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Literary Titan Gold Book Award: Fiction
The Literary Titan Book Award honors books that exhibit exceptional storytelling and creativity. This award celebrates novelists who craft compelling narratives, create memorable characters, and weave stories that captivate readers. The recipients are writers who excel in their ability to blend imagination with literary skill, creating worlds that enchant and narratives that linger long after the final page is turned.
Award Recipients
Finding Manhood in Scotland by Victor Atyas
Viper Island by Cameron K. Moore
The Ballad of Midnight and McRae by Jess Lederman
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
Literary Titan Silver Book Award
Celebrating the brilliance of outstanding authors who have captivated us with their skillful prose, engaging narratives, and compelling real and imagined characters. We recognize books that stand out for their innovative storytelling and insightful exploration of truth and fiction. Join us in honoring the dedication and skill of these remarkable authors as we celebrate the diverse and rich worlds they’ve brought to life, whether through the realm of imagination or the lens of reality.
Award Recipients
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
Magic and Writing
Zero Knowledge is a complex tale involving murder, encrypted clues, financial betrayal, and a race to uncover a hidden truth about Bitcoin’s mysterious origins. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The idea for Zero Knowledge for me began while spending time in Zug, Switzerland—where the story is set—within a vibrant crypto environment. The combination of this idyllic location and cutting-edge developments in blockchain technology proved to be a powerful source of inspiration. In this setting, all the research I needed for the story was readily accessible.
Your book has some very interesting characters that have their character flaws, but are still likable. How do you go about creating characters for your story?
The characters in Zero Knowledge evolved as I wrote the story. Duan was shaped in part by some of my own personality traits, which help explain his flaws. For Mina, I “borrowed” several of my wife Marina’s strong characteristics—though unlike Mina, my wife is in perfect health.
I enjoyed how the relationship between Lisa-Lotte and her father, Bernt, deepen over time. Based on feedback from beta readers, I added a backstory to explain Lisa-Lotte’s decision to join the police force.
I’m particularly pleased that reviewers praised the characters; developing them was a major focus for me throughout the writing process.
I felt that there were a lot of great twists and turns throughout the novel. Did you plan this before writing the novel, or did the twists develop organically while writing?
I began the writing process by outlining the story and crafting detailed character descriptions to bring them to life for myself. The method of Luc’s murder was the starting point, although at that early stage, I hadn’t yet defined the motive. In addition to writing, I have a passion for magic, and I incorporated techniques of misdirection—commonly used in magic—to lead the reader astray and heighten the suspense.
Magic and writing share many similarities. In magic, you often begin with the effect you want to create, then develop a method and presentation to entertain and continually surprise your audience. This process comes naturally to me and proved tremendously helpful while writing Zero Knowledge.
Will there be a follow-up novel to this story? If so, what aspects of the story will the next book cover?
I feel that both Duan and Lisa-Lotte still have plenty of mileage left in them. I already have an initial idea for a unique opening to a potential next book. That said, the way everything came together in Zero Knowledge—leaving no loose ends—will be hard to top.
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Arnaud Pascolo’s latest international crime thriller is more than an intense whodunit or police procedural – it’s a gripping mystery that begins with a shock and never lets you come up for air! You have to do more than put together the pieces and find the villain – you have to figure out the crime!
Crypto company BionTic is facing financial difficulties, but a strange text message gives Luc Stark hope for a brighter future. The meeting invitation results in his being handed an envelope labeled “Clue One,” which he is instructed to open after leaving. Moments later, the man answers a phone call, and Luc suddenly collapses and dies. When police detectives begin looking into the strange death, they learn that is only the beginning of the mystery.
Designed by Flaws
Martell L. Harris’s Designed by Flaws is a punchy and genre-blending tale that stitches together fantasy, action, romance, and deeply personal cultural reckonings. At its heart, it’s about Reo, a disciplined demon slayer from Japan, and Llia, a determined young woman in Seattle with a past soaked in supernatural trauma. As ancient evil forces threaten modern-day America, the story barrels through cities, dreams, friendships, and mythologies, tying everything together with stakes as big as the fate of the world and as intimate as family history. It’s cinematic, wild, and full of heart.
What stood out to me immediately was the pacing. Reo’s chase through Kyoto is packed with cinematic beats, from the intense smartwatch dialogue to a terrifying Yokai showdown in a bamboo forest. The combat scenes are vicious, fluid, and almost poetic. Harris writes fight scenes like he’s choreographing them, and it’s brutal and lyrical at once.
