2022 Killer Nashville Claymore Award Finalists

Awarded to the Best First 50 Pages of an Unpublished Manuscript at the time of entry into the competition.

Finalists are chosen from hundreds of submissions. As a benefit to Finalists, for entrants who are interested, Killer Nashville will make every effort to help Finalists secure an agent and/or publisher. Our goal is to see each and every Finalist manuscript published.

Winners in each category and overall best manuscripts will be announced at the 2022 Killer Nashville Awards Ceremony on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee. Finalists are heavily encouraged to attend to meet with agents, editors, publishers, and fellow writers.

Bold/Underline denotes Winner

  • Kidnapped at Koh Ker / C.A. Benadum

    Killing Friends / Nancy Bruett

    Song of the Starlings / TM Clark

    Dreaming of Jerusalem / Susie Helme

    The Gibbous / Hutch Hill

    The Czar Bomb / Dennis Meredith

    The Delta Convergence / William Peacock

    Patrons of Mcmurdo / S.I. Rowell

    The Shadow Kingdom / Michael Tunison

  • Big Fat F@!K Up / Lawrence Allan

    King of the Private Dicks / Elaine Marsh

    The Bump Key / Carrie Voorhis

    The Gypsy Project / Becki Willis

  • Facets of Murder / Rae Aviani

    Murder By Morel / Joanna Carns

    A Very Proper Murder / Lucinda Gerlitz

    Bear Attack / Sheryl Ickes

    Murder Under the Sun / Anne-Marie Lacy

    Blue, Blue Christmas / Audrea Martin

    Dishonored / Timothy Stecker

    Deliver Us from Evil / Jane Stevenor

    The Coffee Murders / Jane Vasarhelyi

    A Chain of Pearls / Raemi Wood

    Tabitha Cairn and the North End Murders / Kelly Zimmer

  • Harvest of a Down / Vladislav Avditskiy

    Murdered and Missing / Ardis Eckel

    Pontiac Rising / Iris Frank

    The Genizah Codex / Susie Helme

    I Paint the Sky / Laura Kemp

    Nell: Marshal of Bodie / John Edward Mullen

    A Preposterous Excuse / Cherie O’Boyle

    Searching for Iphigenia / Carol Orange

    The Surrealist Circle / Nina Wachsman

  • The Bleeding / Chris Berg & Paul James Smith

    The Redhead at Café Du Monde / Evelyn Donahoe

    Lights and Shadows / Joseph Doria

    Great American Homicide / C. Kenneth Foit

    Broken Windows / Henry Hack

    Dunleavy / Mark Hannon

    The Hustle / Laurence Klavan

    Truth is Always Changing / Paul Paradise

    Mother of Secrets / Tracey Phillips

    Where the Devil Turns / Michelle Pretorius

    Passion for Port / Jane Robbins

    A Season for Murder / Jane Robbins

    The Devil You Know / Alex Ruby

    Blood Caste / Shylashri Shankar

    No Sympathy for the Devil / Michael Siverling

    The Social Worker / H.K. Slade

    Still Life / Jennifer Slee & Jessica Slee

    Worse than Death / Brooke Terpening

    The Dieppe Letters / Liz Rachel Walker

  • Be My Alibi / Jamie Burns

    Wake / Jessica DeLand

    The Rainbow’s Shadow / Lynne Ewing

    Branded / Joseph Humphrey

    Intercludae / Felicia Ketcheson

    North of Light / Reanna Pettigrew

    The Wonder-Filled Norah Minh Las / Neena Phan

    Powerless / Jacqueline Pretty

    Perfect Little Monsters / Cindy R. X. He

    Proms Can Be Murder / Sheila Sobel

  • Potshots / Linda Benson

    Death of a Glades Man / Carl and Jane Bock

    Sister! / Tom Burns

    A Killing, Interrupted / Jim Carls

    The Conductor Tickets Death / SM Caruthers

    The Fairytale Killer / Leslie Conner

    Disclosure / Diane Dickinson

    The Queen of Persia Heist / Roxanne Dunn

    After Pearl / Stephen Eoannou

    Not Today / David E. Feldman

    That Which is Lost / Alice Fitzpatrick

    Ghosted / Helen Currie Foster

    Inside the Echo / Cyndi Goddard

    A Climate to Die For / J. Reid Graham

    Shaking / Jeffrey Higgins

    That Which Was Golden / Nicholas Holloway

    Betwitched, Bothered & Murdered / Erick Holmberg

    The Seeker / Ruth Horn

    A Patch of Blue / Nancy Hughes

    Elrod / Zoltan James

    The Cost of a Quiet Life / Mary Keenan

    Trouble in Valdez County / Bill King

    Everything to Fear / Richard F. McGonegal

    Smuggler’s Ridge / Keith Mulford

    Desert Heat / Dale Phillips

    Through Any Window / Deb Richardson-Moore

    The Lies Between Us / Laurie Rockenbeck

    9 Days / Jule Selbo

