The Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel was established in 1946.
Only debut novels written by authors with United States citizenship are eligible and may be published in hardcover, paperback, or e-book. If an American author has published a novel of any genre or under any name previously, they are ineligible for the award, unless the novel was self-published. Authors ineligible for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel may be eligible for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel or the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original.[1]
Winners for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel are listed below.
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (May 2024) |
Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1946 | Julius Fast | Watchful at Night | Winner | |
1947 | Helen Eustis | The Horizontal Man | Winner | |
1948 | Fredric Brown | The Fabulous Clipjoint | Winner | |
1949 | Mildred B. Davis | The Room Upstairs | Winner |
Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1950 | Alan Green | What A Body | Winner | |
1951 | Thomas Walsh | Nightmare in Manhattan | Winner | |
1952 | Mary McMullen | Strangle Hold | Winner | |
1953 | William Campbell Gault | Don't Cry for Me | Winner | |
1954 | Ira Levin | A Kiss Before Dying | Winner | |
1955 | Jean Potts | Go, Lovely Rose | Winner | |
1956 | Lane Kauffman | The Perfectionist | Winner | |
1957 | Donald McNutt Douglass | Rebecca's Pride | Winner | |
1958 | William Rawle Weeks | Knock and Wait a While | Winner | |
1959 | Richard Martin Stern | The Bright Road to Fear | Winner |
Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1960 | Henry Slesar | The Grey Flannel Shroud | Winner | |
1961 | John Holbrooke Vance | The Man in the Cage | Winner | |
1962 | Suzanne Blanc | The Green Stone | Winner | |
1963 | Robert L. Fish | The Fugitive | Winner | |
1964 | Cornelius Hirschberg | Florentine Finish | Winner | |
1965 | Harry Kemelman | Friday the Rabbi Slept Late | Winner | |
1966 | John Ball | In the Heat of the Night | Winner | |
1967 | Ross Thomas | The Cold War Swap | Winner | |
1968 | Michael Collins | Act of Fear | Winner | |
1969 | E. Richard Johnson | Tie: Silver Street | Winner | |
Dorothy Uhnak | The Bait |
Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1970 | Joe Gores | A Time of Predators | Winner | [3] |
1971 | Lawrence Sanders | The Anderson Tapes | Winner | |
1972 | A. H. Z. Carr | Finding Maubee | Winner | |
1973 | R. H. Shimer | Squaw Point | Winner | |
1974 | Paul Erdman | The Billion Dollar Sure Thing | Winner | |
1975 | Gregory Mcdonald | Fletch | Winner | |
1976 | Rex Burns | The Alvarez Journal | Winner | |
1977 | James Patterson | The Thomas Berryman Number | Winner | |
1978 | Robert Ross | A French Finish | Winner | |
1979 | William L. DeAndrea | Killed in the Ratings | Winner |
Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1980 | Richard North Patterson | The Lasko Tangent | Winner | |
1981 | K. Nolte Smith | The Watcher | Winner | |
1982 | Stuart Woods | Chiefs | Winner | |
1983 | Thomas Perry | The Butcher's Boy | Winner | |
1984 | Will Harriss | The Bay Psalm Book Murder | Winner | |
1985 | R. D. Rosen | Strike Three, You're Dead | Winner | |
1986 | Jonathan Kellerman | When the Bough Breaks | Winner | |
1987 | Larry Beinhart | No One Rides for Free | Winner | |
1988 | Deidre S. Laiken | Death Among Strangers | Winner | |
1989 | David Stout | Carolina Skeletons | Winner |
Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1990 | Susan Wolfe | The Last Billable Hour | Winner | |
1991 | Patricia Cornwell | Postmortem | Winner | |
1992 | Peter Blauner | Slow Motion Riot | Winner | |
1993 | Michael Connelly | The Black Echo | Winner | |
1994 | Laurie R. King | A Grave Talent | Winner | |
1995 | George Dawes Green | The Caveman's Valentine | Winner | |
1996 | David Housewright | Penance | Winner | |
1997 | John Morgan Wilson | Simple Justice | Winner | |
1998 | Joseph Kanon | Los Alamos | Winner | |
1999 | Steve Hamilton | A Cold Day in Paradise | Winner |
Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | Eliot Pattison | The Skull Mantra | Winner | |
