Celebrating Our Award-Winning Authors!
We are thrilled to share that five Genius Books titles received honors in the 2026 Public Safety Writers Association Writing Competition!
From gripping fiction and frontier justice to real-life undercover operations and the science of detecting deception, these books showcase the talent, dedication, and range of the authors we are proud to publish.
Please join us in celebrating this year’s winners—and several Genius Books authors whose work has been recognized by the competition in previous years.
2026 Award Winners
Jim Christ
Right There in Black and White
Bronze Medallion — Thriller
When Kendi Liston discovers a woman’s body near his apartment building, he faces an impossible choice: walk away or report what he has found and risk becoming a suspect himself.
His decision draws him into an investigation shaped by prejudice, conflicting assumptions, and escalating danger. As officers Regan and Crowe approach the case from very different perspectives, evidence and witness accounts begin challenging everyone’s ideas about guilt, innocence, and identity.
Right There in Black and White is a suspenseful and emotionally layered exploration of truth, perception, and the consequences of doing what is right in a world where nothing is as simple as it first appears.
Purchase Right There in Black and White
Jim Christ
Ways to Be Wicked
Silver Medallion — Suspense
Seventeen-year-old Usaré García slips away from her high school dance and is later found murdered across campus.
School administrator Enrique Tavish becomes determined to uncover what happened, but his search for answers pulls him into a dangerous world of street gangs, family threats, racial tensions, deception, and secrets of his own.
As Tavish’s unofficial investigation moves beyond the limits of police protocol, his pursuit of justice places both him and his family directly in the path of those willing to do anything to keep the truth hidden.
Michael A. Black
Retribution Trail
Bronze Medallion — Suspense
A violent prison break sends three desperate fugitives racing across the Indian Territory, led by a former Confederate colonel carrying dangerous ambitions and old grudges.
Deputy Marshal Bass Reeves and the Lighthorse lawmen follow a growing trail of violence involving stolen gold, unrest, and a scheme that threatens far more than a single frontier settlement.
Set against a landscape where alliances shift quickly and justice is rarely straightforward, Retribution Trail follows Reeves into a conflict shaped by vengeance, loyalty, and the relentless pursuit of what is right.
Mike Ruggiero
Uncover the Truth
Silver Medallion — Non-fiction
Have you ever listened to someone speak and sensed that something was not quite right?
Drawing from more than thirty years in law enforcement, Mike Ruggiero teaches readers how changes in posture, eye contact, language, and behavior can offer valuable clues about whether someone is being truthful, withholding information, or attempting to deceive.
Using examples from major investigations and well-known public cases, Uncover the Truth makes the principles of detecting deception understandable and useful for law-enforcement professionals and anyone interested in human behavior.
William Soldato
The Making of Billy the Liquor Guy: Not Exactly a Prequel
Bronze Medallion — Non-fiction
Billy the Liquor Guy spent twelve years working undercover for New York’s Petroleum, Alcohol, and Tobacco Bureau—a career filled with dangerous operations, criminal takedowns, internal investigations, betrayal, political maneuvering, and lasting psychological consequences.
The Making of Billy the Liquor Guy reveals the story behind Soldato’s earlier book, Under Too Long. It explores who Billy was at the beginning of his undercover career and how years of stress, deception, danger, and institutional distrust changed him.
This candid account offers readers a look at the complicated reality of undercover work, far removed from the romanticized version often portrayed in movies and television.
Purchase The Making of Billy the Liquor Guy
Celebrating Our Previous Winners
The 2026 honorees join a growing list of Genius Books authors whose work has been recognized by the Public Safety Writers Association.
2025
Pete Klismet
FBI Files: The Profiler
Gold Medallion — Unpublished Non-fiction
Purchase FBI Files: The Profiler
2024
bob cyphers
Dead End: Inside the Hunt for the I-70 Serial Killer
Second Place — Published Non-fiction
Alexandra Kitty
Murder in a Sundown Town
Third Place — Published Non-fiction
Purchase Murder in a Sundown Town
Tony Reid
12/26/75
Honorable Mention — Published Non-fiction
Jim Christ
Right There in Black and White
Third Place — Unpublished Fiction
Purchase Right There in Black and White
2023
William Soldato
Under Too Long
The Marilyn Meredith Award for Excellence in Writing — Non-fiction
First Place — Published Non-fiction
Monty Orrick
The Crater Lake Murders
First Place — Unpublished Non-fiction
Purchase The Crater Lake Murders
David Dean
The Wisdom of Serpents
First Place — Published Anthology
Purchase The Wisdom of Serpents
2022
LaDonna Humphrey
The Girl I Never Knew
Second Place — Published Non-fiction
Purchase The Girl I Never Knew
Richard “Buz” Williams
Police Pranks, Jokes, and Other Stories Not Suitable for Children
Third Place — Published Non-fiction
Purchase Police Pranks, Jokes, and Other Stories Not Suitable for Children
Steve Rush
Kill Your Characters
First Place — Unpublished Non-fiction
David Dean
Tomorrow’s Dead
Second Place — Unpublished Anthology
Congratulations to all of these remarkable authors!
We are proud to see their work recognized and grateful for the knowledge, imagination, research, and lived experience they bring to their books. We hope you will join us in celebrating their achievements—and perhaps discover your next great read along the way.
View the complete Public Safety Writers Association winner announcement here.
Big huge congratulations to each and every one of you!