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Dumpster Dicing

Bunco Biddies Book 1
Julie B Cosgrove

2017 Finalist
282 Pages
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Fiction - Mystery - Murder

2017 Finalist
As Janie and Betsy Ann go for their morning jog, the city sanitation vehicle follows its normal five-mile Tuesday morning route through their retirement community of Sunset Acres. The two Bunco-playing biddies spot a leg dangling out of the dumpster when the truck lifts the trash container high in the air. Someone diced up one of their newest residents—a grouchy loner named Edwin Newman. Did he unpack too much of his dicey past when he moved in last weekend?

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Smugglers & Scones

Moorehaven Mysteries #1
Morgan C. Talbot

2017 Finalist
224 Pages
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Fiction - Mystery - Murder

2017 Finalist
USA Today Bestseller

"With each chapter my heart fell deeper in love with the story, the mystery, the history and the quotes. Strong relationships between the characters formed quickly and effortlessly." A Cup Of Tea and A Cozy Mystery

Pippa Winterbourne runs Moorehaven, the Oregon Coast’s quirkiest bed-and-breakfast and former home of world-famous mystery writer A. Raymond Moore. Guests come there to write their own crime novels. When a real-life murder takes a local’s life and washes a handsome boat pilot into her arms, Pippa is yanked into a deadly plot of her own. A tangle of secrets crashes past into present, and Pippa must uncover clues dating back to Seacrest’s Prohibition days, including a secret Moore himself hid from the world.

Juggling her book-writing guests, small-town intrigues, secret club agendas, and a possibly fatal attraction, Pippa must sort fact from fiction to know who to trust before a desperate killer claims a final revenge nearly a century in the making.

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The Fireproof Girl

Loretta Lost

2017 Honorable Mention
360 Pages
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Fiction - Mystery - Murder

2017 Honorable Mention
She can run, but she can never escape her past...

Sophie was abandoned at birth and grew up neglected and abused. Her only friends were computers, until she met Cole Hunter. He became her everything: brother, protector, and partner in crime.  

She believed that nothing could ever tear them apart. Until it did. 

Years later, when news of Cole's murder reaches Sophie, she completely snaps. She will tear down heaven and earth to find his killer, even enlisting the help of her ex-military ex-boyfriend. 

But the more she gets involved with the investigation, the more she digs up events she would rather forget, and puts herself in danger...

----

When Cole was nine years old, he watched his whole family burn to death in a house fire. He became obsessed with architecture and rebuilding his life.

Sophie became his secret weapon. Protecting her was his purpose. But Sophie was damaged right from the start, and Cole always feared he wouldn't be able to save her from her enemies or from herself...

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Pages in the Wind

Sally Saylor De Smet

2017 Bronze Medal
400 Pages
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Fiction - Mystery - Murder

2017 Bronze Medal

After the brutal murder of her father, Emily Quinn finds herself detained at the San Francisco County Jail, charged with first-degree murder for a crime she cannot remember.

Emily’s mother, a wealthy socialite, quickly distances herself from her troubled daughter, but in an attempt to salvage the family name, hires world-renowned psychiatrist, Daniel Lieberman, to assist in Emily’s defense. The famed doctor, an aging, lonely psychiatrist with an addiction to sugar, caffeine, and understanding the human mind, quickly becomes sympathetic to Emily and her tortured childhood.

Together, Lieberman and Emily explore the frightening and twisted world of her damaged psyche, uncovering the complex reasons behind the young woman’s self-hatred and disconnected self-image.

They develop an abiding partnership, weaving through unexpected revelations and disturbing secrets. Of particular interest to the doctor is Emily’s strange attachment to the imaginary girls she sketches—and is driven to personify.

The secrets hidden in Emily’s mind could help with her defense—or confirm the death penalty case against her. But Lieberman senses other secrets hide within the patient’s mind, particularly the events surrounding the unexplained death of her twin sister, Penelope.

A gripping, twisting tale of psychological intrigue, Pages in the Wind enters the mostly uncharted realm of the human mind, seeking truth buried deep within Emily’s subconscious. Lieberman can help her uncover her past, but Emily is the one who has to face it—or remain damaged forever.

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The Advocate's Felony

The Advocate Series Book 6
Teresa Burrell

2017 Bronze Medal
322 Pages
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Fiction - Mystery - Murder

2017 Bronze Medal
When Attorney Sabre Brown’s phone rings at 2 a.m. she’s shocked to hear from her brother, Ron, who has been in Witness Protection for the past seven years. Someone has discovered his whereabouts and is trying to kill him—and possibly Sabre as well.

Sabre and her private investigator, JP, leave sunny San Diego to find her brother who has gone underground. Based on a single clue, they begin their search in the cold, wintry Pacific Northwest. They soon discover that the six felons whom Ron testified against have been released from prison. One by one, they are being murdered.

