BEST ACTION ADVENTURE
The Copper Tablet / Greg Baldwin
Drowning in Doubt / Susan Bell
The Aviatrix / Christopher Boswell
Tesla Enigma / Christopher Boswell
Blanchard's Gold / D.A. Dalessandro
The Egyptian Enigma / David Darling
The Predators / Mark Hannon
Hyena's Hunt / Jennifer Hogan
Forged Life / Cass Lewis
The Czar Bomb / Dennis Meredith
Lucid : The Cloisters / Bobby Rivera
Project: Darkheart / Benjamin Spada
The March Upcountry / Cass Trumbo
Spirit of the Gazelle / Rodney Walther
BEST COMEDY (INCLUDES COMEDIC P.I. AND CRIME CAPER)
Wonderland / Julian Bentley-Edelman
Pocket Full of Posies / Leigh Bravo
The Return of Edsel Eddie / Mark Bruce
Everything is Fine Until Somebody Dies / Angela Costa
Dear Bernie, I'm Glad You're Dead / Elizabeth Crowens
Resting Sad Face / Kate Michaelson
Stuck in Stowe / Matthew Minson
Bighouse: the Band / George Pickford
Pflug Figures it Out / Chris Plowe
Coffee with Krestnyy / Tanya Martin
Getting Published is a Murder / Amy Ivan
The Creatures of Holden Beach and the Murder They Did Not Commit! / Chris Underwood
The Queen of Granny Lit / Sandy White
BEST COZY
Who Didn't Kill Arlene Silver? / Sarah Aronson
A Slice of Champagne / Becky Sue Epstein
Foul Play en Français / Lindsey Evans
Double Cross / Judith Gaines
Machiavelliville / Regina Galvin
Peril in Potter Valley / Laurie Herlich
Unclaimed / Julie Johns
Clothing Optional / Paula Keller
The Murder of Mrs. Victoria Blanchard / Jennifer Kelly
Planted Evidence / Shelley Marsh
Parrot Prose: A Coral Shores Veterinary Mystery / DL Mitchell
Café Con Murder - An MC Stone Mystery / Mel Montes
Death at Sunset / Bern Sy Moss
The Itch of Duplicity / Christa Nardi
Killin' It in the Kitchen / Jayne Ormerod
Sunday Split / CC Anderson
Death in the Poison Garden / Leah Rucker
Pontoon, Romance, Boats, and Bad Business in the Wisconsin Northwoods / TK Sheffield
Glorious Debris / Elisabeth Wathen
BEST HISTORICAL
Old Cold Cash / Linda Benson
An Inquest of Eels / Jane Bitomsky
The Kitchen-Maid’s Confession / Jane Bitomsky
Wrapped in Shadows / Amanda Chambliss
Man of Constant Sorrows / Anne Arrandale
Siberia Fight / Roger Collier
Grave Promise / Lisanne Davidson
A Wilderness of Mirrors / Jodi Daynard
Price of a Future / Jackie Flaum
A Knife in Chicago / Susan Hensley
Eminence / Deepak Kamra
The Knotted Ring / Myra McIlvain
The Double Cross of Brigid / Richard Meredith
And She Made All of Light / Kirsten Mickelwait
They Say They Want a Revolution / Mandy Miller
Blind Rat / Michael Nikitin
Firebrands / Vicky Oliver
The Frog Pond / N.H. Porter
Little Fox / Vincent Stoia
Portland, 1988 / Michael Weinreb
BEST INVESTIGATOR (INCLUDES PROCEDURAL, SERIOUS P.I., DETECTIVE, AND NOIR)
The Honey Trap / R.G. Belsky
Chasing Phantoms / Elise Burke Brown
All That is the Case / Hugh Burkhart
The Angel Taker / Jack Castlewhite
The Goth Girls / Julie Dorsey
The Falling Woman / Stephen Eoannou
Great American Homicide / C. Kenneth Foit
Fleet Landing / Wendy Gee
The Pineapple / Wendy Gee
The Evil to Come / Thomas Holland
Pyre / Patrick Kitson
Soul Meets Body / Avram Lavinsky
Terminal Haul / Richard Meredith
Where the Pieces Fall / Steve Rush
Last Paradise / Lori Sandrock
Death in the End Zone / Lynn Slaughter
The Scent of Sunday / Patricia Thorpe
A Desolate Grave / Joyce Woollcott
BEST JUVENILE / Y.A.
