Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

Annual Challenge
Read the Edgars Challenge
Dates: January 1, 2026 - December 31, 2026



How to participate: Comment below to indicate you're participating and how many books you are planning to read. List the name of the book you read and which prompt it was for.

Each book is worth 1 point.

What rank will you achieve?

Shadowed-Quill Beginner: 1 - 10 points
Telltale Page-Turner: 11 - 20 points
Midnight Manuscript Reader: 21 - 30 points
Raven-Ink Investigator: 31 - 40 points
Keeper of Macabre Tales: 41 - 50 point
Master of the Nevermore Mysteries: 51 - 60 points
Obsidian Codex Curator: 61 +

The List

2025 The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell
2024 Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke
2023 Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
2022 Five Decembers by James Kestrel
2021 Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara
2020 The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
2019 Down the River Unto the Sea by Walter Mosley
2018 Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
2017 Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
2016 Let Me Die in His Footsteps by Lori Roy
2015 Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
2014 Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
2013 Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
2012 Gone by Mo Hayder
2011 The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton
2010 The Last Child by John Hart
2009 Blue Heaven by C.J. Box
2008 Down River by John Hart
2007 The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin
2006 Citizen Vince by Jess Walter
2005 California Girl by T. Jefferson Parker
2004 Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin
2003 Winter and Night by S.J. Rozan
2002 Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parker
2001 The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale
2000 Bones by Jan Burke
1999 Mr. White's Confession by Robert Clark
1998 Cimarron Rose by James Lee Burke
1997 The Chatham School Affair by Thomas H. Cook
1996 Come to Grief by Dick Francis
1995 The Red Scream by Mary Willis Walker
1994 The Sculptress by Minette Walters
1993 Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron
1992 A Dance At The Slaughterhouse by Lawrence Block
1991 New Orleans Mourning by Julie Smith
1990 Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke
1989 A Cold Red Sunrise by Stuart M. Kaminsky
1988 Old Bones by Aaron Elkins
1987 A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine
1986 The Suspect by L.R. Wright
1985 Briar Patch by Ross Thomas by Elmore Leonard
1983 Billingsgate Shoal by Rick Boyer
1982 Peregrine by William Bayer
1981 Whip Hand by Dick Francis
1980 The Rheingold Route by Arthur Maling
1979 Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
1978 Catch Me: Kill Me by William H. Hallahan
1977 Promised Land by Robert B. Parker
1976 Hopscotch by Brian Garfield
1975 Peter's Pence by Jon Cleary
1974 Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman
1973 The Lingala Code by Warren Kiefer
1972 The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
1971 The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall
1970 Forfeit by Dick Francis
1969 A Case of Need by Michael Crichton (pen name: Jeffery Hudson)
1968 God Save the Mark by Donald E. Westlake
1967 The King of the Rainy Country by Nicolas Freeling
1966 The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall
1965 The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
1964 The Light of Day by Eric Ambler
1963 Death and the Joyful Woman by Ellis Peters
1962 Gideon's Fire by J.J. Marric
1961 The Progress of a Crime by Julian Symons
1960 The Hours Before Dawn by Celia Fremlin
1959 The Eighth Circle by Stanley Ellin
1958 Room to Swing by Ed Lacy
1957 A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong
1956 Beast In View by Margaret Millar
1955 The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
1954 Beat Not The Bones by Charlotte Jay