2026 Silver Falchion Award Finalists

Best Action Adventure

The Terror of Roan
Jodi Bowersox

Boiling Point
Ley Esses

No Easy Way Back
Josh Jensen

Unstoppable
Michael Maloof

The Fatal Saving Grace: An Ed Earl Burch Novel
Jim Nesbitt

Eight Minutes
Gregory N Whitis

Best Comedy (includes comedic P.I. and crime caper)

Blame It On Paris
Helen Aitken

Love at First Spark
Helen Aitken

Bye Bye Blackbird
Elizabeth Crowens

All’s Faire in Love and Murder
Cindy Sample

In$urance Blues (A John Smith Mystery)
Charlotte Stuart

Seams Like the Perfect Crime
Lois Winston

Best Cozy

Killer Cache
Michelle Bennington

Tough Fluff - Fluff and Flowers Mystery 1
Sheryl C.D. Ickes

Death By Mistake: A Josiah Reynolds Mystery
Abigail Keam

Murder on the Green
Christine Knapp

Airplane, Atlanta & an Assassin
Mary Seifert

Seven For a Secret Never To Be Told
Derek Wheeless

Best Historical

Traitor in the Lake
Carol Amorosi

Time Agents: Alterations
Jodi Bowersox

No Mercy for the Innocent
Nancy Herriman

Shroud of Ice
Sharon Krasny

Needle and Bone
Tonya Mitchell

Treasures in Time
Susan Reiss

Best Investigator (includes procedural, serious P.I., detective, and noir)

Chase Harlem
Elise Burke Brown

Proof
Jon Cowan

After Pearl
Stephen Eoannou

Those Who Chose Evil
Kate Flora

Blood on the Wire
Candace Irving

Justice For The Forgotten
R. Weir

Best Juvenile / Y.A.

Knights in Manhattan
Kay DiBianca

Doppelgänger Jumper
Judy Lyn Gregg

The Nascent Bloom
Evie Kelley

Missing Mom
Lynn Slaughter

Honeysuckle and Bone
Trisha Tobias

Risky Pursuit
Nancy G. West

Best Literary

Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History
Chris Chan

The Warbler
Sarah Beth Durst

Eye of the Storm
Charles Gomez

The Fact Checker
Austin Kelley

Women Like Us
Katia Lief

Best Mainstream / Commercial

The Miner's Myth
Russell Johnson

The Cold Winter: Battle of Niagara Falls
Chris Underwood

The Butcher And The Liar
SL Woeppel

Best Mystery

The Demonologists' Legacy
K. Scott Culpepper

A Dead Draw
Robert Dugoni

Rule One
Michael Lucker

Hard Town
Adam Plantinga

Damage Control
Kirsten Shuford

Broke Road
Matthew Spencer

Best Nonfiction

The Villain's Journey-How to Create Villains Readers Love to Hate
Debbie Burke

Nether Land: High School Temptation, Insurance Haze, Stolen Resolution, and Murder
Kem Hinton

Beach Blanket Bedlam
John Lamb

Earthbound: The Obstacles to Human Space Exploration and the Promise of Artificial Intelligence
Dennis Meredith

Boss Brooks: A True Story of Fraud, Family and Forgiveness from Tennessee to Texas
Kathy Turner

Best Sci-Fi / Fantasy

Touch of the Elegrian
Cheryl Arko

Broken Alliance
David E Graham

Wizard of Most Wicked Ways
Charlie N. Holmberg

The Moorwitch
Jessica Khoury

The Violence of Sound
Jeff Wheeler

Best Short Story Collection / Anthology (awarded to individual author or collection editor)

Shadows of Trust
Traci Abramson

The Not So Frail Detective Agency
Sandra J Cady

With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying
Debra H. Goldstein

Gone Fishin': Crime Takes a Holiday
James M. Jackson 

The Conjurer's Wife
Sarah Penner

For Every Evil Under The Sun
Zoe Fay-Stindt

Best Southern Gothic

Ghosts in the Glades
Staci Andrea

The Pilgrim: A Tale of the 3M Detective Agency
Thomas Burns

Unbroken Circle
C. S. Devereaux

The Education of Asa Paxton: Coming of Age in the Heart of Dixie
Gary Minder

The Battle of the Smokehouse
Ashley Thomas Sheikh

The Wretched and Undone
J. E. Weiner

Best Supernatural

Haunted by a Broken Oath
Dee Armstrong

A Walking Shadow
Teel James Glenn

Snake-Eater
T. Kingfisher

A Love this Grim
Elora Morgan

Dead Weight
Richard Rybicki

Too Cursed to Kiss
J. Morgyn White

Best Suspense

The Peeper
John Bukowski

Last Seen
JT Ellison

The Forbidden Heiress
Gledé Browne Kabongo

Wyoming Double Jeopardy
Juno Rushdan

Big Sky Slayer
Juno Rushdan

Tourist Season
Brynne Weaver

Best Thriller

Welcome to Cottonmouth
Jay S. Bell

Line of Succession
David Bruns

SERAPH
Cheryl Fallin

The Forbidden Strain
Brian Montross

The Butcher and the Liar
S.L. Woeppel

All That Lies Beneath
D.L. Wood

Best True Crime

Vacations Can Be Murder: A True Crime Lover's Travel Guide to New England
Dawn Barclay

Junior: A Son of the Gulf Cartel
Mike Chavarria

The Killing Fields of East New York
Stacy Horn

Speak Her Name: Stories From a Life in True Crime
Mary Jumbelic

Down to the Bone
Caitlin Rother

Best Western

Cut Them Down
T.G. Brown

The Thunder Head
Dwight Holing