The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (popularly called the Edgars), named after Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America

Mystery Writers of America

Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....

. They honor the best in mystery fiction

Mystery fiction

Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...

, non-fiction

Non-fiction

Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...

, television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

, film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, and theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 published or produced in the previous year.

Categories

• Best novel (since 1954)
• Best first novel by an American author (since 1946)
• Best paperback original (since 1970)
• Best short story (since 1951)
• Best fact crime (since 1948)
• Best critical/biographical work (since 1977)
• Best young adult (since 1989)
• Best juvenile (since 1961)
• Best episode in a TV series (since 1952)
• Best TV feature or miniseries (since 1972)
• Best motion picture screenplay (since 1946)
• Best play (since 1950, irregular)
• Special Edgars (since 1949, irregular)

• Robert L. Fish Memorial Award (since 1984)
• Raven Award (since 1953)
• Grand Master Award (since 1955)
• Ellery Queen Award (since 1983)
• Mary Higgins Clark Award (since 2001)

• Best radio drama (1946–1960)
• Outstanding Mystery Criticism (1946–1967)
• Best foreign film (1949–1966)
• Best book jacket (1955–1975)

1950s

1954 Charlotte Jay

Charlotte Jay

Charlotte Jay was the pseudonym adopted by Australian mystery writer and novelist, Geraldine Halls . One of the best and most singular authors of the suspense era , she wrote only nine crime books, but their unorthodoxy secured her a high place in Mystery Hall of Fame.Jay was Hall's maiden name and...

, Beat Not the Bones

Beat Not the Bones

Beat Not the Bones is a 1952 suspense novel by Charlotte Jay which won the inaugural Edgar award for best novel ....

1955 Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler

Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...

, The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye (novel)

The Long Goodbye is a 1953 novel by Raymond Chandler, centered on his famous detective Philip Marlowe. While some critics consider it inferior to The Big Sleep or Farewell, My Lovely, others rank it as the best of his work...

1956 Margaret Millar

Margaret Millar

Margaret Ellis Millar was an American-Canadian mystery and suspense writer.Born in Kitchener, Ontario, she was educated there and in Toronto. She moved to the United States after marrying Kenneth Millar...

, Beast in View

Beast in View

Beast in View is a suspense novel and psychological thriller by Margaret Millar that won the Edgar Award in 1956 and was later adapted for an episode of the television series Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1964. It also made the list of The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time that was issued in 1995 by...

• The Gordons
  The Gordons (writers)
  The Gordons are crime fiction authors Gordon Gordon and his wife Mildred Gordon . Both attended the University of Arizona where they met and later married in 1932. They have written many crime fiction novels, with some being been filmed...
  
  , The Case of the Talking Bug
• Patricia Highsmith
  Patricia Highsmith
  Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short-story writer most widely known for her psychological thrillers, which led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951...
  
  , The Talented Mr. Ripley
  The Talented Mr. Ripley
  The Talented Mr. Ripley is a psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith. This novel first introduced the character of Tom Ripley who returns in the novels Ripley Under Ground, Ripley's Game, The Boy Who Followed Ripley and Ripley Under Water...
  
  

1957 Charlotte Armstrong

Charlotte Armstrong

Charlotte Armstrong Lewi was an American author. Under the names Charlotte Armstrong and Jo Valentine she wrote 29 novels, as well as working for the New York Times advertising department, as a fashion reporter for Breath of the Avenue , and in an accounting firm.Armstrong Lewi graduated from Vulcan...

, A Dram of Poison

• Margot Bennett
  Margot Bennett
  Margot Bennett was a writer of crime and thriller novels. She was educated in Scotland and Australia. Worked as a copywriter in Sydney and London, and as a nurse during the Spanish Civil War...
  
  , The Man Who Didn't Fly

1958 Ed Lacy

Ed Lacy

Ed Lacy , born Leonard "Len" S. Zinberg, was an American writer of crime and detective fiction. Lacy, who was white, is credited with creating "the first credible African-American PI" character in fiction, Toussaint "Touie" Marcus Moore...

, Room to Swing

• Arthur Upfield
  Arthur Upfield
  Arthur William Upfield was an Australian writer, best known for his works of detective fiction featuring Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte of the Queensland Police Force, a half-caste Aborigine....
  
  , The Bushman Who Came Back
• Bill Ballinger
  Bill S. Ballinger
  Bill S. Ballinger was a prolific American author and screenwriter...
  
  , The Longest Second
• Marjorie Carleton, The Night of the Good Children

1959 Stanley Ellin

Stanley Ellin

Stanley Bernard Ellin was an American mystery writer. Ellin was born in Brooklyn, New York. He garnered a love for reading at a young age with an interest in works by the likes of Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, and Edgar Allan Poe. Ellin was educated at Brooklyn College and received a B.A. in 1936...

, The Eighth Circle

• Dorothy Salisbury Davis
  Dorothy Salisbury Davis
  Dorothy Salisbury Davis is an American crime fiction writer.She was an adopted child, raised in Illinois. She worked in Chicago in advertising as a research librarian and as an editor of The Merchandiser, prior to taking up fiction writing.She was married to Harry Davis, the character actor,from...
  
  , A Gentleman Called
• David Alexander, The Madhouse in Washington Square
• Lee Blackstock, The Woman in the Woods

1960s

1960 Celia Fremlin

Celia Fremlin

Celia Margaret Fremlin was born in Kingsbury, now part of London, England, the sister of nuclear physicist, John H. Fremlin.-Early life:...

, The Hours Before Dawn

• Philip MacDonald
  Philip MacDonald
  Philip MacDonald was an English author of thrillers.-Life and work:...
  
  , The List of Adrian Messenger

1961 Julian Symons

Julian Symons

Julian Gustave Symons 1912 - 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature.-Life and work:...

, The Progress of a Crime

• Peter Curtis
  Norah Lofts
  Norah Lofts, née Norah Robinson, was a 20th century best-selling British author. She wrote more than fifty books specialising in historical fiction, but she also wrote non-fiction and short stories...
  
  , The Devil's Own
• Herbert Brean
  Herbert Brean
  Herbert Brean was an American journalist and crime fiction writer, best known for his recurring series characters William Deacon and Reynold Frame. He was a director and former executive vice president of the Mystery Writers of America, a group for which he also taught a class in mystery writing...
  
  , The Traces of Brillhart
• Geoffrey Household
  Geoffrey Household
  Geoffrey Edward West Household was a prolific British novelist who specialized in thrillers. He is best known for his novel Rogue Male .-Personal life:...
  
  , Watcher in the Shadows

1962 J. J. Marric

John Creasey

John Creasey MBE was an English crime and science fiction writer. The author of more than 600 novels, he published them using 28 different pseudonyms, including Anthony Morton, Michael Halliday, Kyle Hunt, J.J. Marric, Jeremy York, Richard Martin, Peter Manton, Norman Deane, Gordon Ashe, Henry St...

, Gideon's Fire

• Lionel Davidson
  Lionel Davidson
  Lionel Davidson was an English novelist who wrote a number of acclaimed spy thrillers.-Life and career:Lionel Davidson was born in 1922 in Hull, Yorkshire, one of nine children of an immigrant Jewish tailor. He left school early and worked in the London offices of the Spectator magazine as an...
  
  , The Night of Wenceslas
  The Night of Wenceslas
  The Night of Wenceslas is the debut novel of British thriller and crime writer Lionel Davidson. It describes the reluctant adventures of Nicolas Whistler, a dissolute young man of mixed English and Czech parentage who finds himself caught up against his will in Cold War espionage...
  
  
• Anne Blaisdell, Nightmare
• Suzanne Blanc, The Green Stone
• Ross Macdonald
  Ross Macdonald
  Not to be confused with John D. MacDonaldRoss Macdonald is the pseudonym of the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar...
  
  , The Wycherly Woman

1963 Ellis Peters

Edith Pargeter

Edith Mary Pargeter, OBE, BEM , also known by her nom de plume Ellis Peters, was a British author of works in many categories, especially history and historical fiction, and was also honoured for her translations of Czech classics; she is probably best known for her murder mysteries, both...

, Death and the Joyful Woman

• Dell Shannon
  Elizabeth Linington
  Barbara "Elizabeth" Linington was a prolific American novelist. She was awarded runner-up scrolls for best first mystery novel from the Mystery Writers of America for her 1960 novel, Case Pending, which introduced her most popular series character, LAPD Homicide Lieutenant Luis Mendoza...
  
  , Knave of Hearts
• Mark McShane, Seance
• Shelley Smith, The Ballad of the Running Man
• Jean Potts, The Evil Wish
• Ross Macdonald
  Ross Macdonald
  Not to be confused with John D. MacDonaldRoss Macdonald is the pseudonym of the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar...
  
  , The Zebra-Striped Hearse

1964 Eric Ambler

Eric Ambler

Eric Clifford Ambler OBE was an influential British author of spy novels who introduced a new realism to the genre. Ambler also used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books co-written with Charles Rodda.-Life:...

, The Light of Day

• Stanton Forbes, Grieve for the Past
• Dorothy B. Hughes
  Dorothy B. Hughes
  Dorothy B. Hughes was an American crime writer and literary critic. Hughes wrote fourteen crime and detective novels, primarily in the hardboiled and noir styles, and is best known for the novels In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse .Born Dorothy Belle Flanagan in Kansas City, Missouri, she...
  
  , The Expendable Man
• Elizabeth Fenwick, The Make-Believe Man
• Ellery Queen
  Ellery Queen
  Ellery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction.The fictional Ellery Queen created by...
  
  , The Player on the Other Side

1965 John le Carré

John le Carré

David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...

, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold , by John le Carré, is a British Cold War spy novel that became famous for its portrayal of Western espionage methods as being morally inconsistent with Western democracy and values. The novel received critical acclaim at the time of its publication and became an...

• Margaret Millar
  Margaret Millar
  Margaret Ellis Millar was an American-Canadian mystery and suspense writer.Born in Kitchener, Ontario, she was educated there and in Toronto. She moved to the United States after marrying Kenneth Millar...
  
  , The Fiend
• Hans Hellmut Kirst
  Hans Hellmut Kirst
  Hans Hellmut Kirst was a distinguished German novelist and the author of 46 books, many of which were translated into English...
  
  , The Night of the Generals
• Mary Stewart
  Mary Stewart
  Mary Florence Elinor Stewart is a popular English novelist, best known for her Merlin series, which straddles the boundary between the historical novel and the fantasy genre.-Career:...
  
  , This Rough Magic
  This Rough Magic
  This Rough Magic is a novel by Mary Stewart, first published in 1964. The title is a quote from William Shakespeare's The Tempest.-Plot summary:...
  
  

1966 Adam Hall

Elleston Trevor

Elleston Trevor was the pseudonym, and eventually legal name, of the British novelist Trevor Dudley-Smith , who also wrote as Adam Hall, Simon Rattray, Howard North, Roger Fitzalan, Mansell Black, Trevor Burgess, Warwick Scott, Caesar Smith and Lesley Stone...

, The Quiller Memorandum

The Quiller Memorandum

The Quiller Memorandum is a film adaptation of the 1965 spy novel The Berlin Memorandum, by Trevor Dudley-Smith under the name "Adam Hall", screenplay by Harold Pinter, directed by Michael Anderson, featuring George Segal, Max von Sydow, Senta Berger and Alec Guinness. The film was shot on...

• Mary Stewart
  Mary Stewart
  Mary Florence Elinor Stewart is a popular English novelist, best known for her Merlin series, which straddles the boundary between the historical novel and the fantasy genre.-Career:...
  
  , Airs Above the Ground
• Len Deighton
  Len Deighton
  Leonard Cyril Deighton is a British military historian, cookery writer, and novelist. He is perhaps most famous for his spy novel The IPCRESS File, which was made into a film starring Michael Caine....
  
  , Funeral in Berlin
  Funeral in Berlin
  Funeral in Berlin is a spy novel by Len Deighton.- Plot :The protagonist, who is unnamed, travels to Berlin to arrange the defection of a Soviet scientist named Semitsa, this being brokered by Johnny Vulkan of the Berlin intelligence community...
  
  
• Ross Macdonald
  Ross Macdonald
  Not to be confused with John D. MacDonaldRoss Macdonald is the pseudonym of the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar...
  
  , The Far Side of the Dollar
• Dorothy Salisbury Davis
  Dorothy Salisbury Davis
  Dorothy Salisbury Davis is an American crime fiction writer.She was an adopted child, raised in Illinois. She worked in Chicago in advertising as a research librarian and as an editor of The Merchandiser, prior to taking up fiction writing.She was married to Harry Davis, the character actor,from...
  
  , The Pale Betrayer
• H. R. F. Keating
  H. R. F. Keating
  Henry Reymond Fitzwalter "Harry" Keating was an English crime fiction writer most notable for his series of novels featuring Inspector Ghote of the Bombay CID.-Life:...
  
  , The Perfect Murder
  The Perfect Murder
  The Perfect Murder is a 1988 English language Indian film directed by Zafar Hai and produced by Merchant-Ivory. The film is based on the 1964 novel The Perfect Murder by British crime fiction writer HRF Keating and stars Naseeruddin Shah as Inspector Ghote, the leading character in Keating's novels...
  
  

1967 Nicolas Freeling

Nicolas Freeling

Nicolas Freeling, born Nicolas Davidson , was a British crime novelist, best known as the author of the Van der Valk series of detective novels...

, King of the Rainy Country

• Ngaio Marsh
  Ngaio Marsh
  Dame Ngaio Marsh DBE , born Edith Ngaio Marsh, was a New Zealand crime writer and theatre director. There is some uncertainty over her birth date as her father neglected to register her birth until 1900...
  
  , Killer Dolphin
• Dick Francis
  Dick Francis
  Richard Stanley "Dick" Francis CBE was an English jockey and crime writer, many of whose novels centre around horse racing.- Personal life :...
  
  , Odds Against
• Donald E. Westlake
  Donald E. Westlake
  Donald Edwin Westlake was an American writer, with over a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into science fiction or other genres...
  
  , The Busy Body

1968 Donald E. Westlake

Donald E. Westlake

Donald Edwin Westlake was an American writer, with over a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into science fiction or other genres...

, God Save the Mark

• George Baxt
  George Baxt
  George Baxt was a prolific American screenwriter and author of crime fiction, best remembered for creating the gay black detective, Pharoah Love.-Life and work:...
  
  , A Parade of Cockeyed Creatures
• Dick Francis
  Dick Francis
  Richard Stanley "Dick" Francis CBE was an English jockey and crime writer, many of whose novels centre around horse racing.- Personal life :...
  
  , Flying Finish
• Charlotte Armstrong
  Charlotte Armstrong
  Charlotte Armstrong Lewi was an American author. Under the names Charlotte Armstrong and Jo Valentine she wrote 29 novels, as well as working for the New York Times advertising department, as a fashion reporter for Breath of the Avenue , and in an accounting firm.Armstrong Lewi graduated from Vulcan...
  
  , Lemon in the Basket
• Ira Levin
  Ira Levin
  Ira Levin was an American author, dramatist and songwriter.-Professional life:Levin attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa...
  
  , Rosemary's Baby
• Charlotte Armstrong
  Charlotte Armstrong
  Charlotte Armstrong Lewi was an American author. Under the names Charlotte Armstrong and Jo Valentine she wrote 29 novels, as well as working for the New York Times advertising department, as a fashion reporter for Breath of the Avenue , and in an accounting firm.Armstrong Lewi graduated from Vulcan...
  
  , The Gift Shop

1969 Jeffery Hudson (Michael Crichton's nom-de-plume)

Michael Crichton

John Michael Crichton , best known as Michael Crichton, was an American best-selling author, producer, director, and screenwriter, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted...

, A Case of Need

A Case of Need

A Case of Need is a mystery novel written by Michael Crichton under the pseudonym Jeffery Hudson. It was first published in 1968 by The World Publishing Company and won an Edgar Award in 1969. The novel was re-released in 1993 under Crichton's own name.-Plot summary:Dr...

• Peter Dickinson
  Peter Dickinson
  Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE is an English author and poet who has written a wide variety of books, notably children's books and detective stories, over a long and distinguished career.-Life and work:...
  
  , A Glass-Sided Ants' Nest
• Dick Francis
  Dick Francis
  Richard Stanley "Dick" Francis CBE was an English jockey and crime writer, many of whose novels centre around horse racing.- Personal life :...
  
  , Blood Sport
• Dorothy Salisbury Davis
  Dorothy Salisbury Davis
  Dorothy Salisbury Davis is an American crime fiction writer.She was an adopted child, raised in Illinois. She worked in Chicago in advertising as a research librarian and as an editor of The Merchandiser, prior to taking up fiction writing.She was married to Harry Davis, the character actor,from...
  
   and Jerome Ross, God Speed the Night
• Heron Carvic
  Heron Carvic
  Heron Carvic was a British actor and writer who provided the voice for Gandalf in the BBC Radio version of The Hobbit, and played Caiphas the High Priest every time the play cycle The Man Born To Be King was broadcast....
  
  , Picture Miss Seeton
• Stanley Ellin
  Stanley Ellin
  Stanley Bernard Ellin was an American mystery writer. Ellin was born in Brooklyn, New York. He garnered a love for reading at a young age with an interest in works by the likes of Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, and Edgar Allan Poe. Ellin was educated at Brooklyn College and received a B.A. in 1936...
  
  , The Valentine Estate

1970s

1970 Dick Francis

Dick Francis

Richard Stanley "Dick" Francis CBE was an English jockey and crime writer, many of whose novels centre around horse racing.- Personal life :...

, Forfeit

• Chester Himes
  Chester Himes
  Chester Bomar Himes was an American writer. His works include If He Hollers Let Him Go and a series of Harlem Detective novels...
  
  , Blind Man with a Pistol
• Shaun Herron, Miro
• Peter Dickinson
  Peter Dickinson
  Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE is an English author and poet who has written a wide variety of books, notably children's books and detective stories, over a long and distinguished career.-Life and work:...
  
  , The Old English Peep Show
• Emma Lathen
  Emma Lathen
  Emma Lathen is the pen name of two American businesswomen: an economist Mary Jane Latsis and an economic analyst Martha Henissart ,who received her B.A. in physics from Mount Holyoke College in 1950....
  
  , When in Greece
• Dorothy Salisbury Davis
  Dorothy Salisbury Davis
  Dorothy Salisbury Davis is an American crime fiction writer.She was an adopted child, raised in Illinois. She worked in Chicago in advertising as a research librarian and as an editor of The Merchandiser, prior to taking up fiction writing.She was married to Harry Davis, the character actor,from...
  
  , Where the Dark Streets Go

1971 Maj Sjöwall

Maj Sjöwall

Maj Sjöwall is a Swedish author and translator. She is best known for the collaborative work with her partner Per Wahlöö on a series of ten novels about the exploits of Martin Beck, a police detective in Stockholm...

 & Per Wahlöö

Per Wahlöö

Per Fredrik Wahlöö was a Swedish author. He is perhaps best known for the collaborative work with his partner Maj Sjöwall on a series of ten novels about the exploits of Martin Beck, a police detective in Stockholm, published between 1965 and 1975...

, The Laughing Policeman

The Laughing Policeman (novel)

The Laughing Policeman , by Sjöwall and Wahlöö, is the fourth police detective novel, in the ten-part 'Martin Beck' series. Originally published in Sweden in 1968 as Den skrattande polisen, it is the first novel in the series to criticize the shortcomings of the Swedish welfare state...

• Pat Stadley, Autumn of a Hunter
• Margaret Millar
  Margaret Millar
  Margaret Ellis Millar was an American-Canadian mystery and suspense writer.Born in Kitchener, Ontario, she was educated there and in Toronto. She moved to the United States after marrying Kenneth Millar...
  
  , Beyond this Point Are Monsters
• Patricia Moyes
  Patricia Moyes
  Patricia Pakenham-Walsh, a.k.a. Patricia Moyes was an Irish-born British mystery writer.- Life and work :Moyes was born in Dublin on 19 January 1923 and was educated at Overstone girls' school in Northampton. She joined the WAAF in 1939. In 1946 Peter Ustinov hired her as technical assistant on his...
  
  , Many Deadly Returns
• Donald E. Westlake
  Donald E. Westlake
  Donald Edwin Westlake was an American writer, with over a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into science fiction or other genres...
  
  , The Hot Rock
• Shaun Herron, The Hound and the Fox and the Harper

1972 Frederick Forsyth

Frederick Forsyth

Frederick Forsyth, CBE is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan and The Cobra.-...

, The Day of the Jackal

The Day of the Jackal

The Day of the Jackal is a thriller novel by English writer Frederick Forsyth, about a professional assassin who is contracted by the OAS, a French terrorist group of the early 1960s, to kill Charles de Gaulle, the President of France....

• P. D. James
  P. D. James
  Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL , commonly known as P. D. James, is an English crime writer and Conservative life peer in the House of Lords, most famous for a series of detective novels starring policeman and poet Adam Dalgliesh.-Life and career:James...
  
  , Shroud for a Nightingale
  Shroud for a Nightingale
  Shroud for a Nightingale is a 1971 detective novel written by PD James in her Adam Dalgliesh series. Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate the death of two student nurses at the hospital nursing school of Nightingale House...
  
  
• G. F. Newman
  G. F. Newman
  Gordon Frank Newman is an English television producer and writer. He is known for his two series Law and Order and The Nation's Health, each based on his books....
  
  , Sir, You Bastard
• Tony Hillerman
  Tony Hillerman
  Tony Hillerman was an award-winning American author of detective novels and non-fiction works best known for his Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels...
  
  , The Fly on the Wall
• Arthur Wise, Who Killed Enoch Powell?

1973 Warren Kiefer, The Lingala Code

• Martin Cruz Smith
  Martin Cruz Smith
  Martin Cruz Smith is an American mystery novelist.-Early life and education:Born Martin William Smith in Reading, Pennsylvania, he was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing in 1964...
  
  , Canto for a Gypsy
• John Ball
  John Ball (American author)
  John Dudley Ball , writing as John Ball, was an American writer best known for mystery novels involving the African-American police detective Virgil Tibbs. He was introduced in the 1965 In the Heat of the Night where he solves a murder in a racist Southern small town...
  
  , Five Pieces of Jade
• Hugh C. Rae, The Shooting Gallery
• Ngaio Marsh
  Ngaio Marsh
  Dame Ngaio Marsh DBE , born Edith Ngaio Marsh, was a New Zealand crime writer and theatre director. There is some uncertainty over her birth date as her father neglected to register her birth until 1900...
  
  , Tied Up in Tinsel

1974 Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman was an award-winning American author of detective novels and non-fiction works best known for his Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels...

, Dance Hall of the Dead

Dance Hall of the Dead

Dance Hall Of The Dead is the second of the Navajo Tribal Police series of crime fiction novels by Tony Hillerman. Centered around the character of police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, Dance Hall of the Dead is, like many of Hillerman's books, set on the Navajo Reservation in the Four Corners region of...

• Francis Clifford
  Francis Clifford (author)
  Francis Clifford is a pen name of Arthur Leonard Bell Thompson, a British writer of crime and thriller novels. He was born in Bristol, served with great distinction in the Second World War, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.-Novels:*Honour the Shrine *The Trembling Earth *Overdue...
  
  , Amigo, Amigo
• P. D. James
  P. D. James
  Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL , commonly known as P. D. James, is an English crime writer and Conservative life peer in the House of Lords, most famous for a series of detective novels starring policeman and poet Adam Dalgliesh.-Life and career:James...
  
  , An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
  An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
  An Unsuitable Job For A Woman is the title of a 1972 detective novel by P. D. James - and also the title of a TV series of four dramas developed from that novel....
  
  
• Jean Stubbs, Dear Laura
• Victor Canning
  Victor Canning
  Victor Canning was a prolific writer of novels and thrillers who flourished in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, but whose reputation has faded since his death in 1986...
  
  , The Rainbird Pattern
  The Rainbird Pattern
  The Rainbird Pattern is a 1972 novel by Victor Canning.It was adapted for the screen by Ernest Lehman in 1976 and was directed by Alfred Hitchcock under the title Family Plot....
  
  

1975 Jon Cleary

Jon Cleary

Jon Stephen Cleary was an Australian author.-Biography:Cleary was born in Erskineville, Sydney. He wrote many books, among them The Sundowners , a portrait of a rural family in the 1920s as they move from one job to the next, and The High Commissioner , the first of a long series of popular...

, Peter's Pence

• Francis Clifford
  Francis Clifford (author)
  Francis Clifford is a pen name of Arthur Leonard Bell Thompson, a British writer of crime and thriller novels. He was born in Bristol, served with great distinction in the Second World War, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.-Novels:*Honour the Shrine *The Trembling Earth *Overdue...
  
  , Goodbye and Amen
• Andrew Garve, The Lester Affair
• Malcolm Bosse
  Malcolm Bosse
  Malcolm Joseph Bosse was an American author of both young adult and adult novels. His novels are often set in Asia, and have been praised for their cultural and historical information relating to the character's adventures. Bosse mostly wrote historical fiction novels after the publication of The...
  
  , The Man Who Loved Zoos
• Paul Erdman
  Paul Erdman
  Paul Emil Erdman was one of the leading business and financial writers in the United States who became known for writing novels based on monetary trends and historical facts concerning complex matters of international finance.-Early life:Erdman was born in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, on 19 May...
  
  , The Silver Bears

1976 Brian Garfield

Brian Garfield

Brian Francis Wynne Garfield is an American novelist and screenwriter. He wrote his first published book at the age of eighteen and wrote several novels under such pen names as "Frank Wynne" and "'Brian Wynne" before gaining prominence when his book Hopscotch won the 1976 Edgar Award for Best Novel...

, Hopscotch

• Gerald Seymour
  Gerald Seymour
  Gerald Seymour is a British writer.-Life:The son of two literary figures, he was educated at Kelly College at Tavistock in Devon and took a BA Hons degree in Modern History at University College London...
  
  , Harry's Game
• Maggie Rennert, Operation Alcestic
• Martin Albert, The Gargoyle Conspiracy
• Ross Thomas, The Money Harvest

1977 Robert B. Parker

Robert B. Parker

Robert Brown Parker was an American crime writer. His most famous works were the novels about the private detective Spenser. ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire based on the character in the late 1980s; a series of TV movies based on the character were also...

, Promised Land

Promised Land (novel)

Promised Land is the fourth Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker, first published in 1976. It won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1977.-Plot summary:Promised Land, Inc. is a real estate development company with which one of the characters is involved...

• Richard Neely, A Madness of the Heart
• Thomas Gifford
  Thomas Gifford
  Thomas Eugene Gifford was a best-selling American author of thriller novels. He was a graduate of Harvard University....
  
  , The Cavanaugh Quest
• Gerald Seymour
  Gerald Seymour
  Gerald Seymour is a British writer.-Life:The son of two literary figures, he was educated at Kelly College at Tavistock in Devon and took a BA Hons degree in Modern History at University College London...
  
  , The Glory Boys
• Trevanian
  Trevanian
  Rodney William Whitaker was an American film scholar and writer who wrote several successful novels under the pen name Trevanian. Whitaker also published works as Nicholas Seare, Beñat Le Cagot and Edoard Moran...
  
  , The Main

1978 William Hallahan, Catch Me: Kill Me

• William McIlvanney
  William McIlvanney
  William McIlvanney is a writer of crime stories, novels, and poetry. McIlvanney is a champion of gritty yet poetic literature; his works Laidlaw, The Papers of Tony Veitch, and Walking Wounded are all known for their portrayal of Glasgow in the 1970s.- Life and career :McIlvanney was born in the...
  
  , Laidlaw
  Laidlaw (novel)
  Laidlaw is the first novel of a series of crime books by William McIlvanney. It features DI Laidlaw and DC Harkness, his assigned assistant, in their attempts to find the brutal sex related murderer of a Glasgow teenager...
  
  
• Martin Cruz Smith
  Martin Cruz Smith
  Martin Cruz Smith is an American mystery novelist.-Early life and education:Born Martin William Smith in Reading, Pennsylvania, he was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing in 1964...
  
  , Nightwing
  Nightwing (novel)
  Nightwing is a 1977 thriller novel by Martin Cruz Smith, who adapted it for a 1979 film with the same title directed by Arthur Hiller.-Plot summary:...
  
  

1979 Ken Follett

Ken Follett

Ken Follett is a Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels. He has sold more than 100 million copies of his works. Four of his books have reached the number 1 ranking on the New York Times best-seller list: The Key to Rebecca, Lie Down with Lions, Triple, and World Without End.-Early...

, Eye of the Needle

Eye of the Needle

Eye of the Needle is a spy thriller novel written by British author Ken Follett. It was originally published in 1978 by the Penguin Group titled Storm Island. This novel was Follett's first successful, bestselling effort as a novelist, and it earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the...

• Ruth Rendell
  Ruth Rendell
  Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, , who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is an English crime writer, author of psychological thrillers and murder mysteries....
  
  , A Sleeping Life
  A Sleeping Life
  A Sleeping Life is a crime-novel by British writer Ruth Rendell, first published in 1978. It features her popular investigator Detective Inspector Wexford, and is the tenth novel in the series...
  
  
• Tony Hillerman
  Tony Hillerman
  Tony Hillerman was an award-winning American author of detective novels and non-fiction works best known for his Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels...
  
  , Listening Woman
• Jack S. Scott, The Shallow Grave
• John Godey
  Morton Freedgood
  Morton Freedgood was an American author who wrote The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and many other detective and mystery novels under the pen name John Godey.-Biography:...
  
  , The Snake

1980s

1980 Arthur Maling

Arthur Maling

Arthur Gordon Maling is an American writer of crime and thriller novels.. He graduated from Francis W. Parker School, Chicago in 1940; in 1944 he received a B.A. from Harvard University. In the Second World War Maling was an ensign in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1945. From 1945 to 1946 he was a...

, The Rheingold Route

• C.P. Snow, A Coat of Varnish
• Robert Barnard
  Robert Barnard
  Robert Barnard is an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.- Life and work :Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School and at Balliol College in Oxford....
  
  , Death of a Mystery Writer
• Frank Parrish, Fire in the Barley
• Ruth Rendell
  Ruth Rendell
  Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, , who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is an English crime writer, author of psychological thrillers and murder mysteries....
  
  , Make Death Love Me

1981 Dick Francis

Dick Francis

Richard Stanley "Dick" Francis CBE was an English jockey and crime writer, many of whose novels centre around horse racing.- Personal life :...

, Whip Hand

Whip Hand

Whip Hand is a crime novel by Dick Francis, the second novel in the Sid Halley series. The novel received Gold Dagger Award for Best Novel of 1979 and the Edgar Award for Best Novel of 1980...

• B. M. Gill
  Barbara Margaret Trimble
  Barbara Margaret Trimble was a British writer of crime and thriller novels. She was born in Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales and wrote under pen names B. M. Gill and Margaret Blake.-Novels Barbara Margaret Trimble (1921–1995) was a British writer of crime and thriller novels. She was born in Holyhead,...
  
  , Death Drop
• Robert Barnard
  Robert Barnard
  Robert Barnard is an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.- Life and work :Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School and at Balliol College in Oxford....
  
  , Death of a Literary Widow
• A. J. Quinnell
  A. J. Quinnell
  A. J. Quinnell was the pen name of the English thriller novelist Philip Nicholson. He is best known for his novel Man on Fire, which has been adapted to film twice, most recently in 2004 featuring Denzel Washington.-Life and work:...
  
  , Man on Fire
• Reginald Hill
  Reginald Hill
  Reginald Charles Hill is an English crime writer, and the winner in 1995 of the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement.- Biography :...
  
  , The Spy's Wife
  The Spy's Wife
  The Spy's Wife is a 1972 British short crime film directed by Gerry O'Hara and starring Julian Holloway, Dorothy Tutin and Tom Bell....
  
  

1982 William Bayer

William Bayer

William Bayer is an American novelist, the author of Switch, among other works. Bayer has written a series of novels featuring fictional New York Police Department lieutenant Frank Janek. He has also written adaptions of his novels for television, and written for other TV shows...

, Peregrine
1983 Rick Boyer

Rick Boyer

Richard Lewis Boyer is an American writer, best known for series of crime novels featuring Charlie "Doc" Adams, a dental surgeon in New England. His novel Billingsgate Shoal received the Edgar Award for best novel in 1983....

, Billinsgate Shoal
1984 Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard

Elmore John Leonard Jr. , better known as Elmore Leonard, is an American novelist and screenwriter. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.Among his...

, LaBrava

LaBrava

LaBrava, the 1983 novel by author Elmore Leonard, follows the story of Joe LaBrava, former Secret Service agent. This novel won the 1984 Edgar Award for Best Novel.-Plot summary:...

1985 Ross Thomas, Briarpatch
1986 L. R. Wright

L. R. Wright

Laurali Rose Wright was a Canadian writer of mystery novels.Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Wright worked as an actor and journalist before publishing her first novel, Neighbours, in 1979...

, The Suspect
1987 Barbara Vine

Ruth Rendell

Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, , who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is an English crime writer, author of psychological thrillers and murder mysteries....

, A Dark-Adapted Eye

A Dark-Adapted Eye

A Dark-Adapted Eye is a psychological thriller novel by Ruth Rendell, written under the nom-de-plume Barbara Vine. The novel won the American Edgar Award...

1988 Aaron Elkins

Aaron Elkins

Aaron Elkins is an American mystery writer. He is best known for his series of novels featuring forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver—the 'skeleton detective'.Education and background:...

, Old Bones

Old Bones

"Old Bones" is the seventh episode of the FX television series Sons of Anarchy. It was written by Dave Erickson, directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton and originally aired on October 15, 2008.-Starring:* Charlie Hunnam as Jax Teller...

1989 Stuart M. Kaminsky

Stuart M. Kaminsky

Stuart M. Kaminsky was an American mystery writer and film professor. He is known for three long-running series of mystery novels featuring the protagonists Toby Peters, a private detective in 1940s Hollywood; Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, a Moscow police inspector; and veteran Chicago...

, A Cold Red Sunrise

1990s

1990 James Lee Burke

James Lee Burke

James Lee Burke is an American author of mysteries, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series. He has won an Edgar Award for Black Cherry Blues and Cimarron Rose . The Robicheaux character has been portrayed twice on screen, first by Alec Baldwin and then Tommy Lee Jones...

, Black Cherry Blues
1991 Julie Smith, New Orleans Mourning
1992 Lawrence Block

Lawrence Block

Lawrence Block is an acclaimed contemporary American crime writer best known for two long-running New York–set series, about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, respectively...

, A Dance at the Slaughterhouse
1993 Margaret Maron

Margaret Maron

Margaret Maron is an American writer, the author of award-winning mystery novels.-Biography:Maron was born and grew up in central North Carolina. She has also lived in Italy. She and her husband, artist Joe Maron, lived in Brooklyn before returning to her home state where they now...

, Bootlegger's Daughter
1994 Minette Walters

Minette Walters

Minette Walters is an English crime writer.- Life and work :After her birth in Bishop’s Stortford to a serving army officer, Capt Samuel Jebb and his wife Colleen, the first 10 years of Minette’s life were spent moving between army bases in the north and south of England...

, The Sculptress

The Sculptress

The Sculptress is a crime novel by English writer Minette Walters. She won an Edgar and a Macavity Award for the book. The novel was adapted as a BBC-TV series in 1996, starring Pauline Quirke as Olive Martin.-Synopsis:...

1995 Mary Willis Walker

Mary Willis Walker

-Writing career:Walker began writing in her mid-forties, which she characterized as " 'pretty late to start' ". She spent two years writing her first published thriller, Zero at the Bone, which was published in 1991. Her second Texas-based mystery, Red Scream, was Walker's first to...

, The Red Scream
1996 Dick Francis

Dick Francis

Richard Stanley "Dick" Francis CBE was an English jockey and crime writer, many of whose novels centre around horse racing.- Personal life :...

, Come to Grief
1997 Thomas H. Cook

Thomas H. Cook

Thomas H. Cook is an American author, whose 1996 novel The Chatham School Affair received an Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America.Thomas H...

, The Chatham School Affair
1998 James Lee Burke

James Lee Burke

James Lee Burke is an American author of mysteries, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series. He has won an Edgar Award for Black Cherry Blues and Cimarron Rose . The Robicheaux character has been portrayed twice on screen, first by Alec Baldwin and then Tommy Lee Jones...

, Cimarron Rose
1999 Robert Clark

Robert Clark (author)

Robert Clark is a novelist and writer of nonfiction. He received the Edgar Award for his novel Mr. White's Confession in 1999. A native of St...

, Mr. White's Confession

2000s

2000 Jan Burke

Jan Burke

Jan Burke is an award-winning author of novels and short stories. She is a winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel.-Bio:Burke was born in Texas, but has lived in Southern California most of her life. She comes from a close-knit family, and remains close to her parents, two sisters and a brother. ...

, Bones
2001 Joe R. Lansdale

Joe R. Lansdale

Joe R. Lansdale is an American author and martial-arts expert. He has written novels and stories in many genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense...

, The Bottoms
2002 T. Jefferson Parker

T. Jefferson Parker

thumb|T. Jefferson ParkerT. Jefferson Parker is an American novelist. Parker's books are police procedurals set in Southern California.-Early life and career:...

, Silent Joe
2003 S. J. Rozan

S. J. Rozan

S J Rozan is the pen name for Shira Judith Rosan, an award winning mystery writer. Her books are set in New York and most feature the private investigators 'Lydia Chin' and 'Bill Smith'....

, Winter and Night
2004 Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin, OBE, DL , is a Scottish crime writer. His best known books are the Inspector Rebus novels. He has also written several pieces of literary criticism.-Background:He attended Beath High School, Cowdenbeath...

, Resurrection Men

Resurrection Men

Resurrection Men is a 2002 novel by Ian Rankin. It is the thirteenth of the Inspector Rebus novels.-Plot summary:Detective Inspector John Rebus is thrown off a murder inquiry, just days after the brutal death of an Edinburgh art dealer, for throwing a cup of tea at DCS Gill Templer...

2005 T. Jefferson Parker

T. Jefferson Parker

thumb|T. Jefferson ParkerT. Jefferson Parker is an American novelist. Parker's books are police procedurals set in Southern California.-Early life and career:...

, California Girl
2006 Jess Walter

Jess Walter

Jess Walter is an American author of five novels. His work has been published in fifteen countries and translated into thirteen languages....

, Citizen Vince
2007 Jason Goodwin

Jason Goodwin

Jason Goodwin is a British writer and historian. He studied Byzantine history at Cambridge University. Following the success of A Time For Tea: Travels in China and India in Search of Tea, he walked from Poland to Istanbul, Turkey...

, The Janissary Tree

The Janissary Tree

The Janissary Tree is a crime novel, written by Jason Goodwin. It is set in Istanbul in 1836.The first in a series featuring the eunuch detective Yashim, it deals with the fictional aftermath of a real event in Ottoman history – the so-called Auspicious Event, which took place in June 1826 – the...

2008 John Hart, Down River
2009 C. J. Box

C. J. Box

Charles James Box, Jr. is an American writer, a native of Wyoming, who lives outside of Cheyenne with his wife Laurie, and daughters, Molly, Becky and Roxanne. His Joe Pickett Series has eleven novels. The first in this series, Open Season, was included in the New York Times list of "Notable...

, Blue Heaven

2010s

2010 John Hart, The Last Child
2011 Steve Hamilton

Steve Hamilton (author)

Steve Hamilton is an American writer of detective fiction. He was born January 10, 1961 and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated in 1983 from the University of Michigan where he won the Hopwood Award for fiction. -Works:...

 , The Lock Artist

2010 winners

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards 2010, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television, and film published or produced in 2009, are:

• The Last Child by John Hart for Best Novel
• In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff for Best First Novel by an American Author
• Body Blows
  Body Blows
  Body Blows is an Amiga Versus fighting game game. It was released in 1993 by Team 17. The game is compatible with all Amiga systems, including the CDTV system with joystick support. It was followed by Body Blows Galactic and Ultimate Body Blows. A version for DOS was also released...
  
  by Marc Strange for Best Paperback Original
• Columbine
  Columbine (book)
  Columbine is the award-winning non-fiction bestseller written by Dave Cullen and published by Twelve on April 6, 2009. It is a comprehensive examination of the Columbine High School massacre, perpetrated by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold on April 20, 1999...
  
  by Dave Cullen for Best Fact Crime
• The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives edited by Otto Penzler
  Otto Penzler
  Otto Penzler is an editor of mystery fiction in the United States, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives.-Biography:...
  
   for Best Critical/Biographical
• "Amapola" – Phoenix Noir by Luis Alberto Urrea
  Luís Alberto Urrea
  Luís Alberto Urrea is a Mexican American poet, novelist, and essayist.-Life:Urrea is the son of a Mexican father and an American mother...
  
   for Best Short Story
• Closed for the Season by Mary Downing Hahn
  Mary Downing Hahn
  Mary Downing Hahn is an award-winning American author of young adult novels. Her first published book, The Sara Summer, was released in 1979, when she was forty-one years old. Since then she has written over twenty novels...
  
   for Best Juvenile
• Reality Check
  Reality Check
  Reality Check was a 1995 television show about Jack Craft, a man who is stuck in a computer mainframe. The two Bonner kids try to get Jack Craft out of the mainframe. Another character on this show is Isis. The computer was activated on September 17, 199?.The show was broadcast under syndication...
  
  by Peter Abrahams
  Peter Abrahams
  Peter Abrahams is a South African novelist.His father was from Ethiopia and his mother was classified by South Africa as a mixed race person, a "Kleurling" or Coloured. He was born in Vrededorp, nearby Johannesburg, but left South Africa in 1939...
  
   for Best Young Adult
• "Place of Execution," Teleplay by Patrick Harbinson for Best Television Episode Teleplay

The Robert L. Fish Memorial Award was presented to "A Dreadful Day" – Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine is a monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime and detective fiction. AHMM is named for Alfred Hitchcock, the famed director of suspense films and television.-History:...

by Dan Warthman (Dell Magazines).

External links

• Mystery Writers of America
• The official website of Edgar Awards (includes nominees)