Prix Mystère de la critique

It continues to be awarded each year by its founder, Georges Rieben and his team, and has the characteristic of having survived the demise of the magazine.

The prizewinners in the National category is reserved for the best French-language crime series published the previous year.

The most successful in this category were the French Alain Demouzon (1979 and 2001), Pascal Dessaint (1997 and 2008), Thierry Jonquet (1994 and 1999), Dominique Manotti (2002 and 2007), Jean-Hugues Oppel (1995 and 2006), Fred Vargas (1996 and 2000) and Hervé Le Corre (2005 and 2010), who won the prize twice.

The prizewinners in the International category, is reserved for the best foreign crime scene published in the previous year in French translation.

The most successful in this category were Donald E. Westlake (1972 and 2001), Robin Cook (1984 and 1995), William Bayer (1986 and 2005) and James Lee Burke (1992 and 2009), who could have won the award twice.