The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2018 longlist has been announced and it’s full of books that have been reviewed on Crime Fiction Lover – some favourably… some less so!
The longlist of 18 books features several Crime Fiction Lover five-star rated novels, including The Accident on the A35 by Graeme Macrae Burnett, The Long Drop by Denise Mina, A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee, Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin, The Intrusions by Stav Sherez and The Seagull by Ann Cleeves. The prize is open to UK and Irish crime authors whose novels were published in paperback from 1 May 2017 to 30 April 2018, which means that some of them arrived in hardback as far back as early 2016.
Among the top hitters that include Val McDermid and Lee Child there are debut novels by Jane Harper, Emma Flint, Joseph Knox, Imran Mahmood and Abir Mukherjee.
Vote on the winner
Chris Brookmyre won the 2017 award with Black Widow. This year, the list will be whittled down to a shortlist of six, which will be announced on 27 May, and then you’ll be invited to vote on the overall winner – with some input from the judges – between 1 and 14 July at www.theakstons.co.uk
In the meantime, we’d love to know what your favourite crime novel of the year was. Please post details in the comments section below.
The winner will be revealed at an award ceremony hosted by broadcaster Mark Lawson on 19 July, the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate. They’ll receive a £3,000 cash prize and a carved beer keg presumably containing Theakston Old Peculier. The awards night will also feature the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award, with past recipients including PD James, Ruth Rendell, Reginald Hill, Lee Child and Colin Dexter.
The longlist
Here are the books jostling for the prize, in alphabetical order by author’s surname. If we’ve reviewed the book you can click on the title to see what we thought
1 – Want You Gone by Chris Brookmyre
2 – The Midnight Line by Lee Child
3 – The Seagull by Ann Cleeves
4 – Little Deaths by Emma Flint
5 – The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths
6 – The Dry by Jane Harper
7 – Spook Street by Mick Herron
8 – A Death at Fountains Abbey by Antonia Hodgson
9 – He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly
10 – Sirens by Joseph Knox
11 – The Accident on the A35 by Graeme Macrae Burnet
12 – You Don’t Know Me by Imran Mahmood
13 – Insidious Intent by Val McDermid
14 – The Long Drop by Denise Mina
15 – A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee
16 – Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin
17 – The Intrusions by Stav Sherez
18 – Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner
Let us know what your number one crime novel of last year was in the comments below.
A couple more that jump to mind are The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz, and Jonathan Lyon’s Carnivore. How about John Connolly’s A Game of Ghosts? There don’t seem to be any Irish author’s on the longlist.
Jane Harper is British? She moved to Australia when she was eight…
But given the buzz that novel has generated, I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up somewhere near the top.
I think they should make it a global prize.
I don’t envy the judges having to make the final choice – it’s a pretty good list and some excellent names and books on there. However, I would have liked to see Sarah Hilary’s Quieter than Killing and Mari Hannah’s The Lost on the list too.
Theakstone’s sets themselves a formidable task in trying to pick the best nugget out of a goldmine of excellent crime writing last year. That aside, my candidate for best UK/Irish crime novel, published in paperback 2017 (following Theakstone’s parameters) that I read would be the debut by K J Lawrence, The Cossack. Finely drawn characters, an unexpected partnership, an intriguing mystery. Nice one!!
Completely agree with @CrimeFiction Lover – I’m surprised that A Game of Ghosts is not on here. I thought it was outstanding. And while I liked Brookmyre’s and Knox’s books I didn’t feel they were exceptional. Still very good but… the interesting aspect about The Long Drop by Mina is that foray into a more ‘factional’ approach. To me, it give it an extra dimension that lodges it in my memory.
*gives it*. I hate typos in my comments.
My “short list” …
– The Midnight Line by Lee Child
– The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths
– Spook Street by Mick Herron
– Insidious Intent by Val McDermid
– Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin
My top pick: Spook Street by Mick Herron
Thanks for posting Geoffrey. Great picks.