The first post of our coverage of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate reveals the winner of the festival’s Crime Novel Of The Year.
There is some significance for crime drama fans – here past winners have included Val McDermid, Denise Mina and Mark Billingham, who have all seen their novels adapted for television.
This year’s shortlist included Mick Herron’s Spook Street, Val McDermid’s Insidious Intent, Denise Mina’s The Long Drop, Stav Sherez’s The Intrusions, Susie Steiner’s Missing, Presumed and Abir Mukherjee’s A Rising Man.
As lists go it was stellar.
So, this year’s winner is… *drumroll* Stav Sherez for The Intrusions.
The story: When a distressed young woman arrives at the station claiming her friend has been abducted, and that the man threatened to come back and ‘claim her next’, Detectives Carrigan and Miller are thrust into a terrifying new world of stalking and obsession. From a Bayswater hostel, where backpackers and foreign students share dorms and failing dreams, to the emerging threat of online intimidation, hacking and control, the duo find themselves in the middle of a complex and disturbing case involving a highly intelligent and ruthless killer who engages in a refined form of torture and murder. Under scrutiny themselves, and with old foes and enmities resurfacing, how long will Carrigan and Miller have to find out the truth behind what the two women have been subjected to?
(Personal praise: this award couldn’t have been won by a nicer, more talented writer.)
In other, ahem, trifling news, John Grisham picked up the lifetime achievement award. That’s JOHN BLOODY GRISHAM!
More reports from Harrogate over the weekend.
The Killing Times 