Friday, July 23, 2021

Whitaker Takes Home Another Honor

Less than a month after Chris Whitaker’s We Begin at the End (Zaffre) captured the British Crime Writers’ Association’s 2021 Gold Dagger award for crime novel of the year, that same book has also now “been crowned Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2021,” according to Shotsmag Confidential.” Said declaration was made last night during opening ceremonies at this week’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, being held in Harrogate, England.

Whitaker’s victory secures him the customary bragging rights, plus £3,000 in prize money and “an engraved oak beer cask, hand-carved by one of Britain’s last coopers from Theakstons Brewery.”

Beyond honoring We Begin at the End, this year’s Theakston judges named The Last Crossing (Constable), a political thriller by Irish fictionist Brian McGilloway, as Highly Commended. Four other books had been shortlisted for the 2021 Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year: The Lantern Men, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus); Three Hours, by Rosamund Lupton (Penguin); Death in the East, by Abir Mukherjee (Vintage); and The Man on the Street, by Trevor Wood (Quercus). To see the longlist of nominees, click here.

Additionally, last evening’s festival events brought the announcement that authors Ian Rankin and Mark Billingham have been named as recipients of the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award for 2021 and 2020, respectively.

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival will continue through this coming Sunday afternoon.

READ MORE:Harrogate 2021—Crime Goes Under Cover in a Tent,” by Catherine Turnbull (Crime Fiction Lover).

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