A Peculier Business

I’m not convinced that the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award is “crime writing’s most coveted accolade,” as a press release insists, but its nominees are consistently interesting. Novels by Lee Child, Mark Billingham, and Denise Mina--all of whom have won this prize in the recent past--are joined by the works of 15 other authors on this year’s longlist of contenders. Here’s the full rundown:

• Rubbernecker, by Belinda Bauer (Bantam Press)
• The Shining Girls, by Lauren Beukes (HarperCollins)
• The Dying Hours, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)
• Like This, For Ever, by Sharon Bolton (Bantam Press)
• A Wanted Man, by Lee Child (Bantam Press)
• The Honey Guide, by Richard Crompton (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• The Cry, by Helen Fitzgerald (Faber & Faber)
• Dying Fall, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• Until You’re Mine, by Samantha Hayes (Century)
• The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter, by Malcolm Mackay (Mantle)
• The Chessmen, by Peter May (Quercus)
• I Hear the Sirens in the Street, by Adrian McKinty (Serpent’s Tail)
• The Red Road, by Denise Mina (Orion)
• Ratlines, by Stuart Neville (Harvill Secker)
• Standing in Another Man’s Grave, by Ian Rankin (Orion)
• Children of the Revolution, by Peter Robinson (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Eleven Days, by Stav Sherez (Faber and Faber)
• Weirdo, by Cathi Unsworth (Serpent’s Tail)

A shortlist of half a dozen finalists will be broadcast on July 1, at which time readers will be asked to select their favorites in an online poll. That voting is scheduled to take place between July 3 and 15, with the Crime Novel of the Year Award winner to be named on July 17, as part of the opening-night festivities at this year’s 12th annual Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England.

I’ll let you know when the online voting commences.