2024 Claymore Award Top Picks
The 2024 Killer Nashville Claymore Award Top Picks are a diverse collection of the top Claymore manuscripts of 2024, each offering a unique literary journey. These manuscripts, based on the first fifty pages of unpublished works at the time of submission, are the equivalent of the Claymore Award Semifinalists. With the authors' permission, Killer Nashville will promote this rich tapestry of manuscripts to agents, aiming to secure representation for these unpublished works. Our goal is to see this diverse range of manuscripts find their way into readers' hearts. Stay tuned for the announcement of the finalists in each category, and join us in celebrating the winners at the Killer Nashville Awards Dinner on August 23, 2024, in Nashville, Tennessee. Top Pick Authors are encouraged to attend Killer Nashville to network with agents, editors, and fellow seasoned writers.
Has your book made it to the Top Picks list? Promote it on your website and social media using our Killer Nashville Claymore Top Pick emblem!
2024 Claymore Award Top Picks
BEST ACTION ADVENTURE
The Copper Tablet / Greg Baldwin
Drowning in Doubt / Susan Bell
The Aviatrix / Christopher Boswell
Tesla Enigma / Christopher Boswell
Blanchard's Gold / D.A. Dalessandro
The Egyptian Enigma / David Darling
The Predators / Mark Hannon
Hyena's Hunt / Jennifer Hogan
Forged Life / Cass Lewis
The Czar Bomb / Dennis Meredith
Lucid : The Cloisters / Bobby Rivera
Project: Darkheart / Benjamin Spada
The March Upcountry / Cass Trumbo
Spirit of the Gazelle / Rodney Walther
BEST COMEDY (INCLUDES COMEDIC P.I. AND CRIME CAPER)
Wonderland / Julian Bentley-Edelman
Pocket Full of Posies / Leigh Bravo
The Return of Edsel Eddie / Mark Bruce
Everything is Fine Until Somebody Dies / Angela Costa
Dear Bernie, I'm Glad You're Dead / Elizabeth Crowens
Resting Sad Face / Kate Michaelson
Stuck in Stowe / Matthew Minson
Bighouse: the Band / George Pickford
Pflug Figures it Out / Chris Plowe
Coffee with Krestnyy / Tanya Martin
Getting Published is Murder / Amy Ivan
The Creatures of Holden Beach and the Murder They Did Not Commit! / Chris Underwood
The Queen of Granny Lit / Sandy White
BEST COZY
Who Didn't Kill Arlene Silver? / Sarah Aronson
A Slice of Champagne / Becky Sue Epstein
Foul Play en Français / Lindsey Evans
Double Cross / Judith Gaines
Machiavelliville / Regina Galvin
Peril in Potter Valley / Laurie Herlich
Unclaimed / Julie Johns
Clothing Optional / Paula Keller
The Murder of Mrs. Victoria Blanchard / Jennifer Kelly
Planted Evidence / Shelley Marsh
Parrot Prose: A Coral Shores Veterinary Mystery / DL Mitchell
Café Con Murder - An MC Stone Mystery / Mel Montes
Death at Sunset / Bern Sy Moss
The Itch of Duplicity / Christa Nardi
Killin' It in the Kitchen / Jayne Ormerod
Sunday Split / CC Anderson
Death in the Poison Garden / Leah Rucker
Pontoon, Romance, Boats, and Bad Business in the Wisconsin Northwoods / TK Sheffield
Glorious Debris / Elisabeth Wathen
BEST HISTORICAL
Old Cold Cash / Linda Benson
An Inquest of Eels / Jane Bitomsky
The Kitchen-Maid’s Confession / Jane Bitomsky
Wrapped in Shadows / Amanda Chambliss
Man of Constant Sorrows / Anne Arrandale
Siberia Fight / Roger Collier
Grave Promise / Lisanne Davidson
A Wilderness of Mirrors / Jodi Daynard
Price of a Future / Jackie Flaum
A Knife in Chicago / Susan Hensley
Eminence / Deepak Kamra
The Knotted Ring / Myra McIlvain
The Double Cross of Brigid / Richard Meredith
And She Made All of Light / Kirsten Mickelwait
They Say They Want a Revolution / Mandy Miller
Blind Rat / Michael Nikitin
Firebrands / Vicky Oliver
The Frog Pond / N.H. Porter
Little Fox / Vincent Stoia
Portland, 1988 / Michael Weinreb
BEST INVESTIGATOR (INCLUDES PROCEDURAL, SERIOUS P.I., DETECTIVE, AND NOIR)
The Honey Trap / R.G. Belsky
Chasing Phantoms / Elise Burke Brown
All That is the Case / Hugh Burkhart
The Angel Taker / Jack Castlewhite
The Goth Girls / Julie Dorsey
The Falling Woman / Stephen Eoannou
Great American Homicide / C. Kenneth Foit
Fleet Landing / Wendy Gee
The Pineapple / Wendy Gee
The Evil to Come / Thomas Holland
Pyre / Patrick Kitson
Soul Meets Body / Avram Lavinsky
Terminal Haul / Richard Meredith
Where the Pieces Fall / Steve Rush
Last Paradise / Lori Sandrock
Death in the End Zone / Lynn Slaughter
The Scent of Sunday / Patricia Thorpe
A Desolate Grave / Joyce Woollcott
BEST JUVENILE / Y.A.
