Preacher Evan Wycliff Mystery Series Wins Tenth Book Award

LaPuerta Books and Media announces that the fourth novel in the popular series of mystery thrillers, Preacher Stalls the Second Coming by Gerald Everett Jones, has won Distinguished Favorite (Silver) recognition from the NYC BIG BOOK AWARD®.

The reluctant, nonprofessional investigator of the Preacher Evan Wycliff mysteries is a Baptist minister in a small farm town in Southern Missouri. He gets drawn into intrigues because his congregants bring him problems that no one else seems to have any interest in solving.

Triggering this most recent dilemma, a crazed scientist knocks on Evan's door with a bizarre warning - the Deep State may be planning to fake the Second Coming of Christ with advanced virtual-reality technology. Meanwhile, a faith-healing evangelist is luring poor and homeless people to a religious retreat with promises of ample food, then exhorting them to prepare for the End Times by starving themselves to death. Evan can't ignore these unbelievable stories when a young woman from his church disappears inside the cult leader's farm.

In a rave released by Publishers Weekly, the BookLife reviewer commented: "Like its predecessors, Preacher Stalls the Second Coming blends unusually humane and thoughtful procedural sleuthing with a brisk pace, winning local color, and ace scenecraft and surprises, all powered by a strong undercurrent of moral and spiritual inquiry."

Each of the four novels in the series has received an award from NYC Big Book, which is open each year to submissions from mainstream publishers as well as indie presses. The series debut, Preacher Finds a Corpse, received Winner (Gold) in 2020. In the same year, the second installment, Preacher Fakes a Miracle, received Distinguished Favorite; thus, author Jones walked away with both top prizes in Mystery. In 2022, the third book, Preacher Raises the Dead, was awarded Distinguished Favorite in the Medical Mystery/Thriller category.

Jones's colleague Marvin J. Wolf, author of the Rabbi Ben Mysteries, including A Scribe Dies in Brooklyn, said of the series: "This is literature masquerading as a mystery. Carefully yet powerfully, Gerald Jones creates a small, stunning world in a tiny midwestern town, infusing each character with not just life but wit, charm, and occasionally menace. This is the kind of writing one expects from John Irving or Jane Smiley."

"I guess the NYC Big Book judges like my stuff," Jones quips. "Of the 14 novels I've written, 26 have won awards from various competitions since 2020. Most of those competitions are limited to indie authors and small presses. But New York City Big Book is especially prestigious because the judges are also reading entries from the Big Five publishing houses. So when I won the top two slots in Mystery in 2020, I felt I could rightly claim those books are second to none."

The annual New York City Big Book Award competition is judged by experts from different aspects of the book industry, including publishers, writers, editors, designers, booksellers, librarians and professional copywriters. Winners and distinguished favorites are based on overall excellence.

NYC Big Book Award received book submissions worldwide. Journalists, well established authors, small and large press, and first time indie authors participated in record numbers. Entries this year were received from the United States as well as countries such as Australia, Canada, China, Cyprus, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Scotland, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. Cities represented included Asheville, Beijing, Colorado Springs, Dublin, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Melbourne, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Singapore, Tel Aviv, and Vancouver were among the entries.

Publishers included Atmosphere Press, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Beaufort Books, Beyond Words Publishing, Blackstone Publishing, Familius Publishing, Flatiron Books, Hachette Go, HarperCollins Leadership, Oceanview Publishing, Old Stone Press, Rowman & Littlefield, Simon & Schuster, Ulysses Press, Watkins Publishing, and Westminster John Knox Press, to name a few.

"We were delighted to see so many quality publishers and authors from around the world participate this year. I can't wait to share these books with a global readership," said awards sponsor Gabrielle Olczak.

Gerald Everett Jones is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Monica, California. He is a board member of the Writers and Publishers Network (WPN), a Film Independent (FIND) Fellow, host of the GetPublished! Radio podcast, and creator of the Thinking About Thinking blog on Substack. He holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the College of Letters, Wesleyan University, where he studied under novelists Peter Boynton (Stone Island), F.D. Reeve (The Red Machines), and Jerzy Kosinski (The Painted Bird, Being There). Find out more at [url=https://geraldeverettjones.com/geraldeverettjones.com[/url].

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