Theakston's Old Peculair and McDermid Debut Award Shortlists revealed

 

SHORTLISTS REVEALED FOR THE

THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2024 AND INAUGURAL McDERMID DEBUT AWARD

Festival Dates: 18 – 21 July 2024               

www.harrogateinternationalfestivals.com

#TheakstonsAwards #TheakstonsCrime

Harrogate International Festivals has announced the shortlists for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2024, the UK and Ireland’s most prestigious crime fiction award, and the inaugural McDermid Debut Award for new writers. The winners of both awards will be revealed on the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Thursday 18 July. 

The six books shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, now in its twentieth year, take readers on a roller-coaster ride from serial-killer stalked fairgrounds and Blackpool backstreets to the Houses of Parliament, as established bestsellers compete with talented newcomers for the coveted awards. Crime fiction fans are now invited to vote for their favourite book to win at www.harrogatetheakstoncrimeaward.com.

 Two former winners in contention for the award are 2022 champion Mick Herron, the author behind Apple TV’s hit series ‘Slow Horses,’ who is nominated for his mesmerising stand-alone spy thriller The Secret Hours and two times winner Mark Billingham, shortlisted for the first time in eight years with The Last Dance, the first novel in the captivating new Detective Declan Miller series set in Blackpool.

They face stiff competition from two rising stars of the genre who are shortlisted for the first time: William Hussey with Killing Jericho where Traveller detective Scott Jericho must unpick a deadly mystery at a fairground before he becomes a killer’s next victim, and Jo Callaghan for her stunningly original debut In the Blink of An Eye, where DCS Kat Frank is partnered with an AI colleague as human experience combines with logic to solve a complex missing persons case. Jo was selected for the prestigious ‘New Blood’ panel celebrating outstanding debut talent at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in 2023.

Two bestselling authors hoping to add the Award to their trophy cabinets are recent British Book Award Winner Lisa Jewell, shortlisted for her addictive domestic noir None of This is True, about a podcaster under threat from her ‘birthday twin’; and four-times Irish Book Award winner Liz Nugent, nominated for Strange Sally Diamond, a darkly humorous character-driven murder mystery set in rural Ireland.

The full Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2024 shortlist (in alphabetical order by surname) is: 

The Last Dance by Mark Billingham (Sphere; Little, Brown Book Group) 

In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan (Simon & Schuster UK) 

The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (Baskerville; John Murray Press) 

Killing Jericho by William Hussey (Zaffre, Bonnier) 

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell (Century; Cornerstone) 

Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent (Sandycove; Penguin Ireland) 

The shortlist for the inaugural McDermid Debut Award, named in recognition of world-famous crime writer Val McDermid, showcases six outstanding new voices writing across a broad range of subgenres from thrillers to cosy crime, locked room mysteries and historical crime.

Food writer, broadcaster and Master Chef star Orlando Murrin is shortlisted for Knife Skills for Beginners, a delicious mystery set in an exclusive residential cookery school in Belgravia. Another shortlisted novel with a culinary twist, Mrs Sidhu’s Dead and Scone by Suk Pannu introduces a mystery solving Indian caterer who is Slough’s answer to Miss Marple. Suk Pannu has written for much-loved TV comedy shows ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ and ‘The Kumars at No.42.’

Suzy Aspley, a former journalist who lives in Scotland, is nominated for Crow Moon, a chilling thriller centred around a mysterious disappearance, the first novel in the Martha Strangeways series. Daniel Aubrey, who also lives in Scotland, is shortlisted for Dark Island, a thriller about a neurodivergent reporter who uncovers a disturbing conspiracy after human remains are discovered on Orkney’s coast.

Manchester based Kuchenga Shenjé’s gripping historical crime novel The Library Thief explores identity and belonging as book binder’s daughter Florence sets out to uncover the dark mystery at the heart of a gothic mansion. A similarly unforgettable amateur sleuth features in Marie Tierney’s thriller Deadly Animals where a roadkill obsessed teenager embarks on a daring quest to unravel the truth behind the string of chilling deaths plaguing her Birmingham community.

Honouring internationally bestselling crime writer, Val McDermid, who helped to co-found the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in 2003 and whose dedication to fostering new voices in crime fiction through the New Blood panel is legendary, this new Award seeks to continue her legacy, celebrating and platforming the best debut crime writers in the UK. The Shortlist was selected by an academy of established crime and thriller authors and the Winner will be chosen by a panel of industry experts, without a public vote. All shortlisted authors receive a full weekend pass to the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and the Winner will receive a £500 cash prize.

