Awarded to the Best First 50 Pages of an Unpublished Manuscript at the time of entry into the competition.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 denotes Winner
2022 Best Action Adventure Finalists
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
2022 Best Comedy Finalists
Big Fat F@!K Up / Lawrence Allan
King of the Private Dicks / Elaine Marsh
The Bump Key / Carrie Voorhis
The Gypsy Project / Becki Willis
2022 Best Cozy Finalists
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
2022 Best Historical Finalists
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
2022 Best Investigator Finalists
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
2022 Best Juvenile / YA Finalists
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
2022 Best Mystery Finalists
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
2022 Best Sci-fi / Fantasy Finalists
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
2022 Best Southern Gothic Finalists
The Fixer / Les Edgerton
Down and Out in Del Laria / Minette Lauren
Under the Meadow / William Parolini
2022 Best Supernatural Finalists
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
2022 Best Suspense Finalists
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
2022 Best Thriller Finalists
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
2nd Runner Up Best Claymore Award
Big Fat F@!k Up / Lawrence Allan
1st Runner Up Best Claymore Award
A Chain of Pearls / Raemi Wood
Killer Nashville Claymore Award Winner
Shaking / Jeffrey James Higgins