Trouble is a Shore Thing / Mark Brutsché
Written in Fire / Alexandra Weadon
Alpha Gals / D.A. Dalessandro
Awaken the Dawn / Ellis Kaye Popa
BOUNDLESS: Into the Great Unknown / Kalyn Fogarty
Nabukko / K.R. Gadeken
Chronicles of the Forgotten / Adam Golob
When a Curse Comes a Calling / Kitty Griffin
When Pigs Fly / Lyn Fairchild Hawks
Stealing Time / Tilia Klebenov Jacobs & Norman Birnbach
Crash Fashion / Elle Jauffret
Immortals at the End of the World / Paula Keller
Let Me Go / Brooke Maddaleni
Next Door / Brooke Maddaleni
Alpin Legacy / Luke Ocean
Tennessee Mermaid / Rebecca Papin
The DNA of a Solitary Bee / Jenny Ramaley
Lost Voyaguer in Time / Gina Lea
Gray Matter / Brandon Sherman
The Nascent Bloom / Evie Kelley
BEST LITERARY
Victory: A Novel / Chaya Bhuvaneswar
The Accidental Time Traveler / Sylvia Bluck
A Killing Interrupted / Jim Carls
Bury Me First / Catherine Conner
The Lockhart Conspiracy / Rod Cookson
The Palimpsest / N.C. Kay
Tin Roof / Victoria Gladwish
The Princess of Almost Alabama / Phyllis Gobbell
The Butterfly Dossier / Puja Guha
Perennial / Stacey Margaret Jones
Dad's Job is Pissing People Off / Bill McCulloch
The Goose Waltzer / Samantha Miller
Shallow Stock / D.R. Shores
BEST MAINSTREAM / COMMERCIAL
Saint Michael's Day / Mark Bergin
Rip'd: A Tall Tale / Joachim Blunck
Those That Did Not Die / Penny Fletcher
The Hostage / Ralph Hardy
The Farm / Bruce Johnson
Up the Creek / Shelley Marsh
Martha Unraveled / Peggy O’Neal
Two Poppins Lane / Patricia Rohner
On Blackpoint Road / Anna Scotti
Cain's Mark / Patricia Thorpe
Uncivil Litigation / Roger Toll
A Terrible Thing / Bevin Viewig-Lenz
What Remains Behind / Rodney Walther
Lincoln Los Angeles Quakes Hockey Series, Book 1 / Alisa Jean
BEST MYSTERY
Haunted by a Broken Promise / Dee Armstrong
Killer Eyes / Denis Berkfeldt
Murder at the Bells / M.A. Blume
Death of a Glades Man, A Florida Keys Mystery / Jane Bock
Dying for Beauty / Nancy Bruett
Ill Met by Murder / Rod Cookson
Murder in the Buckeye Bastille / George DeVault
Dare to Live / Paul Guyot
The End, The Means, The In-Betweens / AM Hayes
Burden of Care / Lewis Allan
Murder in Monte Carlo / Kathryn Lane
Lost Life / James L’Etoile
The Street King / Michael Ludden
The Healer's Curse / John Madinger
What They Buried / P.J. McAvoy
Killing Every Alice / JV Reed
The Deadly Puzzle / Donahue Silvis
The Other Side of Fear / Susan Simmons
Dirty Hazel and the Cat Woman / Dana Summers
Fishing for Murder / Mark Zeid
BEST NONFICTION
Unfollow Me / Kathryn Caraway
Sue or Be Sued / Justin Hopson
Beach Blanket Bedlam / John Lamb
BEST SCI-FI / FANTASY
Son of Prophecy / Hermina Boyle
Transport / Shea E Butler
Tabula Rasa / Paul Centeno
Into the Mythosphere / Rou Cooper
Blackbird / Laura Ellis
When a Soul Unravels / KM Freeman
Keys in the Dust / Vivian Catfield
The House of Starling / Ciara Hartford
A Tonic of Wildness / Kate Hohl
Perpetuity / Kevin Joseph
A Kingdom of Wings / A. LaHaie
Angelians / Dennis Meredith
The Pevensie Codicil / Erica Obey
A Game of Stones / Nate Searle
The Missing Immortal / Michele Schumann