Val McDermid said: ‘Curating the New Blood panel over twenty years exposed me to an extraordinary range of crime fiction I might otherwise have missed. I’m hoping that this new award will do the same for the army of avid readers out there looking for new talent.’

The full McDermid Debut Award 2024 shortlist (in alphabetical order by surname) is: 

Crow Moon by Suzy Aspley (Orenda Books) 

Dark Island by Daniel Aubrey (Harper Collins) 

Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin (Bantam, Transworld) 

Mrs Sidhu’s Dead and Scone by Suk Pannu (Harper Collins) 

The Library Thief by Kuchenga Shenjé (Sphere, Little Brown) 

Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney (Bonnier Books) 

Commenting on the shortlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2024, Simon Theakston, Chairman of T&R Theakston, said: “Congratulations to all of the exceptional writers shortlisted for this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. This year’s list is particularly exciting, with big names at the top of their game competing against impressive newcomers. I can’t wait to see who the public and the judges vote for and look forward to awarding the coveted beer cask trophy to the winner at the opening night ceremony.”

Commenting on the shortlist for the McDermid Debut Award, Sharon Canavar, Chief Executive of Harrogate International Festivals, said: “Awards night is always a special way to open the Festival but this year it promises to be more exciting than ever with the new McDermid Debut Award being presented alongside our other awards. The shortlisted books are all so original and introduce some compelling new voices. We are looking forward to welcoming the talented shortlisted authors to the Festival and finding out which of these stars of the future will carry off the Award.”

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2024 is presented by Harrogate International Festivals and sponsored by T&R Theakston Ltd, in partnership with Waterstones and the Daily Express, and is open to full-length crime novels published in paperback between 1 May 2023 and 30 April 2024.  The winner will receive £3,000 and a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by T&R Theakston Ltd. 

The Winners of both Awards will be revealed on the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Thursday 18 July.  

 

Forthcoming books from Orenda Books

January 2024

A young couple are entangled in a nightmare spiral of lies when they pretend to be someone else … The Guests is an exquisitely dark psychological suspense by the bestselling author of The Bird Tribunal Agnes Ravatn.

A young woman relies on her wits to survive when she’s taken hostage on her first shift at an Edinburgh halfway house for violent offenders. And that is just the beginning. Halfway House is the shocking, darkly funny thriller by Helen FitzGerald.

February 2024

Cub reporter Jonny Murphy is in Buenos Aires interviewing families of victims of Argentina’s Dirty War, when a headless torso has washed up on a city beach, thrusting him into a shocking investigation… Argentina. 1998. Human remains are found on a beach on the outskirts of Buenos Aires – a gruesome echo of when the tide brought home dozens of mutilated bodies thrown from planes during Argentina’s Dirty War. Flights of death, with passengers known as the Disappeared. International Tribunal reporter Jonny Murphy is in Buenos Aires interviewing families of the missing, desperate to keep their memory alive, when the corpse turns up. His investigations with his companion, freelance photographer Paloma Glenn, have barely started when Argentina's simmering financial crisis explodes around them.  As the fabric of society starts to disintegrate and Argentine cities burn around them, Jonny and Paloma are suddenly thrust centre stage, fighting to secure both their jobs and their livelihoods. But Jonny is also fighting something else, an echo from his own past that he'll never shake, and as it catches up with him and Paloma, he must make choices that will endanger everything he knows. Death Flight is by Sarah Sultoon.

The Descent is by Paul E Hardisty. Kweku Ashworth is a child of the cataclysm, born on a sailboat to parents fleeing the devastation in search for a refuge in the Southern Ocean. Growing up in a world forever changed, his only connection to the events that set the planet on its course to disaster were the stories his step-father, long-dead, recorded in his manuscript, The Forcing. But there are huge gaps in the story that his mother, still alive but old and frail, steadfastly refuses to speak of, even thirty years later. When he discovers evidence that his mother has tried to cover up the truth, and then stumbles across an account by someone close to the men who forced the globe into a climate catastrophe, he knows that it is time to find out for himself. Determined to learn what really happened during his mother's escape from the concentration camp to which she and Kweku's father were banished, and their subsequent journey halfway around the world, Kweku and his young family set out on a perilous voyage across a devastated planet. What they find will challenge not only their faith in humanity, but their ability to stay alive.

