Revealed: Longlist for Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year - winner to be announced later this year

A novel longlisted for the Man Booker is up against debut authors in the most hotly contended crime writing prize in the country.
Simon TheakstonSimon Theakston
Simon Theakston

This year marks the 15th year of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. The prize was created to celebrate the very best in crime fiction and is open to UK and Irish crime authors whose novels were published in paperback from May 1 2018 to April 30 2019.

Belinda Bauer, a previous winner of the Crime Novel of the Year Award for her novel Rubbernecker in 2014, enters the longlist with her 2018 Man Booker longlisted, Snap. Bauer however battles an awards-heavy longlist.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Multiple-award winner Val McDermid, the No.1 bestseller and ‘queen of crime’, received the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction at the Festival in 2016 and won the Crime Novel of the Year in 2006. Her latest, Broken Ground, makes the 2019 longlist.

Chris Brookmyre won the Novel of the Year award in 2017 for Black Widow. He returns in the guise of Ambrose Perry, the pseudonym for his collaboration with his wife, consultant anaesthetist Dr Marisa Haetzman, for their gripping historical crime novel, The Way of All Flesh.

Liam McIllvanney also makes the longlist with The Quaker, awarded the 2018 McIlvanney Prize which was set up in memory of his father, William. Stuart Turton weighs in with The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, a debut which won the Costa First Novel Award 2018.

Mick Herron’s widely-acclaimed Jackson Lamb novels have been shortlisted three times for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, the fifth in the series, London Rules puts him back in the running.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Senior IT Officer turned novelist, Rahman Khurrum, is also on the list for his first novel, East of Hounslow. Mixing edgy humour and pulse racing tension, Khurrum was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Debut Dagger Award 2018.

The winner is announced at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, hosted in Harrogate each July. The festival was co-founded in 2003 by Val McDermid, agent Jane Gregory, and arts charity Harrogate International Festivals.

The longlist also sees the return of previous shortlisted authors, Elly Griffiths for her Dr Ruth Galloway novels, with her latest The Dark Angel, and Ann Cleeves for Wild Fire, the eighth, and final book, in the bestselling Shetland series – a major BBC One drama starring Douglas Henshall as Jimmy Perez.

The Longlist in Full:

Snap by Belinda Bauer - Transworld

Our House by Louise Candlish - Simon & Schuster UK

Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh - Hachette

Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves - Pan Macmillan

This Is How It Ends by Eva Dolan - Bloomsbury Publishing

Take Me In by Sabine Durrant - Hodder & Stoughton

The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths - Quercus

London Rules by Mick Herron - John Murray Press

Broken Ground by Val McDermid - Little, Brown Book Group

The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney - HarperCollins

The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry - Canongate Books

East of Hounslow by Khurrum Rahman - HarperCollins

Hell Bay by Kate Rhodes - Simon & Schuster UK

Salt Lane by William Shaw - Quercus

The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor - Penguin Random House

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton - Bloomsbury Publishing

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan - Simon & Schuster UK

Changeling by Matt Wesolowski - Orenda Books

Executive director of T&R Theakston, Simon Theakston, said: “So many authors on our longlist have been nominees for major mainstream awards.

"The literary world is perhaps catching up to the fact that crime fiction is leading the publishing world and shaping our cultural landscape. In 2018, sales of crime novels outstripped general fiction for the first time.

"It’s a genre that dominates the small and big screen, and attracts critical acclaim, as well as being incredibly popular. There is however, only one Crime Novel of the Year, and the reputation of our award, built over 15 years, makes this accolade hotly contended.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The winner will be announced at an award ceremony hosted by broadcaster Mark Lawson on July 18 on the opening night of the 17th Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival at the Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate.

They’ll receive a £3,000 cash prize, as well as a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakston Old Peculier.

The night will also feature the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award, with past recipients over the years including PD James, Ruth Rendell, Reginald Hill and Colin Dexter.

The shortlist of six titles will be announced on May 19, followed by a six-week promotion in libraries and in WH Smith stores nationwide.

The overall winner will be decided by the panel of judges, alongside a public vote. The public vote opens on July 1 and closes 14 July at www.theakstons.co.uk