Full Circle: Public Service / Alfred Taylor
Mr. Randy's AI Extravaganza / Cass Trumbo
Fable and Fine / J. Morgyn White
Perils of the Past / Kane Williams
The Unexpected / DK Willis
BEST SHORT STORY COLLECTION / ANTHOLOGY (AWARDED TO INDIVIDUAL AUTHOR OR COLLECTION EDITOR)
Mayhem Can’t Stop De Mas / Ashley-Ruth Bernier
The Rules of Wishes, Dreams, and Magical Things / Covington Dunn
Monsters Here and There: Stories / Kate Fitzgerald
Pocket Money and Other Stories / P.K. Richard
Crimin' Old Coots / J.R. Holland
Day / Patrick Kitson
Night / Patrick Kitson
Modern Monsters / Vincent Valkier
THINGS ARE AS THEY SHOULD BE and other words to live by / P.M. Raymond
Eternal Return & Other Stories / Jennifer Slee
Midnight Ryders / Jessica Tastet
BEST SOUTHERN GOTHIC
Ghosts in the Glades / Staci Andrea
A Thousand Little Devils / Heather German
Deep Rich Dirt / L.N. Burton
Family Tree / John Ryland
A Chain of Red Clover / Fonda Warnock
The Widow's Weeds / Fonda Warnock
The Wretched and Undone / J.E. Weiner
BEST SUPERNATURAL
Food Fright / Nico Bell
The Vanishers / Dana Perry
More than Blood / J.K. Breedlove
Glowing Embers / Mary Lynn Cloghesy
Death Becomes Her / Alita Dark
The Wolf Whistles but the Cat Calls / Daryn Faulkner
The Destroyer of Many Worlds / Erik Giles
Life's Work / Leslie Gulvas
Star Jasmine / Michael Hoffman
The Lion at the Falls / Donna Kelly
Talented / Patrick Kitson
The Last Bride / Xavier Poe Kane
Second Sight / James L’Etoile
Heist of Frankenstein / Andy Oerman
Darkness in the Old Town / Christopher Reilly
Golden Reign / Benjamin Spada
The Prodigy / Thomas Stevens
Of Sacred Oaths and Ashes / Jessica Marrone
Season of the Sixth / Patricia Thorpe
The Moebius Light / Braun Tueller
BEST SUSPENSE
Her Dying Words / Barbara Allyn
The Night Hunter / Mari Clark
Trapped / Sandy Clements
The Middle of Nowhere / Brenda Fine
Fourth / Natalie Harris-Spencer
Unraveled / C Smithicks
The Skin Game / Sue Hinkin
Misconception / Denise Johnson
IoT Gaslight / Sharon Lynn
Dirty Bloody Sweet / T.K. Song
Illusion / Lynne Ewing
Cyclone City / Niki Zenobia
Update Required / Niki Zenobia
Not Home Alone / Rebecca Papin
Judas Moon / Josh Rodgers
The Four Percent / Michelle Skeen
Forget or Forgive? Never / Charlotte Stuart
Hear No Evil / Catherine Stoler
All You Need / Jessica Tasstet
By Their Rules / J. Morgyn White
BEST THRILLER
Mother Russia / R.C. Reid
The Hunt for Shooter #5 / Zoltan James
A Murder on Chestnut Street / Suzanne and Michael Fox
The Blood Bank / Michael Hallisey
Our Kind of Deceit / L.D. Hawke
Defenseless / Renda Knapp
God Save the Queen / CJ Kudlacz
The Enemy Within / Debbi Mack
The Alt Account / Jay Medailleu
Electric Sky / Peter Miller
Who Did It? / Alyssa Milani
The Terms / Rebecca Papin
Think Fast / Thomas Pharmakis
Arrivals and Departures / JL Evans
Death of a Star / Bama Semerad
Dyed in the Wool / Rose Shenton
Long Eyes the Assassin / Jane Lee
The Subway Slasher / Clare Trapasso
Free to be Me / J.D. Webb
Golden City / Michael Weinreb
BEST WESTERN
Put Away Wet / Nancy Bruett
Infinity Thieves / TK Sheffield