* Bold records denote winners
| Award Year | Award Category | Title | Author's Name | Publisher/Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Best First Novel | Twice the Trouble | Ash Clifton | Crooked Lane Books | |
| 2025 | Best First Novel | Cold to the Touch | Kerri Hakoda | Crooked Lane Books | |
| 2025 | Best First Novel | The Mechanics of Memory | Audrey Lee | CamCat Books | |
| 2025 | Best First Novel | A Jewel in the Crown | David Lewis | Kensington Books - A John Scognamiglio Book | |
| 2025 | Best First Novel | The President's Lawyer | Lawrence Robbins | Simon & Schuster - Atria Books | |
| 2025 | Best First Novel | Holy City | Henry Wise | Grove Atlantic - Atlantic Monthly Press | |
| 2024 | Best First Novel | The Peacock and the Sparrrow | I.S. Berry | Simon & Schuster - Atria Books | |
| 2024 | Best First Novel | The Golden Gate | Amy Chua | Macmillan Publishing - Minotaur Books | |
| 2024 | Best First Novel | Small Town Sins | Ken Jaworowski | Macmillan Publishing - Henry Holt and Co. | |
| 2024 | Best First Novel | The Last Russian Doll | Kristen Loesch | Penguin Random House - Berkley | |
| 2024 | Best First Novel | Murder by Degrees | Ritu Mukerji | Simon & Schuster | |
| 2023 | Best First Novel | Jackal | Erin E. Adams | Penguin Random House - Bantam | |
| 2023 | Best First Novel | Don't Know Tough | Eli Cranor | Soho Press - Soho Crime | |
| 2023 | Best First Novel | Shutter | Ramona Emerson | Soho Press - Soho Crime | |
| 2023 | Best First Novel | More Than You'll Ever Know | Katie Gutierrez | HarperCollins - William Morrow | |
| 2023 | Best First Novel | Portrait of a Thief | Grace D. Li | Penguin Random House - Tiny Reparations Books | |
| 2022 | Best First Novel | Deer Season | Erin Flanagan | University of Nebraska Press | |
| 2022 | Best First Novel | Never Saw Me Coming | Vera Kurian | Harlequin Trade Publishing - Park Row | |
| 2022 | Best First Novel | Suburban Dicks | Fabian Nicieza | Penguin Random House - G.P. Putnam's Sons | |
| 2022 | Best First Novel | What Comes After | JoAnne Tompkins | Penguin Random House - Riverhead Books | |
| 2022 | Best First Novel | The Damage | Caitlin Wahrer | Penguin Random House - Viking Books/Pamela Dorman Books | |
| 2021 | Best First Novel | Murder in Old Bombay | Nev March | Minotaur Books | |
| 2021 | Best First Novel | Please See Us | Caitlin Mullen | Simon & Schuster - Gallery Books | |
| 2021 | Best First Novel | Catherine House | Elisabeth Thomas | HarperCollins Publishers - Willliam Morrow | |
| 2021 | Best First Novel | Winter Counts | David Heska Wanbli Weiden | HarperCollins Publishers - Ecco | |
| 2021 | Best First Novel | Darling Rose Gold | Stephanie Wrobel | Penguin Random House - Berkley | |
| 2020 | Best First Novel | My Lovely Wife | Samantha Downing | Penguin Random House - Berkley | |
| 2020 | Best First Novel | Miracle Creek | Angie Kim | Farrar Straus and Giroux - Sarah Crichton Books | |
| 2020 | Best First Novel | The Good Detective | John McMahon | Penguin Random House - G.P. Putnam's Sons | |
| 2020 | Best First Novel | The Secrets We Kept | Lara Prescott | Penguin Random House - Alfred A. Knopf | |
| 2020 | Best First Novel | Three-Fifths | John Vercher | Polis Books - Agora Books | |
| 2020 | Best First Novel | American Spy | Lauren Wilkinson | Penguin Random House - Random House | |
| 2019 | Best First Novel | A Knife in the Fog | Bradley Harper | Seventh Street Books | |
| 2019 | Best First Novel | The Captives | Debra Jo Immergut | HarperCollins Publishers - Ecco | |
| 2019 | Best First Novel | Bearskin | James A. McLaughlin | HarperCollins Publishers - Ecco | |
| 2019 | Best First Novel | The Last Equation of Isaac Severy | Nova Jacobs | Simon & Schuster - Touchstone | |
| 2019 | Best First Novel | Where the Crawdads Sing | Delia Owens | Penguin Random House - G.P. Putnam's Sons | |
| 2018 | Best First Novel | She Rides Shotgun | Jordan Harper | HarperCollins - Ecco | |
| 2018 | Best First Novel | Dark Chapter | Winnie M. Li | Polis Books | |
| 2018 | Best First Novel | Lola | Melissa Schrivner Love | Penguin Random House - Crown | |
| 2018 | Best First Novel | Idaho | Emily Ruskovich | Random House | |
| 2018 | Best First Novel | Tornado Weather | Deborah E. Kennedy | Flatiron Books | |
| 2017 | Best First Novel | Under the Harrow | Flynn Berry | Penguin Random House - Penguin Books | |
| 2017 | Best First Novel | Dodgers | Bill Beverly | Crown Publishing Group | |
| 2017 | Best First Novel | IQ | Joe Ide | Little, Brown & Company - Mulholland Books | |
| 2017 | Best First Novel | The Drifter | Nicholas Petrie | Penguin Random House - G.P. Putnam's Sons | |
| 2017 | Best First Novel | Dancing with the Tiger | Lili Wright | Penguin Random House - G.P. Putnam's Sons | |
