Peculier Praise

Jo Callaghan’s In the Blink of an Eye (Simon & Schuster UK), described by The Guardian as “a ‘boundary-pushing take on the police procedural’ which features a human detective working with an AI sleuth in order to solve a missing persons case,” has won the 2024 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. That announcement was made last evening, at the opening of this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England.

The other five well-reviewed novels contending for the Theakston prize were The Last Dance, by Mark Billingham (Sphere); The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron (Baskerville); Killing Jericho, by William Hussey (Zaffre); None of This Is True, by Lisa Jewell (Century), and Strange Sally Diamond, by Liz Nugent (Sandycove).

In addition, this week brought word of which book and author have captured the inaugural McDermid Debut Award, named in honor of Scottish crime writer Val McDermid, a longtime promoter of new authors and co-founder of the Theakston festival in 2003. It goes to Deadly Animals, by Marie Tierney (Bonnier). That novel beat out rivals Crow Moon, by Suzy Aspley (Orenda); Dark Island, by Daniel Aubrey (HarperCollins); Knife Skills for Beginners, by Orlando Murrin (Bantam); Mrs. Sidhu’s Dead and Scone, by Suk Pannu (HarperCollins); and The Library Thief, by Kuchenga Shenjé (Sphere).

Finally, Martina Cole, “famous for her gritty, female-centred books about London’s underworld” (again from The Guardian), was given this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution prize.