Ian Rankin and Mark Billingham are among those on today’s longlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award.

Organised by Harrogate International Festivals, the award is widely regarded as the most prestigious in crime fiction.

This year’s 18-person longlist transports readers around the world from California to Sweden and Calcutta to a remote Irish island and explores every subgenre from Scandi noir to murderous families.

The line-up of returning champions is led by crime fiction titan Ian Rankin, who has received a nod for his A Song for The Dark Times, Mark Billingham, hoping for a third win with his Cry Baby, and Steve Cavanagh looking to beat the competition with Fifty Fifty.

Elly Griffiths has received her seventh nomination for The Lantern Men.

New names include Lucy Foley with her number one Sunday Times Best Seller ‘The Guest List’ and Chris Whitaker with ‘We Begin at The End’.

The winner of the awards, which are being held for the 17th year, will be announced on July 22 at the opening evening of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

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People can vote for the winner here.

The longlist was selected by an academy of crime writing authors, agents, editors, reviewers and members of the Theakston Old Peculier crime writing festival programming committee. Representatives from sponsors T&R Theakston Ltd, the Express, and WHSmith also took part.

The winner receives £3,000 and a handmade, engraved beer barrel from Theakston Old Peculier.

The full longlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2021 is:

• Cry Baby by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown Book Group, Sphere)
• The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish (Simon & Schuster)
• The Cutting Place by Jane Casey (HarperCollins, HarperFiction)
• Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanagh (The Orion Publishing Group, Orion Fiction)
• Black River by Will Dean (Oneworld Publications, Point Blank)
• Between Two Evils by Eva Dolan (Bloomsbury Publishing, Raven Books)
• The Guest List by Lucy Foley (HarperCollins, HarperFiction)
• The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths (Quercus, Quercus Fiction)
• The Big Chill by Doug Johnstone (Orenda Books)
• Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton (Penguin Random House UK, Viking)
• Still Life by Val McDermid (Little, Brown Book Group, Sphere)
• The Last Crossing by Brian McGilloway (Little, Brown Book Group, Constable)
• Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee (VINTAGE, Harvill Secker)
• Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent (Penguin, Sandycove)
• A Song For The Dark Times by Ian Rankin (Orion, Orion Fiction)
• Remain Silent by Susie Steiner (HarperCollins Publishers, The Borough Press)
• We Begin At The End by Chris Whitaker (Bonnier Books UK, Zaffre)
• The Man on the Street by Trevor Wood (Quercus, Quercus Fiction)

A retired woman from Harrogate has spent lockdown writing her first novel, Murder After the Matinee, which is now available in stores and online.

Lorna Snowden set the murder mystery in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Ashdale, which is loosely based on Ripon.

The book’s protagonist is Lydia Buckley, a divorcee who moves to the village and becomes the prompt for the Ashdale Players’ production of Aladdin. Shady business dealings, infidelity and a shocking killing ensue.

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• Theakston’s Crime Writing Festival returns to Harrogate in July
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Ms Snowden began the novel during the first lockdown and decided to retire so she could spend more of her time writing.

She said:

“The plot had been in my mind for quite a while but when lockdown started I just wrote and wrote. I wrote the entire book in two months.

“My daughter read it after I’d finished and said, ‘have you really written this?’.”

She was recommended to her publisher, Troubador, after an editor enjoyed the novel. She intends to spend the rest of her retirement writing a series to follow on from the first book.

Ms Snowden crafted the plot using her own love of pantomime and experience with the Pannal Players troupe.

Her previous experience of owning a bridal shop will influence her second instalment, Murder Before the Wedding, which she is midway through writing.

Murder After the Matinee is available online from Waterstones and WHSmith and is currently free on Kindle Unlimited.

Harrogate International Festivals has awarded its prestigious crime novel award to Adrian McKinty for his book The Chain.

The Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year, hosted by Harrogate International Festivals, was awarded this evening to McKinty’s novel after the public and prize judges picked him out from a shortlist of six.

The author was close to giving up his writing career two years ago when his family was evicted from their home and he was working as an Uber driver and barman. McKinty was persuaded to give writing one final go, and he wrote his hugely successful novel The Chain.

His book has since been published in 36 countries with its movie rights sold in a seven figure deal. The plot centres around a chain of child abductions, where a child can only be released when its parent kidnaps another child.

Adrian McKinty was “gobsmacked” when he was announced as the winner of the prestigious award.

Adrian McKinty said:

“I am gobsmacked and delighted to win this award. Two years ago, I had given up on writing altogether and was working in a bar and driving an Uber, and so to go from that to this is just amazing. People think that you write a book and it will be an immediate bestseller. For twelve books, my experience was quite the opposite, but then I started this one.

“It was deliberately high concept, deliberately different to everything else I had written – and I was still convinced it wouldn’t go anywhere… but now look at this. It has been completely life changing.”

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The award marks the launch of the Harrogate International Festivals Weekender – a free virtual festival featuring performances and interviews with dozens of musicians and authors.

Adrian McKinty will receive £3,000 and an engraved oak beer cask, hand-carved by one of Britain’s last coopers from Theakstons Brewery.

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year has seen a record number of submissions this year as it celebrates the centenary year of Agatha Christie’s first novel. Aptly, 10 of the 18 novels in the long list are written by women.

The award is part of the annual Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival which is managed  by Harrogate International Festivals. Historically, the winner is announced on the opening evening of the festival but this year the event has been cancelled due to coronavirus.

Instead, the winner will be revealed in a virtual awards ceremony on 31 July, where the author will receive £3,000, and an engraved beer barrel provided by Theakston Old Peculier.

The longlist was selected by an academy of crime writing authors, agents, editors, reviewers, members of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival Programming Committee, and representatives from T&R Theakston Ltd, the Express, and WHSmith.

Reducing the longlist to a shortlist is now down to a public vote. So if you’re a lover of crime fiction and have time on your hands during lockdown – you can read them all and vote for your favourite on: www.harrogatetheakstoncrimeaward.com

Here is the long list:

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Atlantic Books)

Fallen Angel by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown Book Group, Abacus)

Nothing Important Happened Today by Will Carver (Orenda Books)

Cruel Acts by Jane Casey (HarperCollins, Harper Fiction)

Blue Moon by Lee Child (Transworld, Bantam)

The Long Call by Ann Cleeves (Pan Macmillan, Macmillan/Pan)

Red Snow by Will Dean (Oneworld, Point Blank)

Platform Seven by Louise Doughty (Faber & Faber)

Worst Case Scenario by Helen Fitzgerald (Orenda Books)

The Lost Man by Jane Harper (Little, Brown Book Group, Little, Brown)

Joe Country by Mick Herron (John Murray Press)

How the Dead Speak by Val McDermid (Little, Brown Book Group, Little, Brown)

The Chain by Adrian McKinty (Orion Publishing Group, Orion Fiction)

Conviction by Denise Mina (VINTAGE, Harvill Secker)

Smoke and Ashes by Abir Mukherjee (VINTAGE, Harvill Secker)

The Whisper Man by Alex North (Penguin Random House, Michael Joseph)

Blood & Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Headline Publishing Group, Wildfire)

Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce (Pan Macmillan, Mantle/Pan)