Then the tone shifts when we meet Llia. It’s a quieter, more grounded narrative, but it doesn’t lose its grip. Her scenes—especially the flashbacks of her family and the girls’ witty banter—feel real and lived-in. The contrast is strong but refreshing. The cultural specificity is on point, too. I appreciated how Harris wove in Black and Asian-American identity, especially through Llia and Iris’s conversations. When Iris confesses she’s being pressured into an arranged marriage, the tension hits hard. That emotional honesty elevates the book above your typical supernatural drama.
Still, there were moments where the dialogue leaned expositional or trope-heavy. Some of the character banter, especially during the party scenes, tried hard to be “college TV show witty.” But I can’t knock it too much—it fits the vibe, and the camaraderie between Llia, Rose, and Iris is charming.
Designed by Flaws hits with style and soul. If you love anime-inspired fantasy with real emotional depth, fast-paced action, a diverse cast, and characters who love and argue like actual people, this is for you. It’s not just about monsters—it’s about identity, survival, and picking up the pieces after everything falls apart. Fans of Bleach, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Attack on Titan will feel right at home.
Pages: 362 | ASIN : B0F1FC1472
Under Orders of Silence Inspired by the Book of Job
Under Orders of Silence is a modern and deeply emotional reimagining of the biblical Book of Job, set against the backdrop of institutional injustice, grief, and faith in a fractured world. The novel follows Malik Rosario, a former soldier turned community leader and principal, whose life crumbles under political, societal, and deeply personal weight. As his school is dismantled, his reputation smeared, and his family torn by tragedy, Malik is forced to confront not only public betrayal but also divine silence. This is a tale about endurance—not just of suffering but of love, dignity, and truth in a world that seems determined to erase them.
The writing is poetic without being overdone, tender and furious in equal measure. Author Quinton Taylor-Garcia doesn’t just describe pain, he walks you through it, sits you down with it, forces you to feel it. The pacing is slow in parts, but it’s the kind of slow that lets heartbreak settle into your bones. Malik’s voice is quiet but sharp, filled with dignity even as the world strips it from him. And Imani—his wife—feels so real, so raw. The book doesn’t chase resolution. It honors uncertainty, like Job did, and that makes it sting all the more.
The ideas in this book wrestle with the big ones—God, truth, systemic oppression, grief, legacy—but they’re delivered in such relatable and grounded ways that it never feels like a lecture. Taylor-Garcia plays with silence in stunning ways. Not just literal silence, but the silence of institutions, the silence of faith under pressure, the silence between loved ones too broken to speak. There’s so much rage simmering under the surface, but it’s channeled into something graceful. I did struggle with the density in a few sections, especially during the longer philosophical dialogues, but even then, the language remained evocative. And there’s this underlying heartbeat of hope that, somehow, never dies.
If you’ve ever lost something and didn’t know how to scream about it, this book will find you. I would recommend Under Orders of Silence to readers who love literary fiction rooted in faith, justice, and emotional truth—fans of James Baldwin, Jesmyn Ward, or even Toni Morrison will feel at home here. This is for the ones who sit in silence but still get back up. Who still believe, even when belief hurts.
Pages: 150 | ASIN : B0F775SQ3C
The Devil Is In The Details
Enigma Jewels follows a relentless pursuit across the Caribbean as a cyber-sleuthing team races to stop a shadowy criminal mastermind exploiting sunken treasure, cryptocurrency, and cartel chaos. What inspired you to set Enigma Jewels in the Caribbean, and how did the location shape the story’s tone and pacing?
Three years ago, we were instructors on an Authors at Sea seminar in the Caribbean. The challenge was given to us as “Can you write a story set in the Caribbean?” Rox and Charles sketched out some thoughts, which quickly became an outline, but with one problem: the story was too large for just one book. Being the ever-inventive writer that she is, Rox stated, “We make this a trilogy”. Charles had trouble grasping the obvious, so she postulated even further. Each book will have an evil half-brother from the same criminal dynasty as the central character, who needs to be taken down. The Enigma Heirs have to get the goods on the ecological gangster Philip Pliant in Enigma Tracer. Then the second criminal, Mateo Hernandez, must be toppled from his perch in Enigma Forced, to halt his fentanyl and human trafficking business. This sets the stage for the Heirs, Gracie and JJ, to focus on the slipperiest criminal brother, Julian Lafluer. Julian has his criminal business hiding in plain sight in the Caribbean. The reason? That’s where he can hunt for precious stones lost over the centuries to hurricanes, high seas piracy, and just plain bad luck. You can hunt for lost coins with a metal detector, but how do you hunt for precious stones lost 300-400 years ago?
