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.
| 2005 | Lazybones | Winner | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shortlist | ||||
| Disordered Minds | ||||
| 2006 | Winner | |||
| Shortlist | ||||
| Fleshmarket Close | ||||
| One Last Breath | ||||
| Strange Blood | ||||
| 2007 | Two-Way Split | Winner | ||
| Shortlist | ||||
| All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye | ||||
| Blood and Honey | ||||
| Cold Granite | ||||
| 2008 | The Tenderness of Wolves | Winner | [6] [7] | |
| Blue Shoes and Happiness | Shortlist | |||
| Buried | ||||
| Dying Light | ||||
| Not Dead Enough | ||||
| One Under | ||||
| Piece of My Heart | ||||
| Relentless | ||||
| Sovereign | ||||
| 2009 | Death Message | Winner | [8] | |
| Shortlist | ||||
| Bad Luck and Trouble | ||||
| Beneath the Bleeding | ||||
| Broken Skin | ||||
| Dead Man's Footsteps | ||||
| Exit Music | ||||
| Friend of the Devil | ||||
| Garden of Evil | ||||
| Gone to Ground | ||||
| Ritual | ||||
| Savage Moon | ||||
| 2010 | Winner | [9] | ||
| Shortlist | ||||
| Child 44 | ||||
| Dead Tomorrow | ||||
| Doors Open | ||||
| Gallows Lane | ||||
| In the Dark | ||||
| 2011 | 61 Hours | Winner | [10] | |
| Shortlist | ||||
| Blood Harvest | ||||
| Dark Blood | ||||
| From the Dead | ||||
| 2012 | Winner | [11] [12] | ||
| Shortlist | [13] | |||
| Before I Go to Sleep | ||||
| Black Flowers | ||||
| Now You See Me | ||||
| Where the Bodies are Buried | ||||
| 2013 | Gods and Beasts | Winner | [14] | |
| Shortlist | [15] | |||
| Rush of Blood | ||||
| Safe House | ||||
| Stolen Souls | ||||
| 2014 | Rubbernecker | Winner | [16] [17] | |
| Shortlist | [18] | |||
| Death of Lewis Winter | ||||
| Dying Fall | ||||
| Eleven Days | ||||
| 2015 | Someone Else's Skin | Winner | [19] | |
| Shortlist | [20] | |||
| Entry Island | ||||
| 2016 | I Let You Go | Winner | [21] [22] | |
| Career of Evil | Shortlist | [23] | ||
| Disclaimer | ||||
| Rain Dogs | ||||
| Tell No Tales | ||||
| Time of Death | ||||
| 2017 | Black Widow | Winner | [24] [25] | |
| After You Die | Shortlist | [26] | ||
| Lie with Me | ||||
| Missing, Presumed | ||||
| Out of Bounds | ||||
| Real Tigers | ||||
| 2018 | Winner | [27] [28] | ||
| Shortlist | [29] | |||
| Insidious Intent | ||||
| Persons Unknown | ||||
| Spook Street | ||||
| 2019 | Thirteen | Winner | [30] | |
| Shortlist | [31] | |||
| Broken Ground | ||||
| East of Hounslow | ||||
| London Rules | ||||
| Snap | ||||
| 2020 | Winner | [32] [33] | ||
| Shortlist | [34] | |||
| Joe Country | ||||
| My Sister, the Serial Killer | ||||
| Smoke and Ashes | ||||
| Worst Case Scenario | ||||
| 2021 | We Begin at the End | Winner | [35] | |
| Shortlist | [36] | |||
| Death in the East | ||||
| 2022 | Slough House | Winner | [37] | |
| Laura Shepherd-Robinson | Daughters of Night | Shortlist | [38] | |
| Midnight at Malabar House | ||||
| Will Dean | ||||
| 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 |
| Year | Author | Result | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Michael Connelly | Selected | ||
| 2023 | Ann Cleeves | Selected |