The shortlist for crime writing’s accolade, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, has been announced.
Celebrating its twelfth year, the Awards feature six titles whittled down from a longlist of 18 crime novels published by British and Irish authors whose novels were published in paperback from 1 May 2015 to 18 April 2016.
The 2016 Award is run in partnership with T&R Theakston Ltd, WHSmith, and The Radio Times.
The shortlist in full:
- Time Of Death – Mark Billingham
- Career Of Evil – Robert Galbraith
- Tell No Tales – Eva Dolan
- Disclaimer – Renee Knight
- I Let You Go – Clare Mackintosh
- Rain Dogs – Adrian McKinty
The award ceremony will be hosted by broadcaster Mark Lawson on 21 July on the opening night of the 14th Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate.
Executive Director of T&R Theakston Ltd and Judge, Simon Theakston, said: “It’s a remarkable shortlist that shows the crime genre shapes our cultural landscape and dominates publishing.”
Congrats to all on the Shortlist, but special congrats to Irish author Adrian McKinty whose latest novel Rain Dogs has been receiving mighty accolades!!!
Rain Dogs has been shortlisted for the 2016 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and longlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award 2016. Previous books in the Duffy series have won or been shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award, The Edgar Award, The Anthony Award, The Spinetingler Award and The Barry Award.
McKinty has all the virtues: smart dialogue, sharp plotting, great sense of place, well-rounded characters and a nice line in what might be called cynical lyricism ("Rain. Wind. The afternoon withering like a piece of fruit in an Ulster pantry.") If Duffy's relentless patter occasionally makes you feel like you're trapped in a lift with a stand-up comedian, well, those dreary steeples cry out for a little antic distraction. Be warned, though. Rain Dogs is Gateway
McKinty: you won't stop here.
- The Irish Times
Challenged with the second locked-room -- locked-castle really -- mystery of his career, Duffy pursues answers in his usual manner: resolute and incisive until every aspect and angle of the truth shakes out. He is pleasurably full of quips, wry and dry, observing his Daisy-Dukes-sporting neighbor "smoking Benson and Hedges in a way that would have cheered the heart of the head of marketing at Philip Morris," and telling Lawson that their aggravating colleague, Frank Payne, is "as fine an example of nominative determinism as you'll ever get." McKinty captures the mood and flavor of a city perpetually under siege, the life of a detective during wartime [and he] also excels at scene-grabbing set pieces: this novel opens on a terrific one with a massive crowd -- including Bono -- fixated on a visit from Muhammad Ali. McKinty's decision to expand the series beyond the original trilogy has breathed new energy and vigor into his novels: Duffy's not just growing naturally into this larger space, he's taking us right along with him.
- The Boston Globe
Adrian McKinty is on a roll. His last novel in the Sean Duffy series set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Gun Street Girl, has been shortlisted for an Edgar award by the Mystery Writers of America. The latest, Rain Dogs, does not disappoint. The dark humour, the verbal jests, and the seamless insertion of real historical figures and events into the fictional narrative are all superbly sustained...This is clever historical fiction with the bite of social commentary and the joy of a crime series at its zenith.
- The Sydney Morning Herald
The tension between McKinty's competing love of tight, formal puzzles and loose, riffing dialogue is what makes the Duffy novels such a tremendous joy.
- The Guardian
A classic plot with modern twists...[another] thoroughly engaging crime novel set in Northern Ireland
- The Sunday Times
