Awaiting the Falchions and Scribes

The organizers of this year’s Killer Nashville conference, scheduled to take place in the Tennessee capital from August 20 to 23, have announced the finalists for their Silver Falchion Awards. There are 18 categories of nominees in all, but two that might be of particular interest to Rap Sheet readers are featured below.

Best Mystery:
• The Demonologists’ Legacy, by K. Scott Culpepper (Scotland)
• A Dead Draw, by Robert Dugoni (Thomas & Mercer)
• Rule One, by Michael Lucker (Wordeee)
• Hard Town, by Adam Plantinga (Grand Central)
• Damage Control, by Kirsten Shuford (Kirsten Shuford)
• Broke Road, by Matthew Spencer (Thomas & Mercer)

Best Thriller:
• Welcome to Cottonmouth, by Jay S. Bell (Blackstone)
• Line of Succession, by David Bruns and J.R. Olson (Severn River)
• Seraph, by Cheryl Fallin (Waterfowl)
• The Forbidden Strain, by Brian Montross (Independently published)
• The Butcher and the Liar, by S.L. Woeppel (Books Fluent)
• All That Lies Beneath, by D.L. Wood (Independently published)

Click here to see the full rundown of 2026 Silver Falchion candidates. The winners will be revealed on Saturday, August 22.

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Meanwhile, the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers has released its contenders for the 2026 Scribe Awards. A press release on Facebook says these prizes are meant to acknowledge and promote authors “working in this often overlooked and underrepresented facet of publishing and the entertainment industry.”

In the General Fiction category are several crime-fiction titles:

• Murder, She Wrote: Snowy With a Chance of Murder, by
Barbara Early (Berkley)
• Cwej: The Midas Touch, by James Hornby (Independently published)
• Return of the Maltese Falcon, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)
• The Hook and the Eye, by Raymond Benson (Ian Fleming)
• Thunder’s Edge: Echoes of Memory, by Sarah Cawkwell (Aconyte)
• Murder, She Wrote: The Body in the Trees, by Terrie Farley
Moran (Berkley)

The recipient of this and other Scribe Awards will be made known later this month during the 2026 San Diego ComicCon.