A couple of years ago I was fortunate enough to attend the excellent Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England, hanging out with the likes of Mark Billingham, Harlan Coben, Simon Kernick, Sarah Pinborough, Paul Cleave, Neil Cross, John Connolly, Camilla Lackberg, Stav Sherez, Liza Marklund, Val McDermid, Denise Mina, Steve Mosby, Tom Wood, and many other fantastic crime writers. It truly is a wonderful festival, held in a lovely historic town, where readers get a great chance to mingle with authors away from the events.
That year Mina won the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award for her excellent novel THE END OF THE WASP SEASON. This year's long list has just been announced:
• Rubbernecker, by Belinda Bauer (Bantam Press)
• The Shining Girls, by Lauren Beukes (HarperCollins)
• The Dying Hours, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)
• Like This, For Ever, by Sharon Bolton (Bantam Press)
• A Wanted Man, by Lee Child (Bantam Press)
• The Honey Guide, by Richard Crompton (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• The Cry, by Helen Fitzgerald (Faber & Faber)
• Dying Fall, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• Until You’re Mine, by Samantha Hayes (Century)
• The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter, by Malcolm Mackay (Mantle)
• The Chessmen, by Peter May (Quercus)
• I Hear the Sirens in the Street, by Adrian McKinty (Serpent’s Tail)
• The Red Road, by Denise Mina (Orion)
• Ratlines, by Stuart Neville (Harvill Secker)
• Standing in Another Man’s Grave, by Ian Rankin (Orion)
• Children of the Revolution, by Peter Robinson (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Eleven Days, by Stav Sherez (Faber & Faber)
• Weirdo, by Cathi Unsworth (Serpent’s Tail)
A shortlist will be broadcast on July 1, at which time readers will be asked to select their favorites in an online poll. That voting is scheduled to take place between July 3 and 15, with the winner of the Crime Novel of the Year Award to be named on July 17, as part of the opening-night festivities at this year’s festival.
How is anyone supposed to choose on this list? lol There are some excellent books and authors on here. I have only read two so far on the list, the rest I have been waiting for them to come out in softcover to read. The Shining Girls was very good and intriguing, and Dying Fall was as ever, very good. This list reads like a who's who of current mystery writing, doesn't it? Time to get reading these! Which ones have you read? What do you think will win?
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