Christy Awards Finalists -- Mystery/Suspense/Thriller and Speculative

 

GIVEAWAY

What are the Christy Awards?

The Christy Award is destined to nurture creativity and quality in the writing and publishing of fiction written from a Christian worldview and showcase the diversity of genres. These 2022 finalists are books published in 2021. 

How does this giveaway work?

You select one of the Mystery/Suspense/Thriller OR Speculative finalists you would like to receive if your name is drawn. Mention the title in a comment (or in an email if you're entering that way.) If you win that's the book that will be sent to you. Easy Peasy. Here are the finalists. (I have provided links to my reviews of the books I have read.)

MYSTERY/SUSPSENSE/MYSTERY FINALISTS

Aftermath by Terri Blackstock, Thomas Nelson

A devastating explosion.

Three best friends are at the venue to hear their favourite band Only one makes it out alive.

A trunk full of evidence.

When police stop Dustin Webb with a warrant to search his trunk, he knows there's been a mistake. He's former military and owns a security firm. But he's horrified when the officers find explosives, and he can't fathom how they got there.

An attorney who will risk if all for an old friend.

Criminal attorney Jamie Powell was Dustin's best friend growing up. They haven't spoken since he left for basic training, but she's the first person he thinks of when he's arrested. Jamie knows she's putting her career on the line by defending an accused terrorist, but she'd never abandon him. Someone is framing Dustin to take the fall for shocking acts of violence...but why?

My Review:  https://bestreads-kav.blogspot.com/2021/11/aftermath.html

The Barrister and the Letter of Marque by Todd M. Johnson, Bethany House  / Baker Publishing Group

As a barrister in 1818 London, William Snopes has witnessed firsthand the danger of only the wealthy having their voices heard, and he's a strong advocate who defends the poorer classes against the powerful. That changes the day a struggling heiress, Lady Madeleine Jameson, arrives at his door.

In a last-ditch effort to save her faltering estate, Lady Jameson invested in a merchant brig, the Padget. The ship was granted a rare privilege by the king's regent: a Letter of Marque authorizing the captain to seize the cargo of French traders operating illegally in the Indian Sea. Yet when the Padget returns to London, her crew is met by soldiers ready to take possession of their goods and arrest the captain for piracy. And the Letter -- the sole proof his actions were legal -- has mysteriously vanished.

Moved by the lady's distress, intrigued by the Letter, and goaded by an opposing solicitor, Snopes takes the case. But as he delves deeper into the mystery, he learns that the forces arrayed against Lady Jameson, and now himself, are even more perilous than he imagined.

On the Cliffs of Foxglove Manor by Jaimie Jo Wright, Bethany House / Baker Publishing Group

1885,

Adria Fontaine has been sent to recover goods her father pirated on the Great Lakes during the war. But when she arrives at Foxglove manor -- a stone house on a cliff overlooking Lake Superior -- Adria senses wickedness hovering over the property. The mistress of Foxglove is an eccentric and seemingly cruel old woman who has filled her house with dangerous secrets, ones that may cost Adria her life.

Present day.

Kailey Gibson is a new nurse's aide at a senior home in a renovated old stone manor. Kidnapped as a child, she has nothing but  locked-up memories of secrets and death, overshadowed by the chilling promise from her abductors that they would return. When the residents of Foxglove  start sharing stories of whispers in the night, hidden treasure, and a love willing to kill, it becomes clear this home is far from a haven. She'll have to risk it all to banish the past's demons, including her own.

My Review:  https://bestreads-kav.blogspot.com/2021/06/on-cliffs-of-foxglove-manor.html

SPECULATIVE FINALISTS

A Time to Seek by Tracy L. Higley, Stonewater Books, LLC

(Time Travel Journals of Sahara Aldridge; 1)

Her future destiny is hidden in the ancient past.

Sahara Aldridge, a young Egyptologist in 1922, is making a name for herself on the digit soon to become Egypt's most sensational discovery -- the tomb of the boy-king, Tutankhamun.