Sabre and JP race to find Ron and stop the next bullet. As the clues unfold, they’re unsure if someone is trying to kill Ron or protect him. Or is Ron the killer? Could Sabre's beloved brother have changed during his long absence and is he now seeking vengeance? Sabre risks her relationships, her career, and her life to seek the undeniable truth. Is Sabre’s love for her brother overriding her sound judgment and if so, is there a final bullet with Sabre’s name on it?

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Banished Threads

Volume 3
Kaylin McFarren

2017 Silver Medal
258 Pages
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Fiction - Mystery - Murder

2017 Silver Medal
A valuable art collection disappears turning a treasure-hunting duo into crime-stopping sleuths willing to risk their lives to vindicate family members in Kaylin McFarren's action-packed suspense novel, Banished Threads.
 
While vacationing at the stately Cumberforge Manor in Bellwood, England, Rachel Lyons and Chase Cohen attend an elegant dinner party hosted by her uncle, Paul Lyons, and his aristocratic wife, Sara. Before the evening ends, a priceless collection of Morris Graves's paintings are stolen from her uncle's popular gallery, throwing all suspicion onto his wife's missing granddaughter. Determined to clear Sloan Rafferty's name and, in the process, win Paul's favor, Chase scours the countryside looking for answers. In his absence, the police accuse Rachel's uncle of an unsolved murder and secrets surrounding her grandmother's death and the deaths of Sara's former husbands turn his wife into the most likely suspect. With the true villains hell-bent on destroying Paul Lyons and his family, solving both crimes while ensuring her uncle's freedom not only endangers Rachel's life but that of her unborn child. 
 
Will Chase save them before the kidnappers enact their revenge or will the ultimate price be paid, as predicted by a vagabond fortuneteller?

First place - 2016 Hudson Valley RWA Hook, Line & Sinker Contest; First place - 2015 Chatelaine Awards, Adventure/Suspense Category, and for Best Overall Book; Silver Medal - 2016 Global Ebook Awards, Suspense Thriller & Bronze Medal for Book Cover; Finalist, New Adult Fiction - 4th Annual Beverly Hills International Book Awards; 1st Place - 2016 Maxy Award, Suspense Thriller; Finalist - 2015 National Indie Excellence Awards, Crime Fiction; Silver medal - 2016 & 2017 Readers' Favorite Book Awards

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The Advocate's Ex Parte

The Advocate Series Book 5
Teresa Burrell

2017 Silver Medal
359 Pages
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Fiction - Mystery - Murder

2017 Silver Medal
Attorney Sabre Brown is summoned into Judge Lawrence Mitchell chambers for an ex parte hearing. When the judge attempts to discuss one of her cases, she refuses to listen without proper counsel present.

Later that evening, Judge Mitchell is murdered.

Sabre’s shock at his death is only surpassed by an attempt on the life of Dr. Carolina Heller, a psychologist she employs on a regular basis. Sabre now fears for her own life.

Sabre enlists her private eye JP, and they begin to comb and scrutinize her cases, searching for connections between the two crimes. But Sabre’s life is in danger from someone much closer to her.

Sabre and JP’s roads diverge. While JP infiltrates a twisted world of greed and corruption, Sabre is caught up in a domestic crisis fueled by obsession. As each is forced to fight their own battles, the question soon becomes, can they find a way to save one another?

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Serial K Returns

Brian Gallagher

2017 Gold Medal
Kindle Edition
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Fiction - Mystery - Murder

2017 Gold Medal

His hunger returned.

Craig Breedlove, the serial killer who survives in Serial K, is back at it. This time he has a new target. In fact, two new targets.

A victim of priest molestation at age seven, he puts his sights on abusive priests who were never brought to justice.

The FBI team of Agents Lea Pucci and Ryan O'Callahan, now divorced but current lovers, are back on the trail.

As they close in, the killer turns his sights on his pursuers.

As the chase continues, the body count rises. Fear grips the public. Many will die, but who survives?

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The Advocate's Dilemma

The Advocate Series Book 4
Teresa Burrell

2016 Silver Medal
320 Pages
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Fiction - Mystery - Murder

2016 Silver Medal
Mystery, Murder, Legal Suspense, Child Advocate

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The Advocate's Betrayal

The Advocate Series Book 2
Teresa Burrell

2016 Finalist
322 Pages
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Fiction - Mystery - Murder

2016 Finalist
The killer left nothing behind but a rosary, a kitchen knife, and a dead man. But the dead man is a friend of Sabre Orin Brown. When his unsuspecting wife is accused of the murder, Sabre will stop at nothing to uncover the truth, even if it means unearthing chilling secrets. From a San Diego jail to the shady Chicago nightlife, Sabre's search for the true killer forces her to face the question: What do you do when the ones you trust the most are the ones with the most to hide?