Julian Lafluer remains an elusive figure. Was that a deliberate choice to heighten suspense, or will we learn more about him in future books?
(spoiler alert!) Apologies, but we can’t answer that question and still keep the ending a secret. But we can tell you this, Julian has made it through two previous books due to his superior skill and cunning, so why can’t he make it out again?
How did you research the technical aspects of crypto laundering and harbor operations to make them feel authentic but accessible?
Breakfield and Burkey are technologists by trade. In the technical world, the devil is in the details. Details are what we focus on to help tell accurate and compelling stories. The bad actors from the Darknet are getting brought to justice more frequently these days, and we study their modus operandi and the take-down methods the authorities use to bag them. Our research serves as the background thinking to justify the R-Group’s tactics in their attack. The technical details and harbor situations must be accurate so the reader can follow the story without doubts about authenticity. The fictional writing rule is: Fictional stories have to make sense.
The banter and emotional depth among the Enigma Heirs really stood out. How do you approach writing such dynamic, believable team chemistry?
We spend a great deal of time on our books to ensure the story flows correctly, the characters are believable and multi-dimensional, and the character dialogue is authentic. We leverage our patent-pending technology, which we call ‘Literary ping-pong’, to bat the characters, dialogue, and story back and forth to achieve a high degree of polish to the novel we are working on. After we are satisfied, our first-line editor will address any imperfections, followed by our genre editor, who will use her fillet knife to cast out the literary demons that constantly intrude.
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However, Julian’s obsession with acquiring precious jewels may have led him to a new venture: harvesting gems from sunken ships in the Caribbean. Treasure hunting is a cutthroat business where no one can be trusted, and Gracie and JJ find themselves facing their most formidable adversary yet. Julian, the cleverest of the trio, is always one step ahead, and as they delve deeper into his operations, they uncover a complex web of money laundering and secrets.
As they race against time to solve the puzzle and bring Julian to justice, Gracie and JJ must confront their pasts and the shadows that haunt them. With treacherous hazards at every turn, their pursuit of justice becomes a test of courage and resolve as they navigate the murky waters of deceit and peril.
Enigma Jewels is a gripping techno-thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Award-winning authors Breakfield and Burkey weave a suspenseful narrative that will leave readers enthralled from the first page to the last. The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure fans will love this fast-paced and action-packed novel.
Throne of the Peacock Angel
Throne of the Peacock Angel is a gritty, surreal, and sharply written novel that blends supernatural mystery, urban grit, and political intrigue in a New Orleans setting that’s as alive as any of its characters. The story centers around Adam Worthy Deen, a man with a haunted past, supernatural baggage, and a life that keeps pulling him into secrets far deeper than he wants. He’s got a scarab attached to his heart—literally—which grants him enhanced strength and long life, but also a dangerous hunger for human energy. As ghosts from the past, shadowy organizations, and foreign aristocrats begin converging, Worthy finds himself drawn back into a world he’s been trying to leave behind.
The writing is snappy. Khalid has an ear for dialogue and a knack for making his characters sound real—especially the banter between Donny and Eva, which had me smirking more than once. It’s got that smooth, jazzy rhythm that suits New Orleans perfectly. It’s those moments—where the book lets its characters just be—that give it such strong personality.
The mix of genres here is bold. You’ve got noir-ish crime elements, a secret society feel, hints of espionage, and supernatural dreamscapes with a giant dung beetle made of crystal feeding at a lake of blood. Honestly, that dream scene threw me in the best way. It reminded me of old-school horror-fantasy with just enough weirdness to keep it unpredictable. Worthy’s struggle with the scarab feels symbolic and raw—he wants to live a normal life, but that talisman keeps pulling him toward darkness. It’s the push-pull of destiny vs. desire that gives the book a pulse.
There are a lot of moving parts—government agencies, aristocratic secret missions, shady families like the Bacons, and street-level drama with Donny’s hilarious misadventures. Sometimes, I had to stop and remind myself who was who and why certain plot threads mattered. But it works, mostly because the characters are vibrant. Eva, for instance, steals the show at times. She’s fierce, sarcastic, and has this unspoken loyalty to Worthy that feels earned.
By the end of the opening chapters, I was hooked. Khalid’s world has weight, and Worthy is one of those characters that sticks with you—a reluctant hero who carries pain like a shadow. This book would be great for fans of supernatural thrillers, noir with a twist, or folks who just like their fiction weird but grounded. If you like John Constantine, True Detective, or anything with secret histories and mystical scars, you’ll find a lot to love here.
Pages: 422 | ISBN : 978-1665543224
LITERARY TITAN 