    Zigzag Girl / Ruth Knafo Setton

    Murder on Mackinac / Emma Staples

    The Raptor’s Son / Raymond Steyn

    Dirty Hazel and the Cat Woman / Dana Summers

    Questions of Loyalty / Mark Troy

    Bloodroot / Scott Walter

    Found in the Seaweed / Meredith Watson

    After We Vanished / Ali Wood

  • The Way of Unity / Sarah K. Balstrup

    Green Kid One and the Snap / HA Blackman

    Coup de Grace / Paul L. Centeno

    Worldamesh / Frank Cioffi

    Terminus / Proto Dagg

    Future Show / Nik Frank-Lehrer

    Redux / CL Goddard

    The Boulevard / Shawn Goodman

    At Utopia’s Core / J Christopher Harman

    I Contain Multitudes / Christopher Hawkins

    The Sword Punks / Eric Hetzel

    Halsey Versus Leo and the Ghosts / Tom Knevitt

    The Snake, the Bear, and the Butterfly / Sophia Krich-Brinton

    The Alchemist / R.M. Lewis

    Tolstoi, Book I / Thomas Mulder

    Rage / Semiramis Popova

    The Sleepers / Sydney Raeburn-Power

    Magic & Malice / Cloe Santamaria

    Memory Division / Elizabeth Saul

    Echo Six / Jeffrey Shaw

    The Return / Laurie Stevens

    Ocean: Flame of Nocturne / Braun Tueller

    Age of Obsidian / Alex Usher

    Malcolm of Earth / Alex Usher

    Twenty Eighty-Four / Bill Woods

  • The Fixer / Les Edgerton

    Down and Out in Del Laria / Minette Lauren

    Under the Meadow / William Parolini

  • The Street Between the Pines / Joseph Alo

    Stand in My Grave / Christine Birchwood

    My Sister’s Shadow / M.S. Bryson

    The Haunting of Edward Drake / Drew Conry-Murray

    Ink and Ashes / Amy Denton

    Bone Pendant Girls / Terry Friedman

    Marked Memories / Essence Lopez

    Ironblood / Mord McGhee

    Voodoo Blues on Bayou Lafourche / Zari Reede

    Lake Brightside / John Slayton

    No Winter Maintenance / T.A. Stevens

    The Prodigy / T.A. Stevens

    Bad Blood Blues / Dana Summers

    Lea’s Poltergeist / Adam Sydney

    Sandi’s Dragons / Cathy Tully

    Comancheria / Reavis Wortham

  • Lake Laps / Staci Andrea

    The Novelist / DJ Backstrom

    The Falls / Hayden Barber

    Kill Me If You Can / R.G. Belsky

    Draw Dead / Mari Clark

    The Girl in the Polka-Dot Dress / Guy Cote

    Bad Blood / Kristine Dulong

    Maternal Instincts / Jody Gerbig

    Take Care / Jody Gerbig

    Missing Woman Found / Bonnie Hearn Hill

    Blind Conviction / Amy Ivan

    Insidious / Lou Natem

    Followers / Cheryl Rieger

    Skeleton Prayer / Joshua Rodgers

    The Windy City Stalker / Kat Shehata

    Foul Play / Chrissy Smithicks

    The Moonshiner’s Daughter / Tim Suddeth

    Dying is Easy / Roger Toll

    It Might Disturb the House / J. Morgyn White

    The Secret Under the Stairs / CC Wilson

    The Body in the News / Gay Yellen

  • Zero Day / JJ Abbott

    Drone Kings / CE Albanese

    Her Exquisite Corpse / Laura Baber

    Henry’s Bomb / Kevin Bartlett

    The Last Lonely Grave / Kim Bonner

    The Shield / Charlene Caprio

    Beneath the Ice / Barbara Clark

    The General’s Briefcase / Ray Collins

    The Dead Phone / Jordan Coriza

    The Shadow Crocodile / ML Cullen

    Pandora’s Pollen / George DeVault

    To Free a Panther / L.H. Dillman

    I Searched for You / MaryAnn Fitzharris

    The Terrorist’s Daughter / MaryAnn Fitzharris

    Under Watertown / Bob Gebert

    Justice Denied / C.E. Goodrich

    The Project / Julia Hatch

    Killer with Ice Eyes / J L Hill

    Fifth of the Story / Katherine Hutchinson-Hayes

    Allocution / Russell Johnson

    At All Costs / J. Robert Kinney

    Collinwood / Phil Kushner

    Doctor Lucifer / Anthony Lee

    Unit Three / Stacy Renee Lucas

    A Worm in the Tooth / Clayton Luz

    A Cold, Cold War / DJ Macdonald

    Hidden Depths / JH Mann

    The Seven Children of God / Mord McGhee

    The Pegasus File / Ian O’Connor

    Stealing Oliva / Allie Paige

    Dead is Dead / Lafayette Parish

    Pierce the Darkness / Nannette Potter

    Scream at Center Ring / Michelle Rodenborn

    The Devil’s Dilemma / Jessie Seigel

    Controlled Burn / Julie Tollefson

    When There Are Wolves You Need Lions / Victoria Weisfeld

    The Weight of Shadows / Jesse York

  • Big Fat F@!k Up / Lawrence Allan

  • A Chain of Pearls / Raemi Wood

  • Shaking / Jeffrey James Higgins