Alumni face off against new blood for crime prize
THE SHORTLIST for crime writing’s premier prize has been unveiled ahead of the winner being crowned next month.
The prize for the 16th Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year went online when organisers at the Harrogate International Festival announced in April that they had cancelled the summer season due to coronavirus.
The titles in contention for this year’s prize feature five Theakston award alumni and one debut novelist, and showcase “exceptional variety and originality” including spy espionage, historical crime and serial killing siblings.
The nominees include Oyinkan Braithwaite’s Booker Prize-nominated My Sister, the Serial Killer. Braithwaite is one of the youngest ever to be shortlisted for the awards and caps a meteoric rise since being selected by Val McDermid
as a spotlight author in the 2019 festival’s highly respected ‘new blood’ panel.
The remaining five authors on the shortlist are all previous contenders. They include Mick Herron, who has picked up a fifth nomination with Joe Country, Scottish-Bengali author Abir Mukherjee with Smoke and Ashes, Glasgow’s Helen Fitzgerald for Worst Case Scenario, Belfast’s Adrian McKinty with The Chain and The Lost Man by former journalist Jane Harper.
Simon Theakston, executive director of sponsors, the Masham-based brewery T&R Theakston, said: “Offering both escapism and resolution, these exceptional titles transport readers around the world. I can’t wait to see where we settle on July 23 when one of these extraordinary authors takes home the 2020 Theakston Old Peculier cask.”