Click on the linked name to see more information about that Grand Master.
| AWARD YEAR | AUTHOR’S NAME | NOTES |
| 2025 | Laura Lippman | |
| 2025 | John Sandford | pseudonym of John Roswell Camp |
| 2024 | Katherine Hall Page | |
| 2024 | R.L. Stine | |
| 2023 | Michael Connelly | |
| 2023 | Joanne Fluke | |
| 2022 | Laurie R. King | |
| 2021 | Charlaine Harris | |
| 2021 | Jeffery Deaver | |
| 2020 | Barbara Neely | |
| 2019 | Martin Cruz Smith | |
| 2018 | Jane Langton | |
| 2018 | William Link | |
| 2018 | Peter Lovesey | |
| 2017 | Max Allan Collins | |
| 2017 | Ellen Hart | |
| 2016 | Walter Mosley | |
| 2015 | Lois Duncan | |
| 2015 | James Ellroy | |
| 2014 | Robert Crais | |
| 2014 | Carolyn Hart | |
| 2013 | Ken Follett | |
| 2013 | Margaret Maron | |
| 2012 | Martha Grimes | |
| 2011 | Sara Paretsky | |
| 2010 | Dorothy Gilman | |
| 2009 | James Lee Burke | |
| 2009 | Sue Grafton | |
| 2008 | Bill Pronzini | |
| 2007 | Stephen King | |
| 2006 | Stuart M. Kaminsky | |
| 2005 | Marcia Muller | |
| 2004 | Joseph Wambaugh | |
| 2003 | Ira Levin | |
| 2002 | Robert B. Parker | |
| 2001 | Edward D. Hoch | |
| 2000 | Mary Higgins Clark | |
| 1999 | P.D. James | |
| 1998 | Barbara Mertz | Comment: aka Elizabeth Peters & Barbara Michaels |
| 1997 | Ruth Rendell | |
| 1996 | Dick Francis | |
| 1995 | Mickey Spillane | |
| 1994 | Lawrence Block | |
| 1993 | Donald E. Westlake | |
| 1992 | Elmore Leonard | |
| 1991 | Tony Hillerman | |
| 1990 | Helen McCloy | |
| 1989 | Hillary Waugh | |
| 1988 | Phyllis A. Whitney | |
| 1987 | Michael Gilbert | |
| 1986 | Ed McBain | |
| 1985 | Dorothy Salisbury Davis | |
| 1984 | John le Carre | |
| 1983 | Margaret Millar | |
| 1982 | Julian Symons | |
| 1981 | Stanley Ellin | |
| 1980 | W.R. Burnett | |
| 1979 | Aaron Marc Stein | |
| 1978 | Daphne du Maurier | |
| 1978 | Dorothy B. Hughes | |
| 1978 | Ngaio Marsh | |
| 1976 | Graham Greene | |
| 1975 | Eric Ambler | |
| 1974 | Ross Macdonald | Comment: Ross Macdonald was the pseudonym used by Kenneth Millar |
| 1973 | Alfred Hitchcock | |
| 1973 | Judson Philips | |
| 1972 | John D. MacDonald | |
| 1971 | Mignon C. Eberhart | |
| 1970 | James M. Cain | |
| 1969 | John Creasey | |
| 1967 | Baynard Kendrick | |
| 1966 | Georges Simenon | |
| 1964 | George Harmon Coxe | |
| 1963 | John Dickson Carr | |
| 1962 | Erle Stanley Gardner | |
| 1961 | Ellery Queen | Comment: AKA: Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee |
| 1959 | Rex Stout | |
| 1958 | Vincent Starrett | |
| 1955 | Agatha Christie |
