It’s the Peculier Thing to Do

While Americans continue to swig beer, light fireworks, and bandy about that old platitude “freedom” on this Independence Day, the Brits are busy carrying on with business. The shortlist of nominees for the 2012 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award was announced late today. The candidates are:

• Now You See Me, by S.J. Bolton (Transworld)
• Where the Bodies Are Buried, by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown)
• The Burning Soul, by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The End of the Wasp Season, by Denise Mina (Orion)
• Black Flowers, by Steve Mosby (Orion)
• Before I Go to Sleep, by S.J. Watson (Transworld)

Those six finalists are all that remain from a longlist of 18 titles released in May. A public vote will help select this year’s ultimate winner, with online ballot-casting scheduled to run from July 5 through July 17. Click here to make your preferences known. The victor will be declared on July 19--opening day of the 2012 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England. He or she will be rewarded with £3,000 as well as a “handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakstons brewery.”

As the blog Shotsmag Confidential reports, the same ceremony during which the Crime Novel of the Year Award is dispensed will also bring a special presentation, to Inspector Morse creator Colin Dexter, of the third Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award. The two previous recipients of that commendation are P.D. James and Reginald Hill.