The Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award is a crime-fiction award, sponsored by Theakston's Old Peculier. It is awarded annually at Harrogate Crime Writing Festival in the UK, held every July. The winner received £3000 and a small hand-carved oak beer cask carved by one of Britain's last coopers.
Novels eligible are those crime novels published in paperback any time during the previous year, thus making the shortlists seem more out-of-date than for most prizes.
It is also the only such crime-fiction award in the UK to be voted for partly by the public. Decisions of a jury-panel are also into into account, a fact not-much publicised by the award organisers, who are keen to emphasize the public-voting aspect of the award.
2009 - Winner Mark Billingham- Death Message
2008 Winner The Tenderness of Wolves Wins the Keg
The judges for the fourth Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year Award have broken new ground, awarding the 2008 prize to a first novel which has already found acclaim as a work of mainstream literary fiction, Stef Penny's The Tenderness of Wolves.
Stef Penny, the surprise winner of the 2006 Costa Book of the Year with the same book, was surprised once more to find herself on the shortlist for a crime fiction award. "I feel a bit of a fraud," she said, "as it is only my first book, and I don't really feel like a proper crime writer, but I am delighted to have won."
The Tenderness of Wolves begins with a murder, mixing first- and third-person narration as it follows the ripples of this cataclysm across the wilds of Canada.
2008 Shorts
Simon Beckett, The Chemistry Of Death
Mark Billingham, Buried
Christopher Brookmyre, Tale Etched In Blood And Hard
Reginald Hill, The Death Of Dalziel
Graham Hurley, One Under
Peter James, Not Dead Enough
Simon Kernick, Relentless
Stuart Macbride, Dying Light
Alexander McCall Smith, Blue Shoes And Happiness
Stef Penney, The Tenderness Of Wolves
Peter Robinson, Piece Of My Heart
C. J. Sansom, Sovereign
2008 Longlist
Simon Beckett, The Chemistry of Death
Mark Billingham, Buried
Benjamin Black, Christine Falls
Christopher Brookmyre, A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil
Sophie Hannah, Hurting Distance
John Harvey, Darkness and Light
Reginald Hill, The Death of Dalziel
Susan Hill, The Risk of Darkness
Graham Hurley, One Under
Peter James, Not Dead Enough
Simon Kernick, Relentless
Patrick Lennon, Corn Dolls
Stuart MacBride, Dying Light
Alexander McCall Smith, Blue Shoes and Happiness
Val McDermid, The Grave Tattoo
Mark Mills, The Savage Garden
Stef Penney, The Tenderness of Wolves
Peter Robinson, Piece of my Heart
C.J. Sansom, Sovereign
Chris Simms, Shifting Skin
2007
Winner: Allan Guthrie - Two-Way Split
o Stephen Booth - The Dead Place
o Christopher Brookmyre - All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye
o Michael Jecks - The Deathship of Dartmouth
o Stuart MacBride - Cold Granite
o Graham Hurley - Blood and Honey
2006
Winner: Val McDermid - The Torment of Others
o Lindsay Ashford - Strange Blood
o Stephn Booth - One Last Breath
o Martin Edwards - The Coffin Trail
o Susan Hill - The Various Haunts of Men
o Ian Rankin - Fleshmarket Close
2005
Winner: Mark Billingham - Lazybones
o Simon Kernick - The Murder Exchange
o Val McDermid - The Distant Echo
o Ian Rankin - A Question of Blood
o Andrew Taylor - The American Boy
o Minette Walters - Disordered Minds
