Thursday, July 23, 2009

Top Billingham

Euro Crime reports that Mark Billingham has won the 2009 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award for Death Message (Little, Brown, 2007), the seventh installment of his series featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne. This announcement came during the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, which is being held today through Sunday in Harrogate, England.

Death Message was one of 14 books shortlisted for the Old Peculier prize. The other nominees were: The Accident Man, by Tom Cain (Bantam Press); Bad Luck and Trouble, by Lee Child (Bantam Press); Gone to Ground, by John Harvey (Heinemann); Ritual, by Mo Hayder (Bantam Press); The Garden of Evil, by David Hewson (Macmillan); A Cure for All Diseases, by Reginald Hill (HarperCollins); The Colour of Blood, by Declan Hughes (John Murray); Dead Man’s Footsteps, by Peter James (Macmillan); Broken Skin, by Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins); Beneath the Bleeding, by Val McDermid (HarperCollins); Exit Music, by Ian Rankin (Orion); Friend of the Devil, by Peter Robinson (Hodder & Stoughton); and Savage Moon, by Chris Simms (Orion).

Death Message has already been released in paperback in the UK. But it isn't due for its hardcover release in the States until October. Harper will be the publisher.

3 comments:

Dorie said...

Harper needs to get on the stick and publish Billingham's books faster. We U.S. fans have too long a wait. I ordered Death Message months ago from AmazonUK, and will not doubt continue in the future.

Anonymous said...

Jeez - not for that book, please!

Unknown said...

I thought you might be interested in this site - a good way of keeping up with prize winners:
www.bookprizeinfo.com.