The Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award is one of the UK's top crime-fiction awards, sponsored by Theakston's Old Peculier. [1] It is awarded annually at Harrogate Crime Writing Festival in the UK, held every July, as part of the Harrogate International Festivals. [2] The winner receives £3000 and a small hand-carved oak beer cask carved by one of Britain's last coopers. [3] Novels eligible are those crime novels published in paperback any time during the previous year. [4] Voting is by the public with decisions of a jury-panel also taken into account, [5] a fact not-much publicised by the award organisers, who are keen to emphasize the public-voting aspect of the award.
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Mark Billingham | Lazybones | Winner | |
| Andrew Taylor | The American Boy | Shortlist | ||
| Val McDermid | The Distant Echo | |||
| Simon Kernick | The Murder Exchange | |||
| Ian Rankin | A Question of Blood | |||
| Minette Walters | Disordered Minds | |||
| 2006 | Val McDermid | The Torment of Others | Winner | |
| Martin Edwards | The Coffin Trail | Shortlist | ||
| Susan Hill | The Various Haunts of Men | |||
| Ian Rankin | Fleshmarket Close | |||
| Stephen Booth | One Last Breath | |||
| Lindsay Ashford | Strange Blood | |||
| 2007 | Allan Guthrie | Two-Way Split | Winner | |
| Stephen Booth | The Dead Place | Shortlist | ||
| Michael Jecks | The Death Ship of Dartmouth | |||
| Christopher Brookmyre | All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye | |||
| Graham Hurley | Blood and Honey | |||
| Stuart MacBride | Cold Granite | |||
| 2008 | Stef Penney | The Tenderness of Wolves | Winner | [6] [7] |
| Alexander McCall Smith | Blue Shoes and Happiness | Shortlist | ||
| Mark Billingham | Buried | |||
| Stuart MacBride | Dying Light | |||
| Peter James | Not Dead Enough | |||
| Graham Hurley | One Under | |||
| Peter Robinson | Piece of My Heart | |||
| Simon Kernick | Relentless | |||
| C.J. Sansom | Sovereign | |||
| Simon Beckett | The Chemistry of Death | |||
| Reginald Hill | The Death of Dalzeil | |||
| Christopher Brookmyre | A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil | |||
| 2009 | Mark Billingham | Death Message | Winner | [8] |
| Tom Cain | The Accident Man | Shortlist | ||
| Declan Hughes | The Colour of Blood | |||
| Reginald Hill | A Cure for All Diseases | |||
| Lee Child | Bad Luck and Trouble | |||
| Val McDermid | Beneath the Bleeding | |||
| Stuart MacBride | Broken Skin | |||
| Peter James | Dead Man's Footsteps | |||
| Ian Rankin | Exit Music | |||
| Peter Robinson | Friend of the Devil | |||
| David Hewson | Garden of Evil | |||
| John Harvey | Gone to Ground | |||
| Mo Hayder | Ritual | |||
| Chris Simms | Savage Moon | |||
| 2010 | R. J. Ellory | A Simple Act of Violence | Winner | [9] |
| Elly Griffiths | The Crossing Places | Shortlist | ||
| Tania Carver | The Surrogate | |||
| Tom Rob Smith | Child 44 | |||
| Peter James | Dead Tomorrow | |||
| Ian Rankin | Doors Open | |||
| Brian McGilloway | Gallows Lane | |||
| Mark Billingham | In the Dark | |||
| 2011 | Lee Child | 61 Hours | Winner | [10] |
| Andrew Taylor | The Anatomy of Ghosts | Shortlist | ||
| William Ryan | The Holy Thief | |||
| S. J. Bolton | Blood Harvest | |||
| Stuart MacBride | Dark Blood | |||
| Mark Billingham | From the Dead | |||
| 2012 | Denise Mina | The End of the Wasp Season | Winner | [11] [12] |
| John Connolly | The Burning Soul | Shortlist | [13] | |
| S. J. Watson | Before I Go to Sleep | |||
| Steve Mosby | Black Flowers | |||
| S. J. Bolton | Now You See Me | |||
| Christopher Brookmyre | Where the Bodies are Buried | |||
| 2013 | Denise Mina | Gods and Beasts | Winner | [14] |
| Stav Sherez | A Dark Redemption | Shortlist | [15] | |
| Peter May | The Lewis Man | |||
| Mark Billingham | Rush of Blood | |||
| Chris Ewan | Safe House | |||
| Stuart Neville | Stolen Souls | |||
| 2014 | Belinda Bauer | Rubbernecker | Winner | [16] [17] |
| Peter May | The Chess Men | Shortlist | [18] | |
| Denise Mina | The Red Road | |||
| Malcolm Mackay | Death of Lewis Winter | |||
| Elly Griffiths | Dying Fall | |||
| Stav Sherez | Eleven Days | |||
| 2015 | Sarah Hilary | Someone Else's Skin | Winner | [19] |
| Ray Celestin | The Axeman’s Jazz | Shortlist | [20] | |
| Antonia Hodgson | The Devil in the Marshalsea | |||
| Belinda Bauer | The Facts of Life and Death | |||
| Elly Griffiths | The Outcast Dead | |||
| Peter May | Entry Island | |||
| 2016 | Clare Mackintosh | I Let You Go | Winner | [21] [22] |
| Robert Galbraith | Career of Evil | Shortlist | [23] | |
| Renee Knight | Disclaimer | |||
| Adrian McKinty | Rain Dogs | |||
| Eva Dolan | Tell No Tales | |||
| Mark Billingham | Time of Death | |||
| 2017 | Christopher Brookmyre | Black Widow | Winner | [24] [25] |
| Eva Dolan | After You Die | Shortlist | [26] | |
| Sabine Durrant | Lie with Me | |||
| Susie Steiner | Missing, Presumed | |||
| Val McDermid | Out of Bounds | |||
| Mick Herron | Real Tigers | |||
| 2018 | Stav Sherez | The Intrusions | Winner | [27] [28] |
| Denise Mina | The Long Drop | Shortlist | [29] | |
| Abir Mukherjee | A Rising Man | |||
| Val McDermid | Insidious Intent | |||
| Susie Steiner | Persons Unknown | |||
| Mick Herron | Spook Street | |||
| 2019 | Steve Cavanagh | Thirteen | Winner | [30] |
| Liam McIlvanney | The Quaker | Shortlist | [31] | |
| Val McDermid | Broken Ground | |||
| Khurrum Rahman | East of Hounslow | |||
| Mick Herron | London Rules | |||
| Belinda Bauer | Snap | |||
| 2020 | Adrian McKinty | The Chain | Winner | [32] [33] |
| Jane Harper | The Lost Man | Shortlist | [34] | |
| Mick Herron | Joe Country | |||
| Oyinkan Braithwaite | My Sister, the Serial Killer | |||
| Abir Mukherjee | Smoke and Ashes | |||
| Helen Fitzgerald | Worst Case Scenario | |||
| 2021 | Chris Whitaker | We Begin at the End | Winner | [35] |
| Elly Griffiths | The Lantern Men | Shortlist | [36] | |
| Brian McGilloway | The Last Crossing | |||
| Trevor Wood | The Man on the Street | |||
| Rosamund Lupton | The Three Hours | |||
| Abir Mukherjee | Death in the East | |||
| 2022 | Mick Herron | Slough House | Winner | [37] |
| Laura Shepherd-Robinson | Daughters of Night | Shortlist | [38] | |
| Vaseem Khan | Midnight at Malabar House | |||
| Will Dean | The Last Thing to Burn | |||
| Elly Griffiths | The Night Hawks | |||
| Joseph Knox | True Crime Story | |||
| 2023 | M. W. Craven | The Botanist | Winner | [39] |
| Fiona Cummins | Into the Dark | Shortlist | [40] | |
| Elly Griffiths | The Locked Room | |||
| Doug Johnstone | Black Hearts | |||
| Gillian McAllister | Wrong Place, Wrong time | |||
| Ruth Ware | The It Girl | |||
| 2024 | Jo Callaghan | In the Blink of an Eye | Winner | |
| Mark Billingham | The Last Dance | Shortlist | ||
| Mick Herron | The Secret Hours | |||
| William Hussey | Killing Jericho | |||
| Lisa Jewell | None of This is True | |||
| Liz Nugent | Strange Sally Diamond |
| Year | Author | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Michael Connelly | Awarded | |
| 2023 | Ann Cleeves | Awarded | [39] |
| 2024 | Martina Cole | Awarded |