The Mystery & Mayhem Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Light-Hearted and Cozy Mysteries. The M&M Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer Book Reviews is looking for the best books featuring “mystery and mayhem,” amateur sleuthing, light suspense, travel mystery, classic mystery, British cozy, hobby sleuths, senior sleuths, or historical mystery, perhaps with a touch of romance or humor. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them. (For suspense, thriller, detective, crime fiction see our Clue Awards.)

These titles have moved forward in the first look rounds from all 2025 M&M entries to the 2025 M&M Book Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 M&M Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 Mystery & Mayhem Book Awards novel competition for Cozy Mysteries!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!

Beth Riner – Odd Job Annie
Bill Cusano – The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club the Ghost and the Key
BL Smith – The Unpleasantness on Orchard
B.T. Polcari – Lucky Secrets
C.B. Wilson – Puppied To Death
Carolyn Summer Quinn – The Mystery From Way Back When
Charlotte Stuart – In$urance Blues: A John Smith Mystery Book 3
Christine Knapp – Murder at First Light
Christine Knapp – Murder on the Green
Connie Berry – A Collection of Lies
Connie Berry – A Grave Deception
D. J. Adamson – Cookin Up Murder
D. J. Adamson – Without a Doubt
D. W. Thompson – The Mystery at Love’s Manor
Diane Weiner – The Deadly Reveal
Elizabeth Crowens – Round Up the Unusual Suspects
Ellis Elliott – A Witch Awakens a Fire Circle Mystery
George Petersen – The Summer of Haight
Jane Bitomsky – An Inquest of Eels
John W. Feist – Ship of Perils
Jolie Tunnell – Shadows in Chinatown
Joy Ann Ribar – Shake-Speared in the Park
Julie Lomax – A Pawn’s Game
Kate Damon – Jury Duty Is Murder
Kathleen Donnelly – Killer Secrets
Kathleen Kaska – Murder at the Faust
Kathryn Gauci- Murder in the Garden of Enchantment: The Constantinople Diaries a Madame Theodosia Mystery
Kathryn Lane – Murder in Monte Carlo
KD Straus – To Be True
Keith Steinbaum – You Say Goodbye
L. J. Aldon – Riddle of the Jeweled Cipher
Laurel Martin – Her Last Few Days
Laurel Martin – The Lowlands a Missing Couple a Family Desperate To Find Them
Leta Serafim – The Nameless Dead
Lisa M. Lane – Bummer at Luna Beach
Louisa West – Baby Got Ghost
Lyn Squire – Fatally Inferior
Lynn Slaughter – Missing Mom
M. K. Dean – A Nose for Death
M. S. Spencer – Railroad Ties the Marmion Grove Murders
Maggie Parks – Knocked Off in Nederland
Marshall Highet and Bird Jones – The Washashore
Mary Seifert – Airplanes, Atlanta & an Assassin
Mary Seifert – Juleps, Jockeys & Justice
MJ Mac – Betrayed on the Promenade
ML Barrs – Parallel Secrets
Patrick E. Craig – 3 X 3
Peter Gooch – Seren
Sandy Zelka – Blood Red Poppy
Shannon Bennett Riester – The Lottery Aspect
Sharon Lynn – The Romantic
The Sisters Spurlock – The Faceless Ghost
TJ Stecker – Redacted
Tracy Carter – Sick As a Dog
Virginia Ann – The Potter’s Final Piece: A Pooka Women’s Club Mystery
Wanda Brunstetter and Martha Bolton – The Rise and Fall of Miss Fannie’s Biscuits

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

We will also be promoting this list in our Newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

Congratulations once more to the 2024 M&M Grand Prize Winner

If Two Are Dead

By Jeanne Matthews

Click here to see the full list of 2024 M&M Book Award Winners for Cozy Mysteries.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2026 M&M Book Awards for Suspense and Thriller Mysteries.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2025 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 17 – 19, 2026! Save the Date for Registration!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.