* Bold records denote winners
| Award Year | Award Category | Title | Author's Name | Publisher/Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Amelia Peabody's Egypt: A Compendium | Elizabeth Peters, Kristen Whitbread | Wm. Morrow | |
| 2004 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Mystery Women, Volume 3 | Colleen Barnett | Poisoned Pen Press | |
| 2004 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The American Police Novel: A History | Leroy Lad Panek | McFarland | |
| 2003 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction | Mike Ashley | Carroll & Graf | |
| 2003 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Art of Noir | Eddie Muller | Overlook Press | |
| 2003 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Classic Era of Crime Fiction | Peter Haining | Chicago Review Press | |
| 2003 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Crime Films | Thomas Leitch | Cambridge University Press | |
| 2002 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z | Dawn B. Sova | Checkmark Books | |
| 2002 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Dashiell Hammett: A Daughter Remembers | Jo Hammett | Carroll & Graff/An Otto Penzler Book | |
| 2002 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | My Name's Friday | Michael J. Hayde | Cumberland House | |
| 2002 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett: 1921-1960 | Richard Layman, Julie M Rivett | Counterpoint | |
| 2002 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The History of Mystery | Max Allan Collins | Collectors Press | |
| 2002 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Who Was That Lady? | Jeffrey Marks | Delphi Books | |
| 2001 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Conundrums for the Long Week-End | Ethan Lewis, Robert Kuhn McGregor | Kent State University Press | |
| 2001 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Doctor & The Detective: A Biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Martin Booth | Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press/Minotaur | |
| 2001 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Red-Hot Typewriter: The Life & Times of John D. Macdonald | Hugh Merrill | Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press/Minotaur | |
| 2001 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Women of Mystery: The Lives & Works of Notable Women Crime Novelists | Martha Hailey Dubose, Margaret Caldwell Thomas | St. Martin's Press/Minotaur | |
| 2000 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle | Daniel Stashower | Henry Holt & Sons | |
| 2000 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | A Suitable Job for a Woman | Val McDermid | Poisoned Pen Press | |
| 2000 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing | Rosemary Herbert | Oxford University Press | |
| 2000 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Ross Macdonald | Tom Nolan | Scribners | |
| 2000 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Web of Inquity: Early Detective Fiction by American Women | Catherine Ross Nickerson | Duke University Press | |
| 1999 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Mystery and Suspense Writers | Maureen Corrigan, Robin W. Winks | Scribners | Comment: associate editor, editor in chief |
| 1999 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Cordially Yours, Brother Cadfael | K. Anne Kaler | Bowling Green Popular Press | Comment: editor |
| 1999 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir | Eddie Muller | St. Martin's Press | |
| 1999 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe | John Evangelist Walsh | Rutgers University Press | |
| 1999 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Seven Deadly Sins in the Work of Dorothy L. Sayers | Janice Brown | The Kent State University Press | |
| 1998 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | G is for Grafton: The World of Kinsey Millhone | Natalie Hevener Kaufman, Carol McGinnis Kay | Henry Holt | |
| 1998 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | AZ Murder Goes...Classic | Susan Malling, Barbara Peters | The Poisoned Pen Press | |
| 1998 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Crime Fiction and Film in the Sunshine State: Florida Noir | Steve Glassman, Maurice O'Sullivan | Popular Press | |
| 1998 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Deadly Women: The Woman Mystery Readers' Indispensable Companion | Jan Grape, Dean James, Ellen Nehr | Carroll & Graf | |
| 1998 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Reader and the Detective Story | George M. Dove | Popular Press | |
| 1997 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Secret Marriage of Sherlock Holmes | Michael Atkinson | University of Michigan Press | |
| 1997 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Agatha Christie: A to Z | Dawn B. Sova | Facts on File, Inc. | |
| 1997 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Detecting Women 2: A Reader's Guide and Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Women | Willetta L. Heising | Purple Moon Press | |
| 1997 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Elusion Aforethought: The Life and Writing of Anthony Berkeley Cox | Malcolm J. Turnbull | Bowling Green Popular Press | |
| 1997 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Blues Detective: A Study of African-American Detective Fiction | Stephen F. Soitos | University of Massachusetts Press | |
| 1996 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson | Robert Polito | Knopf | |
| 1996 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | John Dickson Carr: The Man Who Explained Miracles | Douglas G. Greene | Otto Penzler Books | |
| 1996 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Cadfael Companion: The World of Brother Cadfael | Robin Whiteman | Mysterious/Warner | |
| 1996 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Life of Graham Greene | Norman Sherry | Viking | Volume: Volume II: 1939-1955 |
| 1995 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Encyclopedia Mysteriosa | William L. DeAndrea | Prentice-Hall | |
| 1995 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | By a Woman's Hand | Dean James, Jean Swanson | Berkley | |
| 1995 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Dick Tracey and American Culture | Garyn G. Roberts | McFarland | |
| 1995 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Great Women Mystery Writers | Kathleen Gregory Klein | Greenwood Press | |
| 1995 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Tony Hillerman Companion | Martin Greenberg | HarperCollins | |
| 1994 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Saint: A Complete History | Burl Barer | McFarland & Co. | |
| 1994 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | A Reader's Guide to the American Novel of Detection | Marvin Lachman | G.K. Hall | |
| 1994 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Dorothy L. Sayers: Her Life and Soul | Barbara Reynolds | St. Martin's Press | |
