2024 The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
2023 The Day He Left by Frederick Weisel
2022 Tower of Babel by Micheal Sears
2021 Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood
2020 One Good Deed by David Baldacci
2019 Down the River Unto the Sea by Walter Moseley
2018 August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones
2017 David C TaylorWith Six You Get Wally by Al Lamanda
2016 Night Life by David C. Taylor
2015 John VerdonPeter Pan Must Die by John Verdon
2014 David MorrellMurder as a Fine Art by David Morrell
2013 Chris KnopfDead Anyway by Chris Knopf
2012 Dana StabenowThough Not Dead by Dana Stabenow
2011 Louise PennyBury Your Dead by Louise Penny
2010 Bard ParksFaces of the Gone by Brad Parks
2009 Joseph TellerThe Tenth Case by Joseph Teller
2008 Jonathan SantloferAnatomy of Fear by Jonathan Santlofer
2007 Jilia Spencer-FlemingAll Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming
2006 Tess GerritsenVanish by Tess Gerritsen
2005 Lee ChildThe Enemy by Lee Child
2004 Walter MosleyFear Itself by Walter Mosley
2003 S J RosenWinter and Night by S. J. Rozan
2002 Linda FairsteinThe Deadhouse by Linda Fairstein
2001 Laura LippmannSugar House by Laura Lippman
2000 Fred HarrisCoyote Revenge by Fred Harris
1999 The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver
1998 Sacred by Dennis Lehane
1997 The Poet by Michael Connelly
1996 A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie B. King
1995 She Walks These Hills by Sharyn McCrumb
1994 Old Scores by Aaron Elkins
1993 Booked To Die by John Dunning
1992 A Scandal in Belgravia by Robert Barnard
1991 Coyote Waits by Tony Hillerman
1990 No award
1989 No award
1988 No award
1987 The Corpse in Oozak's Pond  by Charlotte MacLeod
1986 Murder in E Minor by Robert Goldsborough
1985 Sleeping Dog by Dick Lochte
1984 Emily Dickinson is Dead by Jane Langton
1983 The Anodyne Necklace by Martha Grimes
1982 Past, Present and Murder by Hugh Pentecost
1981 Death in a Tenured Position by Amanda Cross
1980 Burn This by Helen McCloy
1979 The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling by Lawrence Block