2001 | David Liss | A Conspiracy of Paper | Winner | |
2002 | David Ellis | Line of Vision | Winner | |
2003 | Jonathon King | The Blue Edge of Midnight | Winner | |
2004 | Rebecca Pawel | Death of a Nationalist | Winner | |
2005 | Don Lee | Country of Origin | Winner | |
2006 | Theresa Schwegel | Officer Down | Winner | [4] |
2007 | Alex Berenson | The Faithful Spy | Winner | [5] |
2008 | Tana French | In the Woods | Winner | [6] |
2009 | Francie Lin | The Foreigner | Winner | [7] |
Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | Stefanie Pintoff | In the Shadow of Gotham | Winner | [8] |
David Cristofano | The Girl She Used To Be | Shortlist | ||
Bryan Gruley | Starvation Lake | |||
Heather Gudenkauf | The Weight of Silence | |||
Sophie Littlefield | A Bad Day for Sorry | |||
Attica Locke | Black Water Rising | |||
2011 | Bruce DeSilva | Rogue Island | Winner | |
Paul Doiron | The Poacher’s Son | Shortlist | ||
David Gordon | The Serialist | |||
Nic Pizzolatto | Galveston | |||
James Thompson | Snow Angels | |||
2012 | Lori Roy | Bent Road | Winner | [9][10] |
Edward Conlon | Red on Red | Shortlist | [10] | |
David Duffy | Last to Fold | |||
Leonard Rosen | All Cry Chaos | |||
Steve Ulfelder | Purgatory Chasm | |||
2013 | Chris Pavone | The Expats | Winner | |
Kim Fay | The Map of Lost Memories | Shortlist | ||
Daniel Friedman | Don’t Ever Get Old | |||
Susan Elia MacNeal | Mr. Churchill’s Secretary | |||
Matthew Quirk | The 500 | |||
Michael Sears | Black Fridays | |||
2014 | Jason Matthews | Red Sparrow | Winner | [11] |
Matthew Guinn | The Resurrectionist | Shortlist | [12] | |
Roger Hobbs | Ghostman | |||
Becky Masterman | Rage Against the Dying | |||
Kimberly McCreight | Reconstructing Amelia | |||
2015 | Tom Bouman | Dry Bones in the Valley | Winner | [13][14] |
Julia Dahl | Invisible City | Shortlist | [14] | |
Allen Eskens | The Life We Bury | |||
C. B. McKenzie | Bad Country | |||
Adam Sternbergh | Shovel Ready | |||
Ashley Weaver | Murder at the Brightwell | |||
2016 | Viet Thanh Nguyen | The Sympathizer | Winner | [15] |
Glen Erik Hamilton | Past Crimes | Shortlist | ||
David Joy | Where All Light Tends to Go | |||
Jessica Knoll | Luckiest Girl Alive | |||
Rebecca Scherm | Unbecoming | |||
2017 | Flynn Berry | Under the Harrow | Winner | [16] |
Bill Beverly | Dodgers | Shortlist | ||
Joe Ide | IQ | |||
Nicholas Petrie | The Drifter | |||
Lili Wright | Dancing with the Tiger | |||
Heather Young | The Lost Girls | |||
2018 | Jordan Harper | She Rides Shotgun | Winner | [17] |
Deborah E. Kennedy | Tornado Weather | Shortlist | ||
Winnie M Li | Dark Chapter | |||
Melissa Scrivner Love | Lola | |||
Emily Ruskovich | Idaho | |||
2019 | James A. McLaughlin | Bearskin | Winner | [18] |
Bradley Harper | A Knife in the Fog | Shortlist | ||
Debra Jo Immergut | The Captives | |||
Nova Jacobs | The Last Equation of Isaac Severy | |||
Delia Owens | Where the Crawdads Sing |
Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | Angie Kim | Miracle Creek | Winner | [19] |
Samantha Downing | My Lovely Wife | Shortlist | ||
John McMahon | The Good Detective | |||
Lara Prescott | The Secrets We Kept | |||
John Vercher | Three-Fifths | |||
Lauren Wilkinson | American Spy | |||
2021 | Caitlin Mullen | Please See Us | Winner | [20][21][22] |
Nev March | Murder in Old Bombay | Shortlist | [22] | |
Caitlin Mullen | Please See Us | |||
Elisabeth Thomas | Catherine House | |||
David Heska Wanbli Weiden | Winter Counts | |||
Stephanie Wrobel | Darling Rose Gold | |||
2022 | Erin Flanigan | Deer Season | Winner | [23][24] |
Vera Kurian | Never Saw Me Coming | Shortlist | ||
Fabian Nicieza | Suburban Dicks | |||
JoAnne Tompkins | What Comes After | |||
Caitlin Wahrer | The Damage | |||
2023 | Eli Cranor | Don’t Know Tough | Winner | [25] |
Erin E. Adams | Jackal | Shortlist | [26] | |
Ramona Emerson | Shutter | |||
Katie Gutierrez | More Than You’ll Ever Know | |||
Grace D. Li | Portrait of a Thief | |||
2024 | I.S. Berry | The Peacock and the Sparrow | Winner | [27][28] |
Amy Chua | The Golden Gate | Shortlist | [28] | |
Ken Jaworowski | Small Town Sins | |||
Kristen Loesch | The Last Russian Doll | |||
Ritu Mukerji | Murder by Degrees |