Sherez Win Makes for a “Happy Day”

From the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, which opened earlier today in Harrogate, England, comes the news that Stav Sherez has won the 2018 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award for his book The Intrusions (Faber and Faber).

The Guardian explains that The Intrusions, Sherez’s third installment in a series featuring detectives Jack Carrigan and Geneva Miller, “begins when a young woman arrives at their west London police station, saying that her friend has been abducted from the seedy Bayswater hostel where they both live. Soon the investigators discover that someone has been using remote-access technology to gain control both of the women’s laptops and their lives.”

The newspaper goes on to say that judging chair Lee Child calls Sherez’s 2017 novel a “brilliant and organic blend of ancient terror and suspense, with modern issues as its core.” He remarks further: “Sherez is well known for the sheer quality of his prose, and outdid himself here. … He has moved the genre forward with this one—a happy day for crime fiction.”

Also nominated for this year’s Old Peculier honor were the novels Spook Street, by Mick Herron (John Murray); The Long Drop, by Denise Mina (Harvill Secker); A Rising Man, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker); Persons Unknown, by Susie Steiner (The Borough Press); and Insidious Intent, by Val McDermid (Little, Brown).

During the same event at which Sherez received his prizes—£3,000 in cash, along with a handmade, engraved oak beer cask—American author John Grisham was declared this year’s winner of the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction award. Previous recipients of that same commendation include Lee Child, Val McDermid, Sara Paretsky, and P.D. James.