The books running for the 2026 edition - to come
Each year, the 10 members of the jury of the Quais du Polar Readers’ Award, in partnership with Le Figaro, select the best French-language crime novel of the year, from a selection made by the festival’s partner booksellers.
Discover the selection of books running for the next edition from january 2026.
The jury
Each year, the Quais du Polar festival awards the Readers’ Award to a French-language novel published during the year. The jury is made up of ten readers selected by Quais du Polar, two representatives of the Quais du Polar organization and one representative of Le Figaro. Together, they choose ‘the’ French-language crime novel of the previous year from a selection of six novels chosen in advance by the festival’s partner booksellers.
A jury made up of prisoners also selects the award-winner of the Noir behind bars mention.
Since 2025, a Students mention has been awarded as part of a partnership between Quais du Polar and Le Crous.
Previous winners
In previous editions, the prize was awarded to DOA for Les Fous d’Avril (2005), Franck Thilliez for La Chambre des morts (2006), François Boulay for Traces (2007), Marcus Malte for Garden of Love (2008), Caryl Férey for Zulu (2009), Antoine Chainas for Anaisthêsia (2010), Serge Quadruppani for Saturne (2011), Antonin Varenne for Le Mur, le Kabyle et le marin (2012), Olivier Truc for Le Dernier Lapon (2013), Ian Manook for Yeruldelgger (2014), Jérôme Leroy for L’ange gardien (2015), Colin Niel for Obia (2016), Andrée A. Michaud for Bondrée (2017), Gilda Piersanti for Illusions tragiques (2018), Frédéric Paulin for La guerre est une ruse (2019), Thomas Cantaloube for Requiem pour une République (2020), Patrice Gain for Le Sourire du scorpion (2021), Hervé le Corre for Traverser la nuit (2022), Roxanne Bouchard for Nous étions le sel de la mer (2023), Morgan Audic for Personne ne meurt à Longyearbyen (2024) and Anne-Sophie Kalbfleisch for Eureka dans la nuit (2025).