Despite opposition from a mostly-male profession, Sahara fights to continue the legacy of her Egyptologist parents, who died tragically at sea when she was a teen.

But then a childhood friend finds a lost journal written by Sahara's mother, hinting at the bizarre possibility of time-travel, and a crazy suspicion forces Sahara to confront a freak incident years earlier...

Is it possible her parents were time travellers?

And has she inherited this mind-blowing ability?

When American journalist Jack Moretti begins asking too many questions, Sahara suspects he knows more than he's telling.

Did her parents truly perish in an accident? Or did someone target and order them because of their time traveling gift?

There's only one way to unearth the truth.

Sahara just travel back in time, to the days of King Tut.

But the biggest surprise is yet to come...the truth about her parents, and about her own destiny, discovered in the whispers of conspiracy around the death of Egypt's most famous Pharaoh.

But what secrets are better left buried?

Dark Intercept by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson, Tyndale House

(The Shepherds ; 1)

When dark forces rise, are faith and firepower enough?

On the eve of his medical retirement,Navy SEAL Jedidiah Johnson receives a frantic call from his estranged childhood best friend David Yarnell. David's daughter has been kidnapped off the streets of Nashville in broad daylight. The police have no suspects and no leads. The only clue: the body of a dead priest left behind at the scene. With the clock ticking, David is growing desperate, as is his wife, Rachel...Jed's first love.

Despite his painful history with David and Rachel, Jed agrees to help. But he's spent his career as a door-kicking Navy SEAL, not an investigator. His presence immediately draws unwanted attention, creates friction with the local police, and triggers a mysterious attempt on his life. Just when he thinks things can't get worse, it starts to happen again -- the voices in his head, the nightmares, the visions. Dark memories and strange abilities, things he believed he'd left behind when he fled Nashville for the Navy at eighteen, begin to resurface.

Jed realizes that to save the missing girl, he must take a leap of faith and embrace the gifts he's denied for all these years. To foil this dark intercept, he'll need more than just his years as a SEAL operator, because he has no choice now but to take up arms and join the battle in the unseen spiritual warfare raging all around him. And there is far more at stake than just a missing girl: the world is not the place he thought it was -- and he is not alone.

Recorder by Cathy McCrumb, Enclave Publishing

(Children of the Consortium: 1)

The Consortium is all. But Recorder can no longer obey.

Recorder has no family, no friends, and no name. Donated to the Consortium before birth, her sole purpose is to maintain and verify records. A neural implant and drone ensure compliance, punishing for displays of bias.

Suddenly cut off from controlling technology, Recorder tastes what it means to be human. But if the Consortium discovers her feelings, everyone she knows will be in danger.

With no name, no resources, and only an infinitesimal possibility of escape, Recorder's time is running out.

Windward Shore by Sharon Hinck, Enclave Publishing

(The Dancing Realms ; 3)

The island world of Meriel faces an old adversary and a new danger. Will the reformed Order die before it has a chance to blossom?

Storm clouds loom on the horizon as Carya and Brantley struggle to overcome wounds of the past and build a future together. The fragile new Order is on shaky ground, with too few dancers and sparse resources. Then trouble erupts -- and now an insidious rebellion and a new foe threaten their entire world.

When she uncovers an old enemy behind all the destruction, Carya realizes the past is not done with her. With conflict tearing apart the dancers and villages, rimmers are soon overrun, and Carya must unite her people by leading the battle to protect the very heart of her world...or lose it all.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

Giveaway editions available vary, please see list below:

ALL Mystery/Suspense/Thriller finalist novels are available in either paperback or ebook copy -- winner's choice.

Speculative finalist novels:

A Time to Seek by Tracy L. Higley -- paperback ore ebook  copy -- winner's choice

Dark Intercept by Andrews & Wilson -- ebook only

Recorder by Cathy McCrumb -- ebook only

Windward Shore by Sharon Hinck -- ebook only

If you would like a chance to win a copy of one of these Christy Award finalists, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you add an email to your comment, remember to use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in order to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email, please add the title to the subject line so it's easy to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday October 29 2022 . Offer open to International Readers.