| 2017 | Best First Novel | The Lost Girls | Heather Young | HarperCollins Publishers - Willilam Morrow | |
| 2016 | Best First Novel | Past Crimes | Glen Erik Hamilton | HarperCollins Publishers - William Morrow | |
| 2016 | Best First Novel | Where All Light Tends to Go | David Joy | Penguin Random House - G.P. Putnam's Sons | |
| 2016 | Best First Novel | Luckiest Girl Alive | Jessica Knoll | Simon & Schuster | |
| 2016 | Best First Novel | The Sympathizer | Viet Thanh Nguyen | Grove Atlantic - Grove Press | |
| 2016 | Best First Novel | Unbecoming | Rebecca Scherm | Penguin Random House - Viking | |
| 2015 | Best First Novel | Dry Bones in the Valley | Tom Bouman | W.W. Norton | |
| 2015 | Best First Novel | Invisible City | Julia Dahl | Minotaur Books | |
| 2015 | Best First Novel | The Life We Bury | Allen Eskens | Prometheus Books - Seventh Street Books | |
| 2015 | Best First Novel | Bad Country | C.B. McKenzie | Minotaur Books - A Thomas Dunne Book | |
| 2015 | Best First Novel | Shovel Ready | Adam Sternbergh | Crown Publishers | |
| 2015 | Best First Novel | Murder at the Brightwell | Ashley Weaver | Minotaur Books - A Thomas Dunne Book | |
| 2014 | Best First Novel | Red Sparrow | Jason Matthews | Simon & Schuster/Scribner | |
| 2014 | Best First Novel | Ghostman | Roger Hobbs | Alfred A. Knopf | |
| 2014 | Best First Novel | Rage Against the Dying | Becky Masterman | Minotaur Books | |
| 2014 | Best First Novel | Reconstructing Amelia | Kimberly McCreight | HarperCollins Publishers - Harper | |
| 2014 | Best First Novel | The Resurrectionist | Matthew Guinn | W.W. Norton & Co. | |
| 2013 | Best First Novel | The Expats | Chris Pavone | Crown Publishers | |
| 2013 | Best First Novel | Black Fridays | Michael Sears | Penguin Group - G.P. Putnams Sons | |
| 2013 | Best First Novel | Don't Ever Get Old | Daniel Friedman | Minotaur Books/Thomas Dunne Books | |
| 2013 | Best First Novel | Mr. Churchill's Secretary | Susan Elia MacNeal | Random House - Bantam | |
| 2013 | Best First Novel | The Map of Lost Memories | Kim Fay | Random House Publishing - Ballantine | |
| 2012 | Best First Novel | Bent Road | Lori Roy | Penguin Group USA - Dutton | |
| 2012 | Best First Novel | All Cry Chaos | Leonard Rosen | The Permanent Press | |
| 2012 | Best First Novel | Last to Fold | David Duffy | Thomas Dunne Books | |
| 2012 | Best First Novel | Purgatory Chasm | Steve Ulfelder | Minotaur Books/Thomas Dunne Books | |
| 2012 | Best First Novel | Red on Red | Edward Conlon | Random House Publishing - Spiegel & Grau | |
| 2012 | Best First Novel | The 500 | Matthew Quirk | Hachette Book Group - Little, Brown and Company - Reagan Arthur | |
| 2011 | Best First Novel | Rogue Island | Bruce DeSilva | Tom Doherty Associates - Forge Books | |
| 2011 | Best First Novel | Galveston | Nic Pizzolatto | Simon & Schuster/Scribner | |
| 2011 | Best First Novel | Snow Angels | James Thompson | Penguin Group - G.P. Putnams Sons | |
| 2011 | Best First Novel | The Poacher's Son | Paul Doiron | Minotaur Books | |
| 2011 | Best First Novel | The Serialist: A Novel | David Gordon | Simon & Schuster | |
| 2010 | Best First Novel | In the Shadow of Gotham | Stefanie Pintoff | Minotaur Books | |
| 2010 | Best First Novel | A Bad Day for Sorry | Sophie Littlefield | Minotaur Books/Thomas Dunne Books | |
| 2010 | Best First Novel | Black Water Rising | Attica Locke | HarperCollins | |
| 2010 | Best First Novel | Starvation Lake | Bryan Gruley | Simon & Schuster/Touchstone | |
| 2010 | Best First Novel | The Girl She Used to Be | David Cristofano | Grand Central Publishing | |
| 2010 | Best First Novel | The Weight of Silence | Heather Gudenkauf | MIRA Books | |
| 2009 | Best First Novel | The Foreigner | Francie Lin | Picador USA | |
| 2009 | Best First Novel | A Cure for Night | Justin Peacock | Doubleday | |
| 2009 | Best First Novel | Calumet City | Charlie Newton | Simon & Schuster/Touchstone | |
| 2009 | Best First Novel | Sweetsmoke | David Fuller | Hyperion | |
| 2009 | Best First Novel | The Kind One | Tom Epperson | Five Star Publishing | |
| 2008 | Best First Novel | In the Woods | Tana French | Penguin Group - Viking | |
| 2008 | Best First Novel | Head Games | Craig McDonald | Bleak House Books | |
| 2008 | Best First Novel | Missing Witness | Gordon Campbell | HarperCollins - William Morrow | |
| 2008 | Best First Novel | Pyres | Derek Nikitas | St. Martin's Minotaur | |
| 2008 | Best First Novel | Snitch Jacket | Christopher Goffard | The Rookery Press | |
| 2007 | Best First Novel | The Faithful Spy | Alex Berenson | Random House | |
| 2007 | Best First Novel | A Field of Darkness | Cornelia Read | Warner Books | |
| 2007 | Best First Novel | Holmes on the Range | Steve Hockensmith | St. Martin's Minotaur | |
| 2007 | Best First Novel | King of Lies | John Hart | St. Martin's Minotaur |