Award Winning Mystery and Crime Novels

The Edgar Award has named the best crime novel of the year since 1954, and its winners make up the spine of this list. Around them sit the mysteries that won elsewhere, because a murder plot has taken the Pulitzer and the Booker more than once, and a reader looking for a great crime novel has no reason to care which committee noticed it.

141 books drawn from 13 prize lists, newest first.

• 2026 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Big Empty by Robert Crais
• 2025 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell
• 2025 Hugo Award for Best Novel
  The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
• 2024 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke
• 2023 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
• 2022 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Five Decembers by James Kestrel
• 2022 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
  The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias
• 2021 Nebula Award for Best Novel
  A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark
• 2021 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara
• 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction
  Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• 2020 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
• 2019 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Down the River Unto the Sea by Walter Mosley
• 2019 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction
  The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
• 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature
  The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Peter Handke
• 2019 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
• 2018 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
• 2018 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• 2017 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
• 2016 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Let Me Die in His Footsteps by Lori Roy
• 2016 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Girls by Emma Cline
• 2015 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
• 2015 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature
  Missing Person by Patrick Modiano
• 2014 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
• 2013 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
• 2013 The Booker Prize
  The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
• 2012 Newbery Medal
  Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
• 2012 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Gone by Mo Hayder
• 2012 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• 2012 National Book Award for Fiction
  The Round House by Louise Erdrich
• 2011 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton
• 2010 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Room by Emma Donoghue
• 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novel
  The City & the City by China Miéville
• 2010 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Last Child by John Hart
• 2010 Newbery Medal
  When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
• 2009 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Blue Heaven by C. J. Box
• 2008 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  2666 by Roberto Bolaño
• 2008 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Down River by John Hart
• 2008 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction
  The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale
• 2008 Hugo Award for Best Novel
  The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
• 2007 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin
• 2006 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Citizen Vince by Jess Walter
• 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature
  My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
• 2006 Nebula Award for Best Novel
  Seeker by Jack McDevitt
• 2005 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  California Girl by T. Jefferson Parker
• 2005 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
  Creepers by David Morrell
• 2005 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
• 2005 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• 2005 Women's Prize for Fiction
  We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
• 2004 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin
• 2003 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
  Lost Boy, Lost Girl by Peter Straub
• 2003 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Winter and Night by S. J. Rozan
• 2002 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parker
• 2002 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
  The Night Class by Tom Piccirilli
• 2001 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale
• 2001 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• 2001 The Booker Prize
  True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
• 2000 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Bones by Jan Burke
• 1999 Women's Prize for Fiction
  A Crime in the Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne
• 1999 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Mr. White's Confession by Robert Clark
• 1999 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
  Mr. X by Peter Straub
• 1998 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Cimarron Rose by James Lee Burke
• 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature
  Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo
• 1997 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Chatham School Affair by Thomas H. Cook
• 1996 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Come to Grief by Dick Francis
• 1995 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Red Scream by Mary Willis Walker
• 1995 Nebula Award for Best Novel
  The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer
• 1995 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
  Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates
• 1994 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Alienist by Caleb Carr
• 1994 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Sculptress by Minette Walters
• 1993 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron
• 1993 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
  The Throat by Peter Straub
• 1992 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  A Dance at the Slaughterhouse by Lawrence Block
• 1992 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Secret History by Donna Tartt
• 1991 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
  Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon
• 1991 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  New Orleans Mourning by Julie Smith
• 1990 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke
• 1990 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
  Mine by Robert R. McCammon
• 1989 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  A Cold Red Sunrise by Stuart M. Kaminsky
• 1989 Nobel Prize in Literature
  The Family of Pascual Duarte by Camilo José Cela
• 1988 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Old Bones by Aaron Elkins
• 1988 National Book Award for Fiction
  Paris Trout by Pete Dexter
• 1988 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
  The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
• 1987 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine
• 1987 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
  Misery by Stephen King
• 1986 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Suspect by L. R. Wright
• 1985 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Briarpatch by Ross Thomas
• 1985 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Perfume by Patrick Süskind
• 1984 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  LaBrava by Elmore Leonard
• 1983 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Billingsgate Shoal by Rick Boyer
• 1982 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Peregrine by William Bayer
• 1981 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
• 1981 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Whip Hand by Dick Francis
• 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
• 1980 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Rheingold Route by Arthur Maling
• 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
• 1979 Newbery Medal
  The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
• 1978 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Catch Me: Kill Me by William H. Hallahan
• 1977 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Promised Land by Robert B. Parker
• 1976 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Hopscotch by Brian Garfield
• 1975 National Book Award for Fiction
  Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone
• 1975 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Peter's Pence by Jon Cleary
• 1974 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman
• 1973 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Lingala Code by Warren Kiefer
• 1972 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
• 1971 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
• 1970 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Forfeit by Dick Francis
• 1969 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  A Case of Need by Michael Crichton
• 1968 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  God Save the Mark by Donald E. Westlake
• 1967 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The King of the Rainy Country by Nicolas Freeling
• 1966 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
• 1966 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall
• 1965 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
• 1964 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Light of Day by Eric Ambler
• 1963 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Death and the Joyful Woman by Ellis Peters
• 1962 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Gideon's Fire by J. J. Marric
• 1961 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Progress of a Crime by Julian Symons
• 1960 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Hours Before Dawn by Celia Fremlin
• 1959 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Eighth Circle by Stanley Ellin
• 1958 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Room to Swing by Ed Lacy
• 1957 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong
• 1956 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Beast in View by Margaret Millar
• 1955 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
• 1955 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
• 1954 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Beat Not the Bones by Charlotte Jay
• 1953 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
• 1953 Hugo Award for Best Novel
  The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
• 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature
  Thérèse Desqueyroux by François Mauriac
• 1939 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
• 1939 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
• 1938 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
• 1938 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• 1934 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
• 1931 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Sanctuary by William Faulkner
• 1930 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
• 1892 Classic Books
  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
• 1887 Classic Books
  A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
• 1868 Classic Books
  The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
• 1866 Classic Books
  Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• 1860 Classic Books
  The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins