Edgar Award - Best Novel

2009

A twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother go on the run in the woods of North Idaho, pursued by four men they have just watched commit murder--four men who know exactly who William and Annie are, and who know exactly where their desperate mother is waiting for news of her children's fate. Retired cops from Los Angeles, the killers easily persuade the inexperienced sheriff to let them lead the search for the missing children. William and Annie's unexpected savior comes in the form of an old-school rancher teetering on the brink of foreclosure.

2008

Adam Chase has a violent streak, and not without reason. As a boy in Rowan County, he saw things that no child should see, suffered wounds that cut to the core and scarred him. The trauma left him passionate and misunderstood - a fighter. After being narrowly acquitted of a murder charge, Adam is hounded out of the only home he's ever known, exiled for a sin he did not commit. For five long years he disappears, fading into the faceless gray of New York City. Now he's back and nobody knows why - not his family or the cops, not the enemies he left behind. But Adam has his reasons.

2007

Jason Goodwin. The Janissary Tree

The first in a series of mysteries set in nineteenth-century Istanbul and starring the unlikeliest and most engaging of detectives: Yashim the eunuch.

2006

Jess Walter. Citizen Vince

It's the fall of 1980, eight days before a presidential election that pits the downtrodden Jimmy Carter against the suspiciously sunny Ronald Reagan. In a quiet house in Spokane, Washington, Vince Camden wakes up at 1:59 A.M., pockets his weekly stash of stolen credit cards, and drops in on an all-night poker game with his low-life friends on his way to his witness-protection job dusting crullers at Donut Make You Hungry. This is the sum of Vince's new life: donuts, forged credit cards, marijuana smuggled in jars of volcanic ash, and a neurotic hooker girlfriend who dreams of being a real-estate agent. But when a familiar face shows up in town, Vince realizes that no matter how far you think you've run from your past ... it's always close behind you.

2005

T. Jefferson Parker. California Girl

A different world then, a different world now . . . California in the 1960s. For the Becker brothers, the past is always present and it comes crashing back when the body of the lovely and mysterious Janelle Vonn is discovered in an abandoned orange packing house.

2004

Ian Rankin. Resurrection Men

Inspector John Rebus has messed up badly this time, so badly that he's been sent to a kind of reform school for damaged cops. While there among the last-chancers known as "resurrection men, " he joins a covert mission to gain evidence of a drug heist orchestrated by three of his classmates.

2003

S.J. Rozan. Winter and Night

An explosive, breakout novel about the corrosive power of secrets and corruption in a small town.

2002

T. Jefferson Parker. Silent Joe

An intelligent mystery that will satisfy the mind as well as the heart, Silent Joe is a moody, sexy, suspenseful novel about a scarred man, the father he idolized, and the secret he uncovered.

Joe R. Lansdale. The Bottoms

A trip into the woods proves a learning experience for 13-year-old Harry. When Harry and his sister Thomasina strike out into the woods, they confront not only the myth of the Goat Man, who is said to inhabit those woods, but also some myths about the nature of justice and race in their 1930s East Texas community.

2000

Jan Burke. Bones: an Irene Kelly Mystery

Killer Nick Parrish says he'll lead authorities to the body of Judith Sayre--they will not demand the death sentence for his heinous crimes. But the criminal has no intention of spending his life behind bars--and he plans some deadly surprises.

1999

Robert Clark. Mr. White's Confession

Heading a police investigation into the brutal murder of a showgirl, Lt. Wesley Horner zeroes in on Herbert White, an eccentric recluse whose spends his days writing gushing fan letters to Hollywood starlets.

1998

James Lee Burke. Cimarron Rose

Cimarron Rose erupts with the intensity, violence, breathtaking beauty, and bittersweet history of the American West--and the same electric language and style that first brought to life the New South of Burke's legendary Dave Robicheaux series

1997

Thomas H. Cook. The Chatham School Affair

From the August day in 1926 that Elizabeth Channing comes to teach art at a private school outside Boston, Henry Griswald, son of the headmaster, finds himself a willing accomplice in the love affair between Channing and Leland Reed, a World War I veteran and fellow teacher. Now a bachelor in his seventies, Griswald looks back over a year in his adolescence that culminated in violent death and the destruction of innocent lives, a year that taught him the dangers of strong emotions.

Dick Francis. Come to Grief

Having exposed an adored racing figure as a monster, Sid Halley, ex-champion-jockey-turned-investigator, must testify at the man's trial. But, on the morning of his appearance, a tragic suicide shatters the proceedings and jars Sid's conscience, leading him to believe that there's more to the death than has yet come to light

1995

Mary Willis Walker. The Red Scream

Obsessed crime reporter Molly Cates scrambles to put the finishing touches on her coverage of a Texas serial murderer about to be executed. Just as she contacts a prominent Austin family victimized by the killer, however, murder strikes down the second wife in exactly the same way as it did the first.

1994

Minette Walters. The Sculptress

Roz Leigh, an author embittered by the tragic death of a child and a split from her husband, agrees to write the story of Olive Martin, a grossly fat, untidy woman serving a long prison sentence for the particularly grisly murder of her mother and sister. Visiting Olive in jail, Roz finds herself drawn to the woman, and despite the fact that ``the sculptress'' readily confessed to the crime, she begins to find odd discrepancies in the evidence against her.

1993

Margaret Maron. Bootlegger's Daughter

Unconventional, North Carolina attorney Deborah Knott has done the unthinkable: tossed her hat into the heated race for district judge of old-boy-ruled Colleton County. While she's defending indigent clients and reeling in voters, the young daughter of Janie Whitehead begs her to investigate her mother's never-solved eighteen-year-old murder. Deborah takes on the case: following twisted Southern bloodlines; turning up dangerous, decades-old secrets; and inspiring someone to go on an all-out campaign to derail her future . . .

1992

Lawrence Block. A Dance at the Slaughterhouse: a Matthew Scudder Novel

P.I. Matthew Scudder follows a murder into New York's deadly, sex-for-sale, porn underground, in this gritty, provocative, and intense crime novel.

1991

Julie Smith. New Orleans Mourning

1990

James Lee Burke. Black Cherry Blues

Dave, a former homicide cop, is trying to run his fishing business, care for six-year-old-orphan Alafair, and come to terms with the violent death of his wife, Annie. A chance encounter with an old friend haunted by a troubling secret sets off a chain of events that leaves Dave framed for murder.

1989

Stuart M. Kaminsky. A Cold Red Sunrise

Rostnikov is sent to investigate a brutal murder in icy Siberia but is hampered by a suspicious set of KGB rules.

1988

Aaron Elkins. Old Bones: a Gideon Oliver Mystery

When revered Resistance-hero Guillaume du Rocher drowns in a rushing flood tide off Mont St. Michel, members of the familysummoned by Guillaume on undisclosed urgent businessare already assembled at the domaine du Rocher, where, instead, they hear his will. The next day in the basement, a partial skeleton is uncovered, and Gideon Oliver, American physical anthropologist known as the ``Skeleton Detective,'' is called from his lectures at an international forensics conference to examine the bones.

1987

Barbara Vine AKA Ruth Rendell. A Dark-Adapted Eye

When Faith Severn's aunt was hanged for murder, the reason behind her dark deed died with her. For 30 years, the family hid the truth--until a journalist prompts Faith to peer back to the day when her aunt took knife in hand and entered a child's nursery.

1986

L.R. Wright. The Suspect

In this, L.R. Wright's first mystery novel, we are introduced to RCMP Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg; and so begins the highly-acclaimed series featuring Karl and librarian Cassandra Mitchell.

1985

Ross Thomas. Briarpatch

A long-distance call from a Texas city on his birthday gives Benjamin Dill the news that his sister has died in a car bomb explosion. It's the chief of police calling-Felicity Dill worked for him; she was a homicide detective. Dill is there that night, the beginning of his dogged search for her killer.

