The 15 Best Edgar Award-Winning Mystery Novels

Cold War spycraft, hardboiled private eyes, small-town secrets and slow-burn psychological dread — decades of Edgar-winning crime fiction go head to head. Cast your vote!

1

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

John le Carré's bleak Cold War espionage classic that won the 1965 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

1000pts

2

Gorky Park

Martin Cruz Smith's Moscow murder mystery introducing investigator Arkady Renko, winner of the 1982 Edgar Best Novel.

876pts

3

Beast in View

Margaret Millar's taut psychological thriller of identity and menace, winner of the 1956 Edgar Best Novel.

733pts

4

A Dance at the Slaughterhouse

Lawrence Block's gritty Matthew Scudder mystery set in New York, winner of the 1992 Edgar Best Novel.

733pts

5

Mr. Mercedes

Stephen King's serial-killer thriller and 2015 Edgar Best Novel winner that launched his Bill Hodges trilogy.

733pts

6

Citizen Vince

Jess Walter's darkly comic tale of a witness-protection baker, winner of the 2006 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

733pts

7

California Girl

T. Jefferson Parker's decades-spanning Orange County murder saga, winner of the 2005 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

733pts

8

Whip Hand

Dick Francis's horse-racing thriller featuring ex-jockey Sid Halley, winner of the 1981 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

619pts

9

Live by Night

Dennis Lehane's Prohibition-era crime epic about a Boston gangster, winner of the 2013 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

545pts

10

The Stranger Diaries

Elly Griffiths's gothic literary mystery blending ghost stories and murder, winner of the 2020 Edgar Best Novel.

545pts

11

Dance Hall of the Dead

Tony Hillerman's Navajo-country mystery featuring Joe Leaphorn, winner of the 1974 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

545pts

12

A Dark-Adapted Eye

Ruth Rendell's psychological family mystery written as Barbara Vine, winner of the 1987 Edgar Best Novel.

545pts

13

Flags on the Bayou

James Lee Burke's Civil War-era Louisiana mystery, winner of the 2024 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

545pts

14

Bloodhounds

Peter Lovesey's locked-room puzzle featuring Peter Diamond, winner of the 1997 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

545pts

15

The Eighth Circle

Stanley Ellin's hardboiled private-eye novel of corruption, winner of the 1959 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

454pts