American Book Festival has announced the winners and finalists The 2024 Awards for American Fiction.

Prescott Author FR Ditmars is a finalist for his debut novel, Big Dogs – First book in the series “Big Dogs”in the category Mystery/Suspense: Crime novels (police or scientific investigations). In this award-winning story, join Lieutenant JW North and his K9 partners, specially trained German Shepherds who can detect human scent and track men, as they hunt serial killers and the brutal rapist and man who shot North a year ago. This book also won first place in the 2022 Public Safety Writers Association contest.

Winners and finalists were announced in over 70 genre-specific categories. Awards were given for titles published between 2022 and 2024. The American Book Fest covers books from all corners of the publishing industry – mainstream, independent, and self-published.

The winners and finalists of this year’s competition join a distinguished group of previous winners of this book prize family, including Pope Francis, Amy Tan, Anne Lamott, George Sanders, Julie Andrews, Clive Barker, Vanessa Williams, Daymon John of “Shark Tank,” Brad Thor, Kitty Kelley and many others.

“Thank you to the authors, publishers, and other industry professionals who participated in the 2024 American Fiction Awards. American Book Fest is proud to announce the final results of our 7th annual Fiction Awards program! Congratulations to all winners and finalists for their well-deserved recognition!” – Jeffrey Keen, President and CEO, American Book Fest

Ditmars is a former commander of the Long Beach Police Department in Southern California. His career has included positions in patrol, police dog service, information technology, homeland security, counterterrorism, and police communications. He currently lives in Prescott, Arizona with his wife and their rescue German Shepherd, Elsa.

This book and the sequel are available on Amazon.com. For more information, visit his website.