1984

Elmore Leonard. La Brava

1983

Rick Boyer. Billingsgate Shoal

1982

William Bayer. Peregrine

1981

Dick Francis. Whip Hand

Ex-jockey and private investigator Sid Halley is approached by the wife of an elite racehorse trainer, who begs his help in figuring out why her husband's most promising horses have been performing so poorly. At first Halley thinks she's overreacting and the losing streak is just dumb luck. But now he's beginning to think it's something far more dangerous.

1980

Arthur Maling. The Rheingold Route

1979

Ken Follett. Eye of the Needle

This classic WWII thriller from one of the world's bestselling authors, Ken Follett, has been repackaged for a new generation of intrigue seekers. Code named, "The Needle, " a brilliant, ruthless master German spy is on the run with secrets that will annihilate the Allied chances for victory. He seduces a beautiful English woman into helping him escape, but her loyalty to the Allied cause may be his ultimate downfall...

1978

William Hallahan. Catch Me, Kill Me

1977

Robert B. Parker. Promised Land

Spenser is good at finding things. But this time he has a client out on Cape Cod who is in over his head. Harvey Shepard has lost his pretty wife -- and a very pretty quarter million bucks in real estate. Now a loan shark is putting on the bite.

1976

Brian Garfield. Hopscotch

1975

Jon Cleary. Peter's Pence

1974

Tony Hillerman. Dance Hall of the Dead

Two boys suddenly disappear, and Lt. Joe Leaphorn sets out to locate them. Three things complicate the search: an archaeological dig, a steel hypodermic needle, and the strange laws of the Zuni Indians.

1973

Warren Kiefer. The Lingala Code

1972

Frederick Forsyth. Day of the Jackal

The Jackal. A killer at the top of his profession, unknown to any secret service in the world. An assassin with a contract to kill the world's most heavily guarded man. A tall, blond Englishman with opaque, gray eyes, who with a rifle can change the course of history. One man whose mission is so secretive not even his employers know his name. It seems there is no power on earth that can stop the Jackal, and time is counting down to the final act of execution.

1971

Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo. The Laughing Policeman

1970

Dick Francis. Forfeit

James Tyrone, racing correspondent for a muck-racking newspaper, investigates what appears to be a minor racing fraud and becomes embroiled in a major hunt involving murder and ruthless international crime.

1969

Jeffrey Hudson AKA Michael Crichton. A Case of Need

Set against the ever-building pressure and pace of a large Boston medical center, the tensions flare-and explode-when a surgical operation tragically ends in death, raising countless questions. Was it accidental malpractice? A violation of the Hippocratic oath? Or cold-blooded murder?

1968

Donald E. Westlake. God Save the Mark

1967

Nicolas Freeling. King of the Rainy Country

1966

Adam Hall AKA Trevor Elleston. The Quiller Memorandum

1965

John le Carre. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold

Alec Leamas' Berlin operation has collapsed, and he is recalled to London, where he waits for the enemy to make him an offer. Soon he is back behind the Berlin Wall, out in the cold again.

 

1964

Eric Ambler. The Light of Day

Arthur Simpson was out of his league. Hustling a tourist, a little pimping, a quick hand in a pocket...these Simpson could handle. But an international jewel heist was another story. Of course, Simpson has a choice. He could always say "No"--and spend the rest of his life rotting in a Turkish jail.

1963

Ellis Peters. Death and the Joyful Woman

1962

J.J. Marric AKA. John Creasey. Gideon's Fire

1961

Julian Symons. Progress of a Crime

1960

Celia Fremlin. The Hours Before Dawn

1959

Stanley Ellin. The Eighth Circle

1958

Ed Lacy. Room to Swing

1957

Charlotte Armstrong. A Dram of Poison

Poison that has been labeled as olive oil causes intrigue and suspense.

1956

Margaret Millar. Beast in View

1955

Raymond Chandler. The Long Goodbye

1954

Charlotte Jay. Beat Not the Bones