| 1994 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Fine Art of Murder | Jon L. Breen, Ed Gorman, Martin Greenberg, Larry Segriff | Carroll & Graf | |
| 1994 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Man Who Wasn't Maigret | Patrick Marnham | Farrar, Straus, Giroux | |
| 1993 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Alias S.S. Van Dine | John Loughery | Scribners | |
| 1993 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Dorothy L. Sayers: A Careless Rage for Life | David Coomes | Lion Publishing | |
| 1993 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Doubleday Crime Club Compendium | Ellen Nehr | Offspring Press | Volume: 1928-1991 |
| 1993 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy | Jeffrey Meyers | Scribners | |
| 1992 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance | Kenneth Silverman | HarperCollins | |
| 1992 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Agatha Christie: Murder in Four Acts | Peter Haining | Virgin Books | |
| 1992 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Jim Thompson: Sleep with the Devil | Michael J. McCauley | Mysterious Press | |
| 1992 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Out of the Woodpile: Black Characters in Crime and Detective Fiction | Frankie E. Bailey | Greenwood Press | |
| 1992 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Talking Mysteries: A Conversation with Tony Hillerman | Ernie Bulow, Tony Hillerman | University of New Mexico Press | |
| 1991 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Trouble is Their Business: Private Eyes in Fiction, Film, and Television, 1927-1988 | John Conquest | Garland | |
| 1991 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Eric Ambler | Peter Lewis | Continuum | |
| 1991 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Hillary Waugh's Guide to Mysteries and Mystery Writing | Hillary Waugh | Writer's Digest Books | |
| 1991 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | John Dickinson Carr: A Critical Study | S.T. Joshi | Bowling Green Popular Press | |
| 1991 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Remarkable Case of Dorothy L. Sayers | Catherine Kenney | Kent State University Press | |
| 1990 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Life of Graham Greene | Norman Sherry | Viking | Volume: Volume I: 1904-1939 |
| 1990 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Film Noir: Reflections in a Dark Mirror | Bruce Crowther | Continuum | |
| 1990 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Murder on the Air | Ric Meyers | Mysterious Press | |
| 1990 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Mysterium and Mystery: The Clerical Crime Novel | William David Spencer | UMI Research Press | |
| 1990 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Perfect Murder: A Study in Detection | David Lehman | Free Press/Macmillan | |
| 1989 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Cornell Woolrich: First You Dream, Then You Die | Francis M. Nevins, Jr. | Mysterious Press | |
| 1989 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Silk Stalkings: When Women Write of Murder | Victoria Nichols, Susan Thompson | Black Lizard | |
| 1989 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Sisters in Crime: Feminism and the Crime Novel | Maureen T. Reddy | Continuum | |
| 1989 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Dime Detectives | Ron Goulart | Mysterious Press | |
| 1988 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Introduction to the Detective Story | Leroy Lad Panek | Popular Press | |
| 1988 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Campion's Career: A Study of the Novels of Margery Allingham | B. A. Pike | Bowling Green Popular Press | |
| 1988 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Corridors of Deceit, The World of John le Carre | Peter Wolfe | Popular Library | |
| 1988 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Crime and Mystery, The 100 Best Books | H.R.F. Keating | Carroll & Graf | |
| 1987 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Here Lies: An Autobiography | Eric Ambler | Farrar, Straus, Giroux | |
| 1987 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | 1001 Midnights: The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery Fiction | Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini | Arbor House | |
| 1987 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | 13 Mistresses of Murder | Elaine Budd | Ungar | |
| 1987 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Mystery Lover's Companion | Art Bourgeau | Crown | |
| 1987 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Secret of the Stratemeyer Syndicate: Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys and the Million Dollar Fiction Factory | Carol Billman | Ungar | |
| 1986 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | John le Carre | Peter Lewis | Ungar | |
| 1986 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Agatha Christie | Janet Morgan | Knopf | |
| 1986 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Private Eyes: 101 Knights, A Survey of American Fiction | Robert A. Baker, Michael T. Nietzel | Bowling Green Popular Press | |
| 1986 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The American Private Eye: The Image in Fiction | David Geherin | Ungar | |
| 1986 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Lord Peter Wimsey Companion | Stephan P. Clarke | Mysterious Press | |
| 1985 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Novel Verdicts: A Guide to Courtroom Fiction | Jon L. Breen | Scarecrow Press | |
| 1985 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Inward Journey: Ross MacDonald | Ralph B. Sipper | Cordelia Editions | |
| 1985 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | One Lonely Knight: Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer | Max Allan Collins, James L. Traylor | Bowling Green Popular Press | |
| 1985 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Ross Macdonald | Matthew J. Bruccoli | Harcourt Brace Jovanovich | |
| 1985 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The James Bond Bedside Companion | Raymond Benson | Dodd, Mead | |
| 1984 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock | Donald Spoto | Little, Brown | |
| 1984 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Dashiell Hammett | Diane Johnson | Random House | |
| 1984 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Mystery of Georges Simenon | Fenton Bresler | Beaufort | |
| 1984 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | The Poetics of Murder | Glen W. Most, William W. Stowe | Harcourt Brace Jovanovich | |
| 1983 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Cain | Roy Hoopes | Holt, Rinehart & Winston | |
| 1983 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Gun in Cheek | Bill Pronzini | Coward, McCann & Geoghegan | |
| 1983 | Best Critical/Biographical Work | Modus Operandi | Robin W. Winks | David R. Godine |