to help and protect her. The wild scavenger hunt sends Dagger and Riley on a trip to discover the truth, but Russian spies, big oil cronies, and psychopathic hitmen lurk around every corner.
Joanne was born and raised in Sherburne, New York, a quaint village surrounded by dairy farms and rolling hills. From the moment she could read she wanted to explore the world. During her college years, she slowly crept across the country, stopping along the way in Oklahoma, California, and finally Washington State, which she now proudly calls home. She lives with her husband and Dobermans, in their home located on the Olympic Peninsula with a panoramic view of the Olympic Mountains.
Joanne writes romantic suspense, paranormal, mystery-thriller, supernatural suspense, and contemporary romance. She loves to submerge herself in the world of her characters, to live and breathe their lives and marvel at their decisions and predicaments. She enjoys a wide variety of books including paranormal, suspense, thriller, and of course romance.
See the full list of 2019 Clue Winners here.
The 2018 Grand Prize Winner of the Clue Awards was Timothy Burgess for California Son
California Son, the second installment in the Liam Sol Mystery series by Timothy Burgess, presents another action-packed mystery for protagonist Liam Sol to solve. Honorably discharged after his tour of duty in Vietnam, Liam returns to his primarily Hispanic neighborhood of Baja La Bolsa, a coastal town near LA, California, where trouble finds him.
In his role as a journalist, Liam takes interest in the daily pleas of a Hispanic mother to find her son’s murderer, pleas that the mostly white La Bolsa Police seem to ignore. After an article he writes in hopes of renewing interest in the case appears in La Bolsa Tribune, the mother is found dead in her apartment. No stranger to death or violence, Liam soon finds himself on the personal side of a hunt for the killer of not only the son but also the mother.
Growing up in Southern California, Tim Burgess was always fascinated by the 1960s surf culture. Though he was only a child, he could tell this was not a Beach Blanket Bingo world. Beneath the innocent surface of the sun and the sand lurked a dark and dangerous undercurrent. The setting, he realized, would be perfect for a mystery series. The Never-Ending Swell and California Son are the first two books in the Liam Sol Mystery Series.
Tim grew up in West Covina, CA. and graduated from Cal Poly, Pomona–Go Broncos!
See the full list of 2018 Clue Winners here
And the 2017 Grand Prize Winner of the Clue Awards was Kaylin McFarren for Twisted Threads
Interested in a holiday cruise? Surround yourself with luxury, romance, secrets and multiple murders while traveling through the Caribbean with author Kaylin McFarren in her new sexy, action-packed book, Twisted Threads. There is only one assignment for a Japanese crime lord’s favorite assassin: take out a dastardly couple in less than ten days. But can Akira Hamada complete her mission without losing her head and heart during her most steamy and complicated hit thus far?
It isn’t part of the assignment to fall in love with someone close to murder suspects, Sara and Paul Lyons, but then Akira has never been bound by rules. Devon returns Akira’s feelings with all his being. However, there are notorious secrets between them, and now this surging romance is putting his life at risk as well. With no avenue for escape, multiple disappearances and murders increase the onboard tension. And that’s not all. Descriptions of the steamy scenes behind closed doors are beyond intense, with exhilarating adult situations and language.
Kaylin McFarren has received more than 60 national literary awards, in addition to a prestigious Golden Heart Award nomination for Flaherty’s Crossing – a book she and her oldest daughter, New York Times/USA Today best-selling author Kristina McMorris, co-wrote in 2008. Prior to embarking on her writing journey and developing the popular Threads psychological thriller series, she poured her passion for creativity into her work as the director of a fine art gallery in the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon; she also served as a governor-appointed member of the Oregon Arts Commission.
See the full list of 2017 Clue Winners here
Again, a huge congratulations to Shelley Nolden, the most recent Clue Grand Prize Winner. We are honored to continue to promote and celebrate the winning books of the CIBAs.
Have an excellent Suspense/Thriller? The Clue Awards closes at the end of September! Submit today!
Chanticleerians in the News? We love celebrating our Chanticleer Authors! Anytime you have something to crow about, email us at info@ChantiReviews.com to let us know!
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