Déjà Vu / Mark Brutsché
Written in Fire / Alexandra Weadon
Alpha Gals / D.A. Dalessandro
Awaken the Dawn / Ellis Kaye Popa
BOUNDLESS: Into the Great Unknown / Kalyn Fogarty
Nabukko / K.R. Gadeken
Chronicles of the Forgotten / Adam Golob
When a Curse Comes a Calling / Kitty Griffin
When Pigs Fly / Lyn Fairchild Hawks
Stealing Time / Tilia Klebenov Jacobs & Norman Birnbach
Crash Fashion / Elle Jauffret
Immortals at the End of the World / Paula Keller
Let Me Go / Brooke Maddaleni
Next Door / Brooke Maddaleni
Alpin Legacy / Luke Ocean
Tennessee Mermaid / Rebecca Papin
The DNA of a Solitary Bee / Jenny Ramaley
Lost Voyaguer in Time / Gina Lea
Gray Matter / Brandon Sherman
The Nascent Bloom / Evie Kelley
BEST LITERARY
Victory: A Novel / Chaya Bhuvaneswar
The Accidental Time Traveler / Sylvia Bluck
A Killing Interrupted / Jim Carls
Bury Me First / Catherine Conner
The Lockhart Conspiracy / Rod Cookson
The Palimpsest / N.C. Kay
Tin Roof / Victoria Gladwish
The Princess of Almost Alabama / Phyllis Gobbell
The Butterfly Dossier / Puja Guha
Perennial / Stacey Margaret Jones
Dad's Job is Pissing People Off / Bill McCulloch
The Goose Waltzer / Samantha Miller
Shallow Stock / D.R. Shores
BEST MAINSTREAM / COMMERCIAL
Saint Michael's Day / Mark Bergin
Rip'd: A Tall Tale / Joachim Blunck
Those That Did Not Die / Penny Fletcher
The Hostage / Ralph Hardy
The Farm / Bruce Johnson
Up the Creek / Shelley Marsh
Martha Unraveled / Peggy O’Neal
Two Poppins Lane / Patricia Rohner
On Blackpoint Road / Anna Scotti
Cain's Mark / Patricia Thorpe
Uncivil Litigation / Roger Toll
A Terrible Thing / Bevin Viewig-Lenz
What Remains Behind / Rodney Walther
Lincoln Los Angeles Quakes Hockey Series, Book 1 / Alisa Jean
BEST MYSTERY
Haunted by a Broken Promise / Dee Armstrong
Killer Eyes / Denis Berkfeldt
Murder at the Bells / M.A. Blume
Death of a Glades Man, A Florida Keys Mystery / Jane Bock
Dying for Beauty / Nancy Bruett
Ill Met by Murder / Rod Cookson
Murder in the Buckeye Bastille / George DeVault
Dare to Live / Paul Guyot
The End, The Means, The In-Betweens / AM Hayes
Burden of Care / Lewis Allan
Murder in Monte Carlo / Kathryn Lane
Lost Life / James L’Etoile
The Street King / Jon Ludden
The Healer's Curse / John Madinger
What They Buried / P.J. McAvoy
Killing Every Alice / JV Reed
The Deadly Puzzle / Donahue Silvis
The Other Side of Fear / Susan Simmons
Dirty Hazel and the Cat Woman / Dana Summers
Fishing for Murder / Mark Zeid
BEST NONFICTION
Unfollow Me / Kathryn Caraway
Sue or Be Sued / Justin Hopson
Beach Blanket Bedlam / John Lamb
BEST SCI-FI / FANTASY
Son of Prophecy / Hermina Boyle
Transport / Shea E Butler
Tabula Rasa / Paul Centeno
Into the Mythosphere / Rou Cooper
Blackbird / Laura Ellis
When a Soul Unravels / KM Freeman
Keys in the Dust / Vivian Catfield
The House of Starling / Ciara Hartford
A Tonic of Wildness / Kate Hohl
Perpetuity / Kevin Joseph
A Kingdom of Wings / A. LaHaie
Angelians / Dennis Meredith
The Pevensie Codicil / Erica Obey
A Game of Stones / Nate Searle
The Missing Immortal / Michele Schumann
Full Circle: Public Service / Alfred Taylor
Mr. Randy's AI Extravaganza / Cass Trumbo
Fable and Fine / J. Morgyn White
Perils of the Past / Kane Williams
The Unexpected / DK Willis
BEST SHORT STORY COLLECTION / ANTHOLOGY (AWARDED TO INDIVIDUAL AUTHOR OR COLLECTION EDITOR)
Mayhem Can’t Stop De Mas / Ashley-Ruth Bernier
The Rules of Wishes, Dreams, and Magical Things / Covington Dunn
Monsters Here and There: Stories / Kate Fitzgerald
Pocket Money and Other Stories / P.K. Richard
Crimin' Old Coots / J.R. Holland
Day / Patrick Kitson
Night / Patrick Kitson
Modern Monsters / Vincent Valkier
THINGS ARE AS THEY SHOULD BE and other words to live by / P.M. Raymond
Eternal Return & Other Stories / Jennifer Slee
Midnight Ryders / Jessica Tastet
BEST SOUTHERN GOTHIC
Ghosts in the Glades / Staci Andrea
A Thousand Little Devils / Heather German
Deep Rich Dirt / L.N. Burton
Family Tree / John Ryland
A Chain of Red Clover / Fonda Warnock
The Widow's Weeds / Fonda Warnock
The Wretched and Undone / J.E. Weiner
BEST SUPERNATURAL
Food Fright / Nico Bell
The Vanishers / Dana Perry
More than Blood / J.K. Breedlove
Glowing Embers / Mary Lynn Cloghesy
Death Becomes Her / Alita Dark
The Wolf Whistles but the Cat Calls / Daryn Faulkner
The Destroyer of Many Worlds / Erik Giles
Life's Work / Leslie Gulvas
Star Jasmine / Michael Hoffman
The Lion at the Falls / Donna Kelly
Talented / Patrick Kitson
The Last Bride / Xavier Poe Kane
Second Sight / James L’Etoile
Heist of Frankenstein / Andy Oerman
Darkness in the Old Town / Christopher Reilly
Golden Reign / Benjamin Spada
The Prodigy / Thomas Stevens
Of Sacred Oaths and Ashes / Jessica Marrone
Season of the Sixth / Patricia Thorpe
The Moebius Light / Braun Tueller
BEST SUSPENSE
Her Dying Words / Barbara Allyn
The Night Hunter / Mari Clark
Trapped / Sandy Clements
The Middle of Nowhere / Brenda Fine
Fourth / Natalie Harris-Spencer
Unraveled / C Smithicks
The Skin Game / Sue Hinkin
Misconception / Denise Johnson
IoT Gaslight / Sharon Lynn
Dirty Bloody Sweet / T.K. Song
Illusion / Lynne Ewing
Cyclone City / Niki Zenobia
Update Required / Niki Zenobia
Not Home Alone / Rebecca Papin
Judas Moon / Josh Rodgers
The Four Percent / Michelle Skeen
Forget or Forgive? Never / Charlotte Stuart
Hear No Evil / Catherine Stoler
All You Need / Jessica Tasstet
By Their Rules / J. Morgyn White
BEST THRILLER
Mother Russia / R.C. Reid
The Hunt for Shooter #5 / Zoltan James
A Murder on Chestnut Street / Suzanne and Michael Fox
The Blood Bank / Michael Hallisey
Our Kind of Deceit / L.D. Hawke
Defenseless / Renda Knapp
God Save the Queen / CJ Kudlacz
The Enemy Within / Debbi Mack
The Alt Account / Jay Medailleu
Electric Sky / Peter Miller
Who Did It? / Alyssa Milani
The Terms / Rebecca Papin
Think Fast / Thomas Pharmakis
Arrivals and Departures / JL Evans
Death of a Star / Bama Semerad
Dyed in the Wool / Rose Shenton
Long Eyes the Assassin / Jane Lee
The Subway Slasher / Clare Trapazzo
Free to be Me / J.D. Webb
Golden City / Michael Weinreb
BEST WESTERN
Put Away Wet / Nancy Bruett
Infinity Thieves / TK Sheffield
