Making the Claymore Cut

Just a fortnight ago, we brought you the two categories of this year’s finalists for the Silver Falchion Awards, to be given out during Tennessee’s annual Killer Nashville conference. Today we follow that up with the list of as-yet-unpublished novels that have been shortlisted for the 2020 Claymore Award, courtesy of Mystery Fanfare:

• C.C. Anderson, Sunday Split
• R.G. Belsky, The Baghdad Conspiracy
• Alexander Bruce, Of Empires and Eternities
• Mary Bush, Crooked
• Kathy Cuddihy, Safe Harbours
• Nicholas Holloway, Three Houses on a Hill
• Geoffrey Hyatt, A Coffin for Mr. Blackpoole
• Michael Jordan, A Desperate Race
• William Kaufmann, Killing Bodhi
• Edson Knapp, Ghosts of Kilimanjaro
• Grace Lawler, Astral Exile
• Michael Byers Lewis, The Pilate Scroll
• Lisa Malice, Dead Ringer
• Kevin Maris, Forged in Lightning
• William Burton McCormick, Ghost
• Mark Renshaw, Cyborn
• Steven Sanders, War Wolves
• Sheila Sobel, Time Flies
• J.B. Stevens, The Red Exit
• Victory Witherkeigh, The Girl

According to the Killer Nashville Web site, the Claymore “assists new and rebranding English-language fiction authors to get published, including possible agent representation, book advances, editor deals, and movie and television sales.” Entries can come from an extensive variety of genres, but they all must contain “elements of thriller, mystery, crime, or suspense.”

Since this month’s in-person Killer Nashville event was cancelled as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the winner of the Claymore Award will be announced online come August 22.