Friday 19 June 2015

THEAKSTONS FESTIVAL ROUNDS UP SIX SUSPECTS ON CRIME NOVEL AWARD SHORTLIST

The shortlist for crime writing’s most wanted accolade, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, has been announced.

Celebrating its eleventh year, the Awards feature six titles whittled down from a longlist of 18 crime novels published by British and Irish authors over the last year.

The 2015 Award is run in partnership with T&R Theakston Ltd, WHSmith, and Radio Times.

Three of the shortlist are debut crime novels. Antonia Hodgson’s debut, The Devil in the Marshalsea, makes the list with her Georgian period murder mystery. The fast paced historical thriller set in the Marshalsea prison in 1727, was hailed as a “scorcher of a debut novel”. TV and film scriptwriter Ray Celestin’s The Axeman's Jazz, is a stunning atmospheric crime thriller set in 1919 New Orleans, inspired by a real life serial killer. Sarah Hilary’s compelling first thriller, Someone Else's Skin, is also shortlisted. Hilary’s novel received critical acclaim for being superbly disturbing, twisty and tricksy.

Last year’s winner Belinda Bauer is also back amongst the finalists with The Facts of Life and Death, a chilling story where lone women are terrorised in a game where only one player knows the rules.

Peter May’s Entry Island, competes with a tale of dark island passions, which starts in the past in the Hebrides and moves to the French-Canadian Magdalen islands with a murder on Entry Island.

The highly atmospheric The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths is the sixth in the series featuring forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway.

The overall winner will be decided by the panel of Judges, which this year comprises of Executive Director of T&R Theakston Ltd. and title sponsor Simon Theakston, Festival Chair Ann Cleeves, Radio Times’ TV Editor Alison Graham, Head of Fiction at WHSmith, Sandra Bradley, and Producer of the Radio 2 Book Club, Joe Haddow, as well as members of the public. The public vote opens on 1 July and closes 13 July at www.theakstons.co.uk

Broadcaster and Festival regular Mark Lawson hosts the Awards on the opening night of the 13th annual Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate on 16 July. The winner will receive a £3,000 cash prize, as well as a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakstons Old Peculier.

Also on the night, one of America’s greatest award-winning crime writers, Sara Paretsky, will receive the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award, joining past winners Lynda La Plante, Ruth Rendell, PD James, Colin Dexter and Reginald Hill.

Paretsky challenged a genre in which women typically were either vamps or victims when she introduced V I Warshawski in Indemnity Only, creating a believable investigator with the grit to tackle problems on the mean streets.

Executive Director of T&R Theakston and Judge, Simon Theakston, said: “The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award was created over a decade ago to celebrate the very best in the genre, as this remarkable shortlist shows. It’s also a great honour to be recognising the extraordinary achievements of Sara Paretsky. Sara’s remarkable legacy has helped perceptions of women in crime fiction, and is truly one of the great crime writers today.”

The shortlist in full:
The Facts Of Life And Death, Belinda Bauer, Transworld
The Axeman's Jazz, Ray Celestin, Mantle/ Pan Macmillan
The Outcast Dead, Elly Griffiths, Quercus
Someone Else's Skin, Sarah Hilary, Headline
The Devil in the Marshalsea, Antonia Hodgson, Hodder & Stoughton
Entry Island, Peter May, Quercus

Previous winners of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award include Belinda Bauer, Denise Mina, Lee Child, Val McDermid, and Mark Billingham.

For further information please contact Ann Chadwick at Cause UK 07534892715 Ann@causeuk.com

NOTES TO EDITORS

1.      KEY AWARD DATES
21st May – 18 longlist titles feature in a 4-week campaign in 600 WHSmith stores
Copyright Fenris Oswin
nationwide
15th June – shortlist of 6 announced
18th June - 6 shortlist titles feature in a 6-week campaign in 600 WHSmith stores nationwide
1st July – online voting opens to the public at www.theakstons.co.uk
13th July - public voting closes for the shortlist
16th July: winner announced at Award ceremony on Opening Night of Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Harrogate (8pm, Thu 16 July)

2.      PREVIOUS WINNERS
2005 – Lazy Bones by Mark Billingham
2006 – The Torment of Others by Val McDermid
2007 – Two Way Split by Allan Guthrie
2008 – The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
2009 – Death Message by Mark Billingham
2010 - A Simple Act of Violence by RJ Ellory
2011 – 61 Hours by Lee Child
2012 – The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina
2013 – Beasts and Gods, by Denise Mina
2014 – Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer

3.      ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is Europe’s largest event dedicated to the celebration of crime fiction. Taking place annually over four days each July (this year: 16-19 July), the Festival programmes over 80 best-selling UK and international crime authors and over 20 events. It is organised and promoted by the north of England’s leading arts festival organisation, Harrogate International Festivals. Ranked in the top three literary festivals in the UK by The Guardian, it is also featured in the Independent ‘50 Best Festivals’.

2015 Special Guests include Ann Cleeves, Val McDermid, Lisa Gardner, Sally Wainwright, Mark Billingham, Eddie Izzard, MC Beaton, Arnaldur Indridason, Lee Child and Sara Paretsky.


4.      ABOUT THEAKSTONS
Title sponsor of the Festival since 2005, Theakstons Old Peculier ale is produced by T & R Theakston Ltd. It is one of the country’s most famous and highly regarded traditional ale brewers. Theakstons was established in Masham, North Yorkshire in 1827 by Robert Theakston. After a brief period in the 1980s when the company was acquired by Scottish &Newcastle plc, the company has been back under family ownership since autumn 2003.  It now operates as an independent brewer producing five permanent brands in the Theakstons range including the iconic Old Peculier – its best-known beer with a rich, dark flavour, celebrated by ale enthusiasts all over Britain and around the world.


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