2025 Killer Nashville Award Winners and Finalists

2025 KILLER NASHVILLE SILVER FALCHION AWARD
Best Books of 2024

BEST BOOK OF 2024
Liv Constantine / The Next Mrs. Parish

1ST RUNNER UP BEST BOOK OF 2024
T.G. Brown / Jericho Burning

2ND RUNNER UP BEST BOOK OF 2024
Antanas Marcelionis / Master Version 1.1

BEST ACTION ADVENTURE
Jericho Burning / T.G. Brown
The General’s Gold / Bruce Robert Coffin and LynDee Walker
Desperate Measures / Ley Esses
Where Love Means Nothing / Howard Gimple
The North Line / Matt Riordan

BEST COMEDY
The Princess Shoppe / Kerry Blaisdell
Swiped / L.M. Chilton
Get Gribnitz / Howard Gimple
Model Ghost / TK Sheffield
Sorry, Knot Sorry / Lois Winston

BEST COZY
Beeswax Bewitchment / S.E. Babin
Elizabeth Sails / Kristin Owens
Study Guide For Murder / Lori Robbins
Framed For Murder / Marla White
Wheeling and Dealing / Becki Willis

BEST HISTORICAL
Empowered by the Dream: A Journey of Resilience / Gladys A. Barrio
The Paris Mistress / Mally Becker
A Killing on the Hill / Robert Dugoni
Find Your Way to my Grave / Chris Keefer
What Once Was Promised / Louis Trubiano

BEST INVESTIGATOR
The Things That Cannot Be Forgotten / Peter W.J. Hayes
Last Dog Out / Candace Irving
Black & White / Justin M. Kiska
Tiger Claw / Michael Allan Mallory
Murder Outside the Box / Saralyn Richard

BEST JUVENILE / YA
Beyond the Cemetery Gate: The Secret Keeper’s Daughter / Valerie Biel
Dead Girl / Kerrie Faye
Stealing Time / Norman Birnbach and Tilia Klebenov Jacobs
Snowed / Twist Phelan
Star Brother / Maxine Rose Schur

BEST LITERARY
She Ruined Our Lives / Chris Chan
An American Tragedy / Dan Flanigan

BEST MAINSTREAM / COMMERCIAL
Those That Did Not Die / Penny Fletcher
On The Mad River / Lucrecia Guerrero
People Will Talk / Kieran Scott
Between Lies and Revenge / Hannah Sharpe
Blindspot / Maggie Smith

BEST MYSTERY
Drop Dead Sisters / Amelia Diane Coombs
Obey All Laws / Cindy Goyette
At First I Was Afraid / Marty Ludlum
A World Of Hurt / Mindy Mejia
Scorched: Burn Me Once… / Cam Torrens

BEST NONFICTION
There Is No Ethan / Anna Akbari
Lovers In Auschwitz: A True Story / Keren Blankfeld
Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed / Maureen Callahan
Tilghman: The Legendary Lawman and the Woman Who Inspired Him / Chris Enss
Seeds Of Leadership / Wilson Lukang

BEST SCI-FI / FANTASY
Ocean’s Godori / Elaine Cho
The Canopy Keepers / Veronica G. Henry
Master Version 1.1 / Antanas Marcelionis
House of Fire & Magic / Sherrilyn McQueen
The Building That Wasn’t / Abigail Miles

BEST SHORT STORY COLLECTION/ANTHOLOGY
Never Tell Collection / Kjersti Egerdahl, ed.
DAY / Patrick Kitson, Author
Deeds of Darkness / William Burton McCormick, Author
6-Lane Highway / Sean Mitchell, Author
Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense / Judy Penz Sheluk, ed.

BEST SOUTHERN GOTHIC
Pocket Full of Teeth / Aimee Hardy
Kentucky Blood / Ashley Thomas Sheikh

BEST SUPERNATURAL
Not Born of Woman / Teel James Glenn
A Place for Good and Evil / Stacey Horan
City of Innocent Monsters / Stacey Horan
Dervla Alarms the Nanas / DR Ransdell
Cold Snap / Lindy Ryan

BEST SUSPENSE
A Friend in the Dark / Samantha M. Bailey
If You Tell A Lie / Lucinda Berry
The Next Mrs. Parrish / Liv Constantine
Lost to Dune Road / Kara Thomas
The Last Party / AR Torre

BEST THRILLER
Rich Justice / Robert Bailey
The Dredge / Brendan Flaherty
The Mechanics of Memory / Audrey Lee
A Forgotten Kill / Isabella Maldonado – Don’t know if she’s coming yet
The Ascent / Adam Plantinga

BEST WESTERN
Knife River / Baron Birtcher
Sarita / Natalie Musgrave Dossett
The Broken Blood / Dwight Holing

READERS’ CHOICE AWARD
The Forgotten Son / B.J. Sloan

BEST BOOK BY ATTENDING AUTHOR
Enemies Domestic / John DeDakis