March 2024

The Collapsing Wave is by Doug Johnstone. Six months since the earth-shattering events of The Space Between Us, the revelatory hope of the aliens' visit has turned to dust and the creatures have disappeared into the water off Scotland's west coast. Teenager Lennox and grieving mother Heather are being held in New Broom, a makeshift US military base, the subject of experiments, alongside the Enceladons who have been captured by the authorities. Ava, who has given birth, is awaiting the jury verdict at her trial for the murder of her husband. And MI7 agent Oscar Fellowes, who has been sidelined by the US military, is beginning to think he might be on the wrong side of history. When alien Sandy makes contact, Lennox and Heather make a plan to escape with Ava. All three of them are heading for a profound confrontation between the worst of humanity and a possible brighter future, as the stakes get higher for the alien Enceladons and the entire human race…

When the crow moon rises, the darkness is unleashed… Martha Strangeways is struggling to find purpose in her life, after giving up her career as an investigative reporter when her young twins died in a house fire. Overwhelmed by guilt and grief, her life changes when she stumbles across the body of a missing teenager – a tragedy that turns even more sinister when a poem about crows is discovered inked onto his back...When another teenager goes missing in the remote landscape, Martha is drawn into the investigation, teaming up with DI Derek Summers, as malevolent rumours begin to spread and paranoia grows. As darkness descends on the village of Strathbran, it soon becomes clear that no one is safe, including Martha… Crow Moon is a debut novel by Suzy Aspley.

April 2024

Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her colleagues investigate the murders of men with a history of abuse towards women … as a startling, horrifying series of revelations emerge. When neatly packed male body parts wash up by the River Elbe, Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her colleagues begin a perplexing investigation. As the murdered men are identified, it becomes clear that they all had a history of abuse towards women, leading Riley to wonder if it would actually be in society’s best interests to catch the killers. But when her best friend Carla is attacked, and the police show little interest in tracking down the offenders, Chastity takes matters into her own hands. As a link between the two cases emerges, horrifying revelations threaten Chastity’s own moral compass, and put everyone at incalculable risk… The Kitchen is by Simone Buchholz.

Fresh from the scandal at Hampstead County PD, Detective Sergeant Casey Wray works a complex double-homicide that points to a killer on a murderous rampage and a shattering series of discoveries that could end her career … Hampstead County Police Department is embroiled in scandal after corruption at the top of the force was exposed. Cleared of involvement and returned to active duty, Detective Sergeant Casey Wray nonetheless finds herself at a crossroads when it becomes clear not everyone believes she’s innocent. Partnered with rookie Billy Drocker, Casey works a shocking daytime double-homicide in downtown Rockport with the two victims seemingly unknown to one another. And when a third victim is gunned down on her doorstep shortly after, it appears an abusive ex-boyfriend holds the key to the killings. With powerful figures demanding answers, Casey and Billy search for the suspect, fearing he’s on a murderous rampage. But when a key witness goes missing, and new evidence just won’t fit, the case begins to unravel. With her career in jeopardy, Casey makes a shattering discovery that threatens to expose the true darkness at the heart of the murders… with a killer still on the loose…Shatter Creek is by Rod Reynolds.

May 2024

Thirty Days of Darkness is by Jenny Lund Madsen. Copenhagen author Hannah is the darling of the literary community and her novels have achieved massive critical acclaim. But nobody actually reads them, and frustrated by writer’s block, Hannah has the feeling that she’s doing something wrong. When she expresses her contempt for genre fiction, Hanna is publicly challenged to write a crime novel in thirty days. Scared that she will lose face, she accepts, and her editor sends her to Húsafjöður – a quiet, tight-knit village in Iceland, filled with colourful local characters – for inspiration. But two days after her arrival, the body of a fisherman’s young son is pulled from the water … and what begins as a search for plot material quickly turns into a messy and dangerous investigation that threatens to uncover secrets that put everything at risk … including Hannah…

June 2024

It is the year 1710, and Thomas True has arrived on old London Bridge with a dangerous secret. One night, lost in the squalor of London’s hidden back streets, he finds himself drawn into the outrageous underworld of the molly houses.  Meanwhile, carpenter Gabriel Griffin struggles to hide his double life as Lotty, the molly’s stoic guard. When a young man is found murdered, he realises there is a rat amongst them, betraying their secrets to a pair of murderous Justices Can Gabriel unmask the traitor before they hang? Can he save hapless Thomas from peril, and their own forbidden love? Set amidst the buried streets of Georgian London, The Betrayal of Thomas True is by A J West and is a brutal and devastating thriller, where love must overcome evil, and the only true sin is betrayal… 

Victorian England. A world of rural fairgrounds and glamorous London theatres. A world of dark secrets and deadly obsessions… Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn't grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father's quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘Captain’. Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the human kind. Resenting his grandson for his mother’s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name. Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ‘family’ of performers, freaks and outcasts. But it is Theo’s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a web of deceits, exposing the darkest secrets and threatening everything they know… Fascination is by Essie Fox.