List of Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel winners

Winners

1940s

• 1946 - Julius Fast, Watchful at Night
• 1947 - Helen Eustis, The Horizontal Man
• 1948 - Fredric Brown, The Fabulous Clipjoint
• 1949 - Mildred B. Davis, The Room Upstairs

  1950s

• 1950 - Alan Green, What A Body
• 1951 - Thomas Walsh, Nightmare in Manhattan
• 1952 - Mary McMullen, Strangle Hold
• 1953 - William Campbell Gault, Don't Cry for Me
• 1954 - Ira Levin, A Kiss Before Dying
• 1955 - Jean Potts, Go, Lovely Rose
• 1956 - Lane Kauffman, The Perfectionist
• 1957 - Donald McNutt Douglass, Rebecca's Pride
• 1958 - William Rawle Weeks, Knock and Wait a While
• 1959 - Richard Martin Stern, The Bright Road to Fear

  1960s

• 1960 - Henry Slesar, The Grey Flannel Shroud
• 1961 - John Holbrooke Vance, The Man in the Cage
• 1962 - Suzanne Blanc, The Green Stone
• 1963 - Robert L. Fish, The Fugitive
• 1964 - Cornelius Hirschberg, Florentine Finish
• 1965 - Harry Kemelman, Friday the Rabbi Slept Late
• 1966 - John Ball, In the Heat of the Night
• 1967 - Ross Thomas, The Cold War Swap
• 1968 - Michael Collins, Act of Fear
• 1969 - E. Richard Johnson, Tie: Silver Street
• 1969 - Dorothy Uhnak, The Bait

  1970s

• 1970 - Joe Gores, A Time of Predators
• 1971 - Lawrence Sanders, The Anderson Tapes
• 1972 - A. H. Z. Carr, Finding Maubee
• 1973 - R. H. Shimer, Squaw Point
• 1974 - Paul Erdman, The Billion Dollar Sure Thing
• 1975 - Gregory Mcdonald, Fletch
• 1976 - Rex Burns, The Alvarez Journal
• 1977 - James Patterson, The Thomas Berryman Number
• 1978 - Robert Ross, A French Finish
• 1979 - William L. DeAndrea, Killed in the Ratings

  1980s

• 1980 - Richard North Patterson, The Lasko Tangent
• 1981 - K. Nolte Smith, The Watcher
• 1982 - Stuart Woods, Chiefs
• 1983 - Thomas Perry, The Butcher's Boy
• 1984 - Will Harriss, The Bay Psalm Book Murder
• 1985 - R. D. Rosen, Strike Three, You're Dead
• 1986 - Jonathan Kellerman, When the Bough Breaks
• 1987 - Larry Beinhart, No One Rides for Free
• 1988 - Deidre S. Laiken, Death Among Strangers
• 1989 - David Stout, Carolina Skeletons

  1990s

• 1990 - Susan Wolfe, The Last Billable Hour
• 1991 - Patricia Cornwell, Postmortem
• 1992 - Peter Blauner, Slow Motion Riot
• 1993 - Michael Connelly, The Black Echo
• 1994 - Laurie R. King, A Grave Talent
• 1995 - George Dawes Green, The Caveman's Valentine
• 1996 - David Housewright, Penance
• 1997 - John Morgan Wilson, Simple Justice
• 1998 - Joseph Kanon, Los Alamos
• 1999 - Steve Hamilton, A Cold Day in Paradise

  2000s

• 2000 - Eliot Pattison, The Skull Mantra
• 2001 - David Liss, A Conspiracy of Paper
• 2002 - David Ellis, Line of Vision
• 2003 - Jonathon King, The Blue Edge of Midnight
• 2004 - Rebecca Pawel, Death of a Nationalist
• 2005 - Don Lee, Country of Origin
• 2006 - Theresa Schwegel, Officer Down
• 2007 - Alex Berenson, The Faithful Spy
• 2008 - Tana French, In the Woods
• 2009 - Francie Lin, The Foreigner

  2010s

• 2010 - Stefanie Pintoff, In the Shadow of Gotham
• 2011 - Bruce DeSilva, Rogue Island
• 2012 - Lori Roy, Bent Road
• 2013 - Chris Pavone, The Expats
• 2014 - Jason Matthews, Red Sparrow
• 2015 - Tom Bouman, Dry Bones in the Valley
• 2016 - Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer
• 2017 - Flynn Berry, Under the Harrow
• 2018 - Jordan Harper, She Rides Shotgun
• 2019 - James A. McLaughlin, Bearskin