Edward Mark Best (1899 – 11 October 1941) was a New Zealand police officer killed in the line of duty by farmer Stanley Graham.

In 1930, Best married a woman from the Arahura Valley, an area near his police house in Kaniere (less than 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) inland from the larger coastal settlement of Hokitika).

The two farms were near Best's one-man police house in Kaniere, but he decided not to respond that day, in order to give Graham time to calm himself.

When the badly wounded Cooper attempted to leave to obtain help, Graham shot him dead on the path in front of the house.

[3][4] Graham then fled his house, but returned the next evening, when he killed wartime Home Guardsmen Richard "Maxie" Coulson and Gregory Hutchison in a firefight.