2023 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Finalists

BEST ACTION ADVENTURE

Victor Acquista / Revelation
A. M. Adair / Shadow War
Thomas A. Burns, Jr. / Sister! A Natalie McMasters Mystery
Angela Greenman / The Child Riddler
Eric S. Hoffman / The Ballad of Clay Moore
Timothy S. Johnston / The Shadow of War
J.B. Manning / Richter The Mighty
S. Lee Manning / Bloody Soil
Johan Rosenlind / Franco's Lost Gold

BEST COMEDY 

SL Calder / A Dusty Demise
Mindy Carlson / Her Dying Day
A.J. Devlin / Five Moves of Doom
Lucy Lakestone / Jiggered by Gin
J. B. Manning / Richter the Mighty
Haris Orkin / Goldhammer
Cindy Sample / Birthdays are Murder
Lida Sideris / Gambling with Murder
Gabrielle St. George / How to Kill a Kingpin
Susan Wingate / Gag Me: A Friday Harbor Novel

BEST COZY 

M.K. Dean / The Dog Days of Murder
Debra H Goldstein / Five Belles Too Many
Sasscer Hill / Murder at the Willcotts Hotel
Polly Holmes / Black Magic Murder
Christine Knapp / Murder at the Wedding
Judy L Murray / Killer in the Kitchen - A Chesapeake Bay Mystery
Lori Robbins / Murder in Third Position
Peggy Rothschild / A Deadly Bone to Pick
Nancy Raven Smith / Bushwhacked in the Outback
C.B. Wilson / Doodled to Death

BEST HISTORICAL 

Joy Allyson / Whiskey Love
Carmen Amato / Murder at the Galliano Club
Mally Becker / The Counterfeit Wife
Katherine Cowley / The Lady's Guide to Death and Deception
Michelle Cox / A Spying Eye
Richard Helms / A Kind and Savage Place
Joy Jordan-Lake / A Bend of Light
Laurie Loewenstein / Funeral Train
Kelly Oliver / Chaos at Carnegie Hall
Nina Wachsman / The Gallery of Beauties

BEST INVESTIGATOR 

J. L. Delozier / The Photo Thief
Mary Keliikoa / Hidden Pieces
Thomas Holland / Grind Slowly, Grind Small
Colin Holmes / Thunder Road
James L'Etoile / Dead Drop
Emilya Naymark / Behind the Lie
D.R. Ransdell / Party Wine
Saralyn Richard / Crystal Blue Murder
Drew Strickland / Abducted in Appalachia
Joyce Woollcott / A Nice Place To Die

BEST JUVENILE / YA 

Elizabeth Bunce / In Myrtle Peril, a Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery
Sara Farizan / Dead Flip
Gillian French / Sugaring Off
Sara Hosey / Imagining Elsewhere
Summer Rain / Bleary Eyes
Lynn Slaughter / Deadly Setup

BEST LITERARY 

Aamina Ahmad / The Return of Faraz
Tom Collins / Treasure of the Diary
Ed Davis / Last Professional
Stephen Eoannou / Rook
Bruce Holsinger / The Displacements

BEST MAINSTREAM / COMMERCIAL 

Katherine Faulkner / Greenwich Park
S.E. Greco / A Patient Enemy
Vinnie Hansen / One Gun

BEST MYSTERY 

Hope Clark / Badge of Edisto
Trish Esden / The Art of the Decoy
Leonard Getz / Innocent Spouse
Kim Hays / Pesticide
K. L. Murphy / Her Sister's Death
Ann Parker / The Secret in the Wall
Michael Stanley / A Deadly Covenant
Ruth Ware / The It Girl
Marla A. White / Cause for Elimination
Rich Zahradnik / The Bone Records

BEST NONFICTION 

Robin Barefield / Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier
Jonathon Benjamin / American Airman: a memoir of a wounded veteran
Drew Bratcher / Bub: Essays from Just North of Nashville
Bill Browder / Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath
Linda Lou Long / The Tuskegee Strangler
John Madinger / Going Under: Kidnapping, Murder, and a Life Undercover
Christine Mager Wevik / Someone Knows
Frank Runles / Lies People Tell:An FBI Agent's Toolkit for Catching Liars and Cheats
Steve Rush / Kill Your Characters: Crime Scene Tips for Writers

BEST SCI-FI / FANTASY

Esteban Corio / The Future of Humanity
David Cornish / 2003: The Time-Loop Device
Frank Gratton / Nula
Elle Hartford / Beauty and the Alchemist
Jeanne Hull Godfroy / Midgard
Bryan Johnston / Death Warrant
Madison Lawson / The Registration
Nola Nash / Traveler
Palmer Pickering / Heliotrope
Jordan Reed / The Wizard's Brew: A Zane Vrexon Mystery
Janet Raye Stevens / It's Been A Long, Long Time
Joss Walker and R.L. Perez / Master of Shadows

BEST SHORT STORY COLLECTION / ANTHOLOGY 

Chris Chan / Of Course He Pushed Him & Other Sherlock Holmes Stories: The Complete Collection
Marianne Donley / An Element of Mystery: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Tales of Intrigue
Marissa Doyle / Countess of Shadows: The Ladies of Almack's Omnibus No. 1
Catherine Jordan / That Darkened Doorstep
Lindy Ryan / Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga
J.B. Stevens / A Therapeutic Death: Violent Short Stories
J. D. Webb / Incredible Witness

BEST SOUTHERN GOTHIC 

Alexandria Ausman / Delusion of the Collar and the Key
James Fulmer / The Ark and the Whale
Nola Nash / House of Mirrors
John Ryland / The Unkindness of Ravens
Alexandrea Weis and Lucas Astor / River of Ashes

BEST SUPERNATURAL 

D. M. Bourgeois / Misguided Revenge
Andrew J. Brandt / Picture Unavailable
Jon Cohn / The Island Mother
James Glass / The Kill Club
Nancy A. Hughes / Buried Trust
Jennifer McMahon / The Children on the Hill
Jacob Moon / Dead Reckoning
Jason Offutt / The Girl in the Corn
John Ryland / The Unkindness of Ravens
Shira Shiloah / Grave Intervention

BEST SUSPENSE 

Traci Hunter Abramson and Sian Ann Bessey / The Danger with Diamonds
Georgina Cross / The Niece
Tracey Devlyn / Flash Point
Kathleen Donnelly / Chasing Justice
Kelly Irvin / Trust Me
Lynessa Layne / Target Acquired
Kiersten Modglin / The Dinner Guests
Kiersten Modglin / A Quiet Retreat
Carrie Stuart Parks / Fallout
Iain Reid / We Spread

BEST THRILLER 

Traci Hunter Abramson / Not Dead Yet
Yasmin Angoe / They Come At Knight
Terry Barnett / Foregone Revenge
Erica Ferencik / Girl in Ice
Erin Flanagan / Blackout
Angela Greenman / The Child Riddler
Kevin Kuhens / Terror's Sword, A Kyle McEwan Novel
Jodé Millman / Hooker Avenue
Jeneva Rose / One of Us is Dead
Michael Stockham / Confessions of an Accidental Lawyer 

BEST WESTERN 

Dave Ames / Trout Town
Gerald Elias / Roundtree Days
Terrence McCauley / Blood on the Trail