Longlist Announced for Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Award

I am really excited to share the incredible longlist for this year’s award. I’ve read almost all of the books and will try to read the rest ASAP. The link to vote is also below, so do join in. Good luck to all the amazing writers.

This year’s longlist features twenty incredible crime novels, with literary icons vying with debut authors for the prestigious award. Contenders include: Bad Actors, the gruelling bestseller from 2022 winner Mick Herron; the penultimate Dr Ruth Galloway thriller The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths; All I Said Was True, the ticking clock thriller from barrister-turned-author Imran Mahmood; historical mysteries set on a 18^th Century mail-ship bound for Philadelphia in Blue Water by Leonora Nattrass, and the turbulent streets of 1950s Bombay in The Lost Man of Bombay by Vaseem Khan; Sarah Vaughan with her masterful psychological page-turner Reputation; the deftly suspenseful The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett; and many more.

You can vote for your favourites at harrogatetheakstoncrimeaward.com. The shortlist will be announced on 15 June, with the winner of the most coveted award in crime fiction crowned at the opening night of the world’s largest celebration of crime fiction and thriller writing – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival – which runs from 20 – 23 July 2023 and is celebrating its 20^th anniversary this year with an extra special line-up of killer events. 

The full Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2023 longlist is:

·       The Murder Book by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown Book Group; Little Brown)

·       The Botanist by M.W. Craven (Little, Brown Book Group; Constable)

·       Into The Dark by Fiona Cummins (Pan Macmillan; Macmillan/Pan)

·       The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley (HarperCollins; HarperFiction)

·       The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)

·       The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett (Profile Books; Viper)

·       Bad Actors by Mick Herron (John Murray Press; Baskerville)

·       The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell (Cornerstone; Century Fiction)

·       Black Hearts by Doug Johnstone (Orenda Books)

·       The Lost Man of Bombay by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton)

·       The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh (Little, Brown Book Group; Sphere)

·       All I Said Was True by Imran Mahmood (Bloomsbury Publishing; Raven Books)

·       Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister (Penguin Random House; Michael Joseph)

·       1989 by Val McDermid (Little, Brown Book Group; Little Brown)

·       The Heretic by Liam McIlvanney (HarperCollins; HarperFiction)

·       Blue Water by Leonora Nattrass (Profile Books; Viper)

·       May God Forgive by Alan Parks (Canongate Books)

·       Truly Darkly Deeply by Victoria Selman (Quercus)

·       Reputation by Sarah Vaughan (Simon & Schuster)

·       The It Girl by Ruth Ware (Simon & Schuster) 

*this post was created using information from a press